11th June – 6th July

 It may come as no surprise for you to hear that the French Riviera is like no where else we’ve been on this world trip. This is a strip of coast with the most fancy ports in the world. The sailing itself isn’t great with very little breeze this time of year and so all the fun happens ashore.  The Côte d’Azur (French Riviera), runs along the coastline of the southeast corner of France, roughly extending from the Italian border in the east to Saint-Tropez in the west.

On arrival into Monaco our french adventure was kickstarted with a slap-up breakfast aboard our bosses new sunseeker 155!!! Yes, we have been totally and utterly spoilt by Eddie & Marie on this trip and to pull into his home of Monaco and get treated to a 7-star breakfast onboard BLUSH, his brand new motor boat, is just unimaginable!

After a day in Monaco we sailed down the coast to the most luxurious port of them all, Saint Tropez!! Saint Tropez is everything you expect from one of the most renouned holiday destinations for the worlds the rich & famous. It’s elegant, chic, pretty beyond belief, designer shops galore, cutie-pie fish & veg markets and of course world class cusine. The girls are glam, the men ooze coolness and the boats are bigger and fatter than ever before. Wealth just pours out of the place and we soon realised our pacific islander look just wouldn’t cut it anymore!!

After a few oysters, moules-frites, escargot and the odd pain au choc it really doesn’t take long to get into the oul joie de vivre! We continued our cruise, sailing to the three Iles d’Or: Porquerolles, Port Cros & Ile du Levant. These islands are only a stones throw from Saint Tropez and are well worth a visit. Lovely hikes, beautiful swimming and superb restaurants where sea food really is top of the menu.

We pulled into Antibes on a couple of occasions during our time in France, it’s another charming french spot and brilliant for getting jobs done on LUSH. This is where everyone looking for employment in the superyacht industry hang out and spend their time doing day-work on yachts, which are passing through, while looking for permanent positions as crew members.

We returned to Monaco for the opening of the Monaco Boat Show, I’ve already posted a load of the pics on our Facebook page Monaco Yacht Club Opening. This is by far the biggest and most luxurious yacht club in the world with rumours that it cost up on €500million!!! We were berthed right in front of the club with a red carpet running down the quayside next to us. Very fancy indeed! The scene was incredible with the crew up to ninety working away on all the superyachts and the owners entertaining guests onboard into the early hours.

We left first thing the next day for the absolutely stunning anchorage of Ville Franche where a whole load more wealth and oppulance awaited us. The village itself is adorable with lots of little streets and lovely restaurants with delightful staff. The properties along the shore are reputed to be amoung the most expensive in the world, especially those by Cap Ferrat where even 100million euros doesn’t go far. From there we ventured to Cannes and a couple of other lovely anchorages on route, one nicer than the next.

After a month swanning around the chic ports of the Cote d’Azur it was time for us to set sail again, this time bound for Palma in the spanish island of Majorca. Perfect timing to refill my freezer with fish and thankfully we did just that, catching a load of the delicious Big Eye tuna on route! We were glad to leave France, in fairness, as we all felt we were turning into pain au chocs ourselves with the amout of eating we did. Certainly time for a tuna diet!

One Life… Live it!!

Audrey xxx

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