Côte d'Azur

Sunday morning dawns cloudy and the beaches in Genoa lose out to Bologna as the next destination. But the fare's too high without the Eurail and Sudipta backs off. A call to Manu is answered by Shubha and I reroute to Nice, France.

Monaco Monte Carlo's the first stop on the Côte d'Azur. Two hours of wandering and I am not impressed. The F1 track is as invisible to me as to others before, a cheap sandwich is too cheesy to finish and the white yatchs at the port are a bit of an eyesore.

S receives me at Nice Ville station and the trek up the hill gets us to the house. It's less of an apartment and more of a holiday nest and I realize what's lacking at our place in Barca. Class on Tuesday morning back at ESADE mean the only things I can savour at Nice are the view from the balcony, a proper dinner after 2 days and a night's rest before I head to Cannes en route to home.

Monday the 24th

Cannes is Monaco with less of a hilly terrain. I manage a glance at the venue for the annual film festival and half an hour lolling on an almost empty beach and it's time to rush for the station. Being on the road (or the rail) four days a week can take the joy out of the best of places. Either that, or there's nothing to write home about The Azure Coast.

The route home is Cannes-Marseilles St.Charles-Pizzeria-Run with a mozzarella in hand a la Moose Miller-Marseilles St.Charles-Montpelier-Barcelona, with intermittent fits of How the mind works?, mental wandering and napping.

Back home, ID and Phuku add spice to a dinner of puliyogre. I decide to take a day off from travelling in the coming weekend, before retiring for the day.