In December of 2003, after a performance in Barcelona, Joyce and I drove up the French Riviera as far as St. Tropez. Then, when she had business in Nice in 2006 we drove up to Italy and down to Cannes. On this trip we tried to complete the circuit. We drove south from Cannes and stopped at this beach in what we thought was the next village. I swam out to the floating dock you can see just to the right of the palm tree and spoke French to some Italians. After driving a while we saw Cannes with a red line through it, indicating we were leaving the city and had been at a Cannes beach. I was glad because the rest of the towns we came to had beaches at the bottoms of cliffs. We got as far as Fréjus before end-of-the-day beach traffic and a 3:30am wake-up call forced us to the freeway. Click here to see our route. Of the 23 countries I've visited, driving along the French Riviera is among the most exhilarating international experiences I've had. There's never a straightaway of more than 100 yrds, and the scenery is breathtaking.
