5 days in the South of France

Cote D'Azure, you have my heart you beautiful bastard!

So I'm back in blighty after 5 days in the South of France and the trip took a much different vibe from holidays of old. On my last trip to Mexico, it was 10 days of lying on the beach and drinking A LOT of cocktails at an all-inclusive beach bar before later stuffing my face at a Brazilian meat restaurant. This trip was different.

With my newfound motivation, I was keen to explore and sightsee, as opposed to being a lazy pudding vegetating on a sun lounger.

My preferred mode of transport for exploring was on foot. I'd planned this before I even left the UK and treated myself to some new trainers in anticipation of a lot of miles. Admittedly, I shocked myself with how many miles I did whilst I was away. My new Adidas Adios 9s are far from box fresh now.

Day 1 - I arrived in Nice before I was able to check into my room at the hotel. So I dropped my bags in the lobby and went for a wander and grabbed some food. I found a lovely little bistro serving amazing food, and wanting to sample the delights of French cuisine, I ordered a pizza!

The pizza was absolutely epic though, topped with Boursin garlic cheese, mozzarella, crispy chicken, creamy burrata from Puglia, basil and olive oil. However, for the first time in my life, I was unable to finish the entire thing. But as I have mentioned in my previous posts, it was nice to enjoy the flavours and savour the meal, rather than eating to get full.

From there, I went and checked into my room, changed and went out for a wander. That afternoon/evening, I strolled around the coast to Port Lympia in the old town. It was a lovely walk.

Unfortunately, I got trigger happy with the camera on my phone and because of an early flight the battery died before I got home. This meant my recorded steps for the day was quite a way short of the actual amount I did as I was still around 1.5km from my hotel.

With that said, I still managed to record a total of 16,847 steps or 12.96km.

Day 2 - After a positive start to day 1, I was up bright and early on day 2 and took a train to Monaco.

I forgot how hilly Monaco was from my previous visit, but I was still determined to get out and about on foot.

Monaco is such a surreal place. For example, I was doing a bit of supercar spotting at the Fairmont Hotel hairpin on the F1 track, literally a few hundred meters later I'm exploring a Japanese garden, full of life, flowers and taking in the vibrant colours of natures confetti whilst watching koi carp swim round a pond, roll on a few hundred more meters and I'm sipping coffee in casino square watching the uber wealthy valet parking their Bugatti Veyrons at Hotel de Paris. There seems to be something for everyone in Monaco. Yes, a few billion in the bank would be very helpful, but I also had a great time strolling round the Japanese Gardens and Prince Alberts Motor Museum.

No billionaire status required as the gardens were free and the museum was around 10euros to get in.

I also had lunch in Monaco, and whilst my cappuccino in Casino Square cost me about 13 euros, I grabbed lunch from the Metropole shopping mall. This was a jambon et Emmental foccacia (a very large Ham and cheese butty to us riffraff Northerners) and a drink for about 9 quid.

I added a good amount of steps and KMs to the day 1 figures and ended day 2 on 23,284 steps or 18.90km.

Day 3 - I've actually been to Nice & Monaco back in 2019, so on day 3 I was determined to make the most of my trip and see somewhere completely new. Along the coast between Nice and Monaco is a small, quintessentially French, postcard perfect seaside town called, Villefranche-Sur-Mer.

Just wow!

I have no words to describe how beautiful and also peaceful this town was. The Mediterranean was crystal clear and the bay was lined with pastel buildings along the seafront.

The most surprising thing was how unspoilt it was and not overrun with tourists. After reading about the town online, I can fully appreciate why celebrities own villas in the hills here for their own peace of paradise and solitude.

As with my trip to Nice Old Town, I walked all the way around the coast to Villefranche-Sur-Mer. It was quite a distance but worth every single step, as the views along the way were utterly breathtaking! There is a wide costal path that meanders all the way from Promenade Des Anglais in new town Nice, through Port Lympia in the old town, up the hill to Cap De Nice and down a long hill into Villefranche-Sur-Mer. Whilst it was a long walk, I had nowhere to be in a hurry and so glad I didn't take public transport to get there or back.

All in all I covered a grand total of 33,979 steps and 27.91km on that Wednesday. I also got a notification from my Samsung Health App that this was a new record for me.

Day 4 was inadvertently a lazy day for me. Initially I had planned to have a beach day as I was determined not to come home pasty white after enduring a long bleak British winter, but getting up on the Thursday, it was quite cloudy.

Initially, that had put an end to those plans, so I headed for the hotels cafe/bar/restaurant on the beach to make some new plans over a flat white. First thoughts were to take a trip on the train to Menton or Cannes to see some more places I'd never been before.

But at 10am, I was one of only 4 people in in the cafe watching the world go by. It was peaceful gazing out to sea and just savouring a moment of calm and serenity. Part of my reason for this trip was to do a bit of soul searching and try to get an idea for what direction I want to push my life in, whilst down on my steps, it was also the perfect opportunity to sit in peace with a clear mind and see what percolates.

By 2.30pm the sun had made an appearance and was blazing and by this time I was rather burnt. I wandered through town to hunt down some aloe vera aftersun.

In the midst of this hunt, I discovered the setting up of Ville De Nice Legendes Show and pretty much freaked out watching tens of millions of pounds worth of cars arriving for several hours. And like a kid in a sweet shop, my quest for steps hit an abrupt holt for the day. Ending on 7,148 or 5.39km.

Day 5 - Upon discovering the Legendes show on Thursday evening, fate had now decided my plans for the Friday. It was always going to be a bit of an awkward day anyway as my flight home was at 21:55 but I had to check out of my hotel at 12 noon.

Anyhow, I can't complain as I absolutely love cars and motorbikes, so this was the perfect ending to an already wonderful trip. I spent hour after hour running round the show like a 4 year old having eaten too many blue Smarties, overstimulated and freaking out over being inches from some of the worlds most expensive, rarest and most exotic cars.

Total steps for day 5 were 12,247 or 9.38km.

Whilst on the face of it this may seem more of a travel blog than anything to do with Mounjaro, it helps highlight my shift in mindset towards food and being active.

On the subject of food, I found an outrageous boulangerie just a few mins walk from my hotel. It was called Boulangerie Jeannot......

The food was so fresh and tasty. They had an incredible selection of pastries and cakes too. But it was refreshing to not spend the entire trip frothing at the mouth in these sorts of bakeries. Historically, I'd have found an excuse to buy food from there every day of the trip. But this time..... Just the 1 lunch on the last day.

So as I sit here writing on Saturday evening, rain and wind battering my apartment windows, I'm off to take a 7.5mg jab of Mounjaro for the first time.

I'll weigh in as usual on Monday to see what the scales show after 5 days in France and report back later in the week with my progress on the increased dose.

For now, it's au revoir!