Write Up THE ITALIAN JOB
- Thread starter Pauliebhoy
- Start date
View from hotel balcony
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Too many LOVELY photos and write ups to keep liking everyone Paul, so please take this addition to say THANK YOU + LIKE VERY much for the sharing - hope it is all going well and look forward to the ongoing travel log 
We were there in June, great if you love the F1 like we do. We couldn't get to much of the circuit as they were taking the stands down from the weekend before.
Thank you Brendan, alas we are nearing the end of the European leg, but.over a week until we see the shores of loch fyne again.Too many LOVELY photos and write ups to keep liking everyone Paul, so please take this addition to say THANK YOU + LIKE VERY much for the sharing - hope it is all going well and look forward to the ongoing travel log
Day 17
Although we are now officially on Day 17, we need one final reflection on the evening of Day 16, because it had a rather nasty sting in the tail.
We went down for dinner in the hotel. Before leaving the room, we’d sensibly checked the menu online, chosen what we fancied and headed for the restaurant.
Unfortunately, somewhere between our room and the ground floor — approximately the length of one elevator journey — the entire menu had changed.
On arrival we were greeted by Voldemort’s mother and handed menus bearing absolutely no resemblance to the one we’d just been reading upstairs.
So, before anyone had even shouted “Seconds out, Round One”, we were already on the canvas.
Anyway, I chose a steak dish and Mandy went for the chicken.
What could possibly go wrong?
The steak had been rested, as all good chefs recommend. Unfortunately, it appeared to have been rested in the very pan it had been cooked in, which had then doubled as the serving plate. Mandy’s chicken wasn’t exactly covering itself in glory either.
Still, we ate it and went to pay.
And this is where Monaco really began to reveal its business model.
You pay for your goods. Then they tax them. Then they add VAT. Then they appear to tax the whole caboodle again before eventually presenting you with a number large enough to make you check whether you’d accidentally bought the restaurant.
So now I understand how Monaco makes its money.
“Don’t tax the millionaire’s income → persuade the millionaire to live there → tax and monetise absolutely everything happening around the millionaire.”
Or, put more simply:
If it moves, tax it.
If it doesn’t move, tax it anyway.
We retreated upstairs and had a drink on the balcony using supplies we’d wisely bought in a supermarket before entering Monaco.
And then my phone pinged.
An email from Sky.
A restriction had been placed on my mobile account.
I opened the app.
The free roaming I’d been happily enjoying throughout France and Italy did not, it transpired, apply to Monaco.
Worse still, it appeared that every byte of mobile data that all of Monaco was using had been merrily charged to my account.
Disaster.
At this point I began to wonder whether breathing the Monaco air was also chargeable by the minute.
I went to bed with one eye open in case someone appeared on the balcony during the night holding a credit-card machine and demanding payment for eight hours’ sleep.
Morning came.
Surely they couldn’t get me again?
Oh yes they could.
At checkout came Monaco’s final sucker punch:
Tourist tax.
Of course.
We loaded the Z and left Monaco as quickly as dignity, traffic and the remaining credit on my card would allow.
Today’s destination was Montpellier, around 210 miles away from the “tax haven” of Monaco — although I’m beginning to suspect the word haven may have been added by the marketing department.
The drive itself was pretty uneventful.
We stopped at a Carrefour supermarket to hunt for jars, tins and other bits and pieces to take home that we can’t easily get in Argyll.
Which, to be fair, covers pretty much everything.
The motoring highlight of the day was passing a French-registered G29. Obviously this required acknowledgement. Z drivers have standards.
We’re now safely checked in at Montpellier and, once again, the Z is tucked away in an underground car park.
That makes four underground car parks in a row.
At this rate, the Z is going to think she’s a mining cart.
We do have around 7 or 8 days before we get back to Argyll. I am not a particularly political person, but do have a tinge of jealousy when I drive in Europe, without border controls, and see vehicles from lots of different nations with no restrictions like we have.
Tonight we found a gem of a restaurant about 200m from the hotel. A veal Milanese each with fries, a tomato salad, mushroom sauce and 2 beers . 50 euro including tip. And no tax.........!!
Tomorrow we have arranged and booked something special. As frequent flyers this is going to be right up our street.
Although we are now officially on Day 17, we need one final reflection on the evening of Day 16, because it had a rather nasty sting in the tail.
We went down for dinner in the hotel. Before leaving the room, we’d sensibly checked the menu online, chosen what we fancied and headed for the restaurant.
Unfortunately, somewhere between our room and the ground floor — approximately the length of one elevator journey — the entire menu had changed.
On arrival we were greeted by Voldemort’s mother and handed menus bearing absolutely no resemblance to the one we’d just been reading upstairs.
So, before anyone had even shouted “Seconds out, Round One”, we were already on the canvas.
Anyway, I chose a steak dish and Mandy went for the chicken.
