After thirty-five hours, three flights and two airport transfers, we arrived at our hotel on the Côte d’Azur.

We had a lovely surprise on our first flight from Brisbane to Dubai. I noticed this tall young man walking his two boys down the aisle past us, obviously to help pass the time and give his wife a break. I then realised it was my nephew James. My sister Megan had told me they were flying out of Brisbane but she was not sure where they were flying to. Anyway, we had a nice catch up.

A first for us too – flying in a massive double-decker plane from Dubai to Rome – amazing.

For a number of reasons that I won’t go into, we had a very hectic lead up to our departure and our stay in Antibes is just what the doctor ordered. Our hotel is a five minute walk from the old town and even at 9pm there was still enough light left for us to enjoy a glass of French wine and some dinner.

We will spend two nights in Antibes before meeting our house sitting host in Cannes. This photo shows the view from our room.

Our hotel is not 5 Star, but the room is huge as is the bed and there is a fridge and a bath. Perfect.

As the sun faded so did we and we headed home for some sleep.

While we waited at Nice Airport for our transfer we couldn’t help but notice the heavy security here. These three soldiers had some type of assault weapons and they walked slowly up and down the arrivals terminal. Our driver was delayed so we got to watch them for longer than usual. I had to remind Mick “not to make eye contact”.

And yes, I wasn’t brave enough to take a photo as they walked towards us.