An afternoon hike

In the afternoon we joined Emilie’s family for a walk along the coast past Cap-Martin towards Monaco. By this time it was very hot as the afternoon sun was baking the rock beaches. We were able to benefit from some shade along the way as we passed under trees and through thicker foliage, but for the most part we were completely exposed.

The coastline was absolutely beautiful, as can be seen from the pictures, and it was nice to be completely surrounded by nature (aside from the giant mansions nestled naturally into the terrain, of course).



















After a while we got to a nice beach and stopped for a while to relax our legs and cool off.










And before I forget...speaking of completely exposed, all the stories that I’d heard while growing up about the topless beaches along the French Riviera were true…at least in the sense of there being topless women on them. However, it appears that the fantasy created in my head that all of these women were supermodels was just that – pure fantasy.

In reality, most of them resembled Magda from There’s Something About Mary (and in some cases that’s being generous).

But, hey, at least they’re comfortable in their skin. And no, I won’t be sporting the thong Speedos that many of the (primarily 50+) men were wearing…

Given the length of the walk (a couple of hours one-way), we took the bus back along the coast towards the hotel. Here are some pictures when we got to the bus stop.










Since there was still some daylight left when we got back to Menton, Emilie and I decided to test out the water and go for a swim. The water was cold but the rocks were what really proved to be the challenge since it was difficult to get a proper footing and the rate for stubbed toes was about ten per minute. But once you dove in and started swimming, it was very nice.