To Italy and Back: Perpignan to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

We were looking forward to our drive to the French Coast, the Cote D’Azur, and to the special accommodation that John had planned as a surprise.

After a quick look around the old centre of Perpignan we got on the motorway (autoroute) as we had a long drive of 5 to 7 hours –

no-one here understands Australian road distances.

The French motorways are excellent. There are tolls on the autoroute sections so it gets a little expensive over long distances.

We skirted Nice and arrived at Roquebrune-Cap Martin. It certainly was a surprise – the hotel, Les Deux Freres is an old school house converted into a hotel and restaurant.

There was a wedding in full swing on our arrival to the village and no parking to be found. The square in front of the hotel was protected by bollards so we parked in front of them hoping that no-one would mind. We are far to polite - in France we have seen cars towing caravans parked in a roundabout. When the police parked behind us we thought there was going to be a few words but instead we got a

friendly "bonjour" and they went off to wherever they were going.

The hotel is perched on the side of a steep hill and overlooks Monte-Carlo. The restaurant is on a terrace that also overlooks the view as does our room.

The owner, maybe one of the Deux Freres, was a really outgoing personality with lots of humour and great pride in his establishment. He, also, had lived in Australia and liked to make "g'day mate" type jokes.

We had a degustation menu for dinner which was sublime – the view was even better at night. Our photos don't do the justice to the view.

Next: To Italy and Back - Roquebrune-Cap-Martin to Nice