What could possibly go wrong?
The steak had been rested, as all good chefs recommend. Unfortunately, it appeared to have been rested in the very pan it had been cooked in, which had then doubled as the serving plate. Mandy’s chicken wasn’t exactly covering itself in glory either.
Still, we ate it and went to pay.
And this is where Monaco really began to reveal its business model.
You pay for your goods. Then they tax them. Then they add VAT. Then they appear to tax the whole caboodle again before eventually presenting you with a number large enough to make you check whether you’d accidentally bought the restaurant.
So now I understand how Monaco makes its money.
“Don’t tax the millionaire’s income → persuade the millionaire to live there → tax and monetise absolutely everything happening around the millionaire.”
Or, put more simply:
If it moves, tax it.
If it doesn’t move, tax it anyway.
We retreated upstairs and had a drink on the balcony using supplies we’d wisely bought in a supermarket before entering Monaco.
And then my phone pinged.
An email from Sky.
A restriction had been placed on my mobile account.
I opened the app.
The free roaming I’d been happily enjoying throughout France and Italy did not, it transpired, apply to Monaco.
Worse still, it appeared that every byte of mobile data that all of Monaco was using had been merrily charged to my account.
Disaster.
At this point I began to wonder whether breathing the Monaco air was also chargeable by the minute.
I went to bed with one eye open in case someone appeared on the balcony during the night holding a credit-card machine and demanding payment for eight hours’ sleep.
Morning came.
Surely they couldn’t get me again?
Oh yes they could.
At checkout came Monaco’s final sucker punch:
Tourist tax.
Of course.
We loaded the Z and left Monaco as quickly as dignity, traffic and the remaining credit on my card would allow.
Today’s destination was Montpellier, around 210 miles away from the “tax haven” of Monaco — although I’m beginning to suspect the word haven may have been added by the marketing department.
The drive itself was pretty uneventful.
We stopped at a Carrefour supermarket to hunt for jars, tins and other bits and pieces to take home that we can’t easily get in Argyll.
Which, to be fair, covers pretty much everything.
The motoring highlight of the day was passing a French-registered G29. Obviously this required acknowledgement. Z drivers have standards.
We’re now safely checked in at Montpellier and, once again, the Z is tucked away in an underground car park.
That makes four underground car parks in a row.
At this rate, the Z is going to think she’s a mining cart.
We do have around 7 or 8 days before we get back to Argyll. I am not a particularly political person, but do have a tinge of jealousy when I drive in Europe, without border controls, and see vehicles from lots of different nations with no restrictions like we have.
Tonight we found a gem of a restaurant about 200m from the hotel. A veal Milanese each with fries, a tomato salad, mushroom sauce and 2 beers . 50 euro including tip. And no tax.........!!
Tomorrow we have arranged and booked something special. As frequent flyers this is going to be right up our street.
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Day 18
We left Montpellier and headed for Toulouse, getting away at about 8.30am. Today’s destination was somewhere that was going to be rather special for both of us — Aeroscopia, the aviation museum right beside Airbus’s main Toulouse assembly site.
The actual Airbus factory is just across the road, which makes the whole area feel a bit like aviation Disneyland…
The drive was pleasantly uneventful. We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and arrived at around midday.
What we hadn’t realised was that you can also book a tour of the Airbus assembly plant itself, provided you give them 48 hours’ notice. Typical. We discover this when we are already standing outside it. So that one is being filed away for another trip — quite possibly in the motorhome .
Flying has been a big part of both our lives. Between work and holidays, Mandy and I have flown to pretty much every corner of the globe and, at one stage, we even had British Airways Gold status.
So aviation is definitely in the blood.
And whisper it quietly, but Mandy actually once held a pilot’s licence, gained at Cranfield in Buckinghamshire. Apparently simply being a passenger wasn’t enough.
Back to Aeroscopia.
There is a fantastic collection of aircraft here — nearly 50 in total — including the original Airbus A380 prototype, two Concordes, the enormous Beluga, an A400M Atlas, and aircraft of just about every imaginable shape and size.
Neither of us ever flew on Concorde, although Mandy did witness its first landing in the Middle East when she was living in Bahrain.
Back in the day, I was asked to get involved in a project in Australia. Rather than booking our flights, the client priced them with BA, transferred us the money and told us to make our own arrangements.
Dangerous thing to do.
Qantas happened to be having a sale, so Mandy managed to book both of us Business Class from Heathrow to Melbourne for about half the price BA had quoted.
And it was on an A380.
Essentially, aviation’s version of buy one, get one free.
It was a superb experience. We stopped in Dubai — which would later become our home — for a pit stop before continuing on to Melbourne. The A380 really is an extraordinary aircraft, and the flat bed was so comfortable that I slept almost the entire Dubai-to-Melbourne leg: nearly 13 hours.
