The final ferry. Number 10. I’d roughly added up the total and it came to 78hrs of sea travel in all. This one, the Mega Express Two (inspiration clearly lacking on her naming day!) Bastia to Nice, where I  hoped the welcome would be a little warmer and they wouldn’t see my lil’ donkey as Pedro the mule.

A few rental cars were waiting dockside to be returned to the mainland.
Got speaking to a guy next to me in the queue. He had 400 thousand km on his VW van’s clock. He asked where I’d been. I said I was coming back overland from Turkey.
‘You went all that way in a Fiat?’
How rude. 
I said I’d race him to be onboard first. We were both lined up on the front of the grid. He revved his engine. The gates opened but the woman waved me on first. 
‘Haha…better luck next time L’Eclerc..!’

Usual palaver onboard but finally found a steward and got installed. Very nice cabin. Not really necessary. But it came with the ticket.

The bar area was already full. I ordered a coffee. Almost every table had a card game going on. Maybe this was the Bastia Hold’em or Fold’em Society’s day cruise?
The entire crew were Italian. Not sure why that was either. Not to besmirch the Italians but I had noticed graffiti all over Corsica saying Mafia out! ‘A Mafia Fora’
I took a picture of one. But later found that this was the name of the local football team. Doh.
So then, a bientot Bastia and Nice to meet ya. To meet ya, Nice.
We rounded Cap Ferrat and there it was.
Quite low rise in comparison to Monaco we had just passed.  A lot of brown polution held in by the hills behind. But nice looking in the early evening sunlight.
The pilot boat scudded out to meet us across the millpond sea. Quite a powerful launch.
That night moules mariniere and a racy white to accompany. Then a post prandial amble along the prom. This is where that nutter took out all those poor people with his truck. I had plenty to dodge here what with roller blades and guys doing tricks on bikes. Lots of people about on this balmy evening and groups out on tge beach with lanterns and guitars.