Wandering The Cote d'Azur Again

On a beautiful day we took the walk from Nice to Villefranche and back.  Nice is ridiculously gorgeous from Mt. Boron:

And from the Villefranche side, looking back at Mt. Boron, old Ft. Alban's still there:

We'd already been over to Monaco once, to see the gang of circus animals that were assembled for the 39th International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo.  They had three cages full of beautiful birds this year (macaws, parrots, cockatoos) and quite a collection of lions.  Due to a minor camera malfunction, we have only this to offer:

At least the camera started working again, unlike the phone.  A few days later, we were off to Monaco again to greet the World Rally Championship finishers.  Most of the action took place up in the hills this year, with the actual end of the final rally stage at La Turbie (that's why all the cars were clean when they got to Monaco).  We were hoping to see former Formula1 driver Robert Kubica, who was driving a Ford, but he crashed out at the very end of the last stage and was nowhere to be seen.  Guess we can understand why.

But!  We got quite close to the action.  Here's the scene as the drivers await time to check into their service areas at the port:

 
Henning Solberg is a permanent fixture in WRC.  He always finds a ride, he always does well, and everyone knows him.  As always, he was holding court while waiting to check in:

 Seven-time champion Sebastian Loeb (French) and his Monegasque co-driver, Daniel Elena, are actually "retired" from WRC, but they keep returning for Monaco.  As Gordon points out, this race is about Loeb.  The team finished down in the pack though, due to a minor miscalculation that involved a rock.  Here's Mr. Elena, out of the car and obviously done for the day:

 Always a popular driver with plenty to say, Jari Matti Latvala finished in the top three in a VW:

...and held a press conference.

 And the winner was, in another Volkswagen, Sebastian Ogier, often considered to be the reason Loeb retired.  Couldn't stand the competition from the other Sebastian.  Here he is in the press scrum:

 A note on a completely different subject.  While spending our time in Monaco back in 2004 and 2005, we watched this floating dock being built in what was then the "new avant port".  It was an adventure in marine construction land.  We thought it was really neat to walk on that dock over the past few years, knowing everything about what's underneath.  But holy smokes look at it now...it's the site of the new Yacht Club of Monaco.  What a difference from the construction site we hung out at for so long!