Considering all the flying we have done, my biggest aviation regret is still never having flown on Concorde or a Boeing 747.
There is technically still an opportunity to tick the 747 box with Lufthansa, but after our previous experience with them I think I’d rather fly Loganair to Brazil.
Via Stornoway.
Possibly twice.
I took far too many photographs at the museum, but I won’t post all of them because there is a fine line between “interesting aviation post” and “Paul’s 247-slide aircraft presentation”.
Years ago, I also studied aircraft assembly and manufacturing because the aviation industry was so far ahead of the automotive industry in areas such as innovation, lightweight construction and composite materials. Part of that work involved Boeing and looking at how aircraft manufacturers were adapting composites to reduce weight while maintaining enormous structural strength.
So today wasn’t just about looking at aeroplanes. For me there was quite a lot of “I remember studying that…” going on too.
From Aeroscopia we headed to an Auchan hypermarket to investigate what might accidentally find its way back to Scotland with us.
The place was enormous.
Honestly, it was about the size of our village.
It sold everything. Food, household goods, clothes… even car tyres. You could probably go in for a baguette and come out having rebuilt a Renault.
Naturally, we emerged with considerably more than we intended.
So the area behind the Z,s seats has now officially joined the luggage department.
One thing that has really impressed me on this trip is how much the G29 Z4 can actually carry. By the time we get home we will have been away for nearly a month, yet somehow everything still fits.
Although, to be fair, a very large part of that achievement is down to Mandy’s packing system.
Without Mandy, I suspect we would currently be towing a trailer.
Tonight we are staying somewhere a little different — a lovely house with just six rooms and a balcony.
The only slight concern is that the Z is parked out on the street.
This is our penultimate night in Europe, so tonight is deliberately low-key.
Feet up, a drink, and absolutely no attempt to squeeze another attraction into the day.
Well… probably.
We left Montpellier and headed for Toulouse, getting away at about 8.30am. Today’s destination was somewhere that was going to be rather special for both of us — Aeroscopia, the aviation museum right beside Airbus’s main Toulouse assembly site.
The actual Airbus factory is just across the road, which makes the whole area feel a bit like aviation Disneyland…
The drive was pleasantly uneventful. We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and arrived at around midday.
What we hadn’t realised was that you can also book a tour of the Airbus assembly plant itself, provided you give them 48 hours’ notice. Typical. We discover this when we are already standing outside it. So that one is being filed away for another trip — quite possibly in the motorhome .
Flying has been a big part of both our lives. Between work and holidays, Mandy and I have flown to pretty much every corner of the globe and, at one stage, we even had British Airways Gold status.
So aviation is definitely in the blood.
And whisper it quietly, but Mandy actually once held a pilot’s licence, gained at Cranfield in Buckinghamshire. Apparently simply being a passenger wasn’t enough.
Back to Aeroscopia.
There is a fantastic collection of aircraft here — nearly 50 in total — including the original Airbus A380 prototype, two Concordes, the enormous Beluga, an A400M Atlas, and aircraft of just about every imaginable shape and size.
Neither of us ever flew on Concorde, although Mandy did witness its first landing in the Middle East when she was living in Bahrain.
Back in the day, I was asked to get involved in a project in Australia. Rather than booking our flights, the client priced them with BA, transferred us the money and told us to make our own arrangements.
Dangerous thing to do.
Qantas happened to be having a sale, so Mandy managed to book both of us Business Class from Heathrow to Melbourne for about half the price BA had quoted.
And it was on an A380.
Essentially, aviation’s version of buy one, get one free.
It was a superb experience. We stopped in Dubai — which would later become our home — for a pit stop before continuing on to Melbourne. The A380 really is an extraordinary aircraft, and the flat bed was so comfortable that I slept almost the entire Dubai-to-Melbourne leg: nearly 13 hours.
Considering all the flying we have done, my biggest aviation regret is still never having flown on Concorde or a Boeing 747.
There is technically still an opportunity to tick the 747 box with Lufthansa, but after our previous experience with them I think I’d rather fly Loganair to Brazil.
Via Stornoway.
Possibly twice.
I took far too many photographs at the museum, but I won’t post all of them because there is a fine line between “interesting aviation post” and “Paul’s 247-slide aircraft presentation”.
Years ago, I also studied aircraft assembly and manufacturing because the aviation industry was so far ahead of the automotive industry in areas such as innovation, lightweight construction and composite materials. Part of that work involved Boeing and looking at how aircraft manufacturers were adapting composites to reduce weight while maintaining enormous structural strength.
So today wasn’t just about looking at aeroplanes. For me there was quite a lot of “I remember studying that…” going on too.
From Aeroscopia we headed to an Auchan hypermarket to investigate what might accidentally find its way back to Scotland with us.
The place was enormous.
Honestly, it was about the size of our village.
It sold everything. Food, household goods, clothes… even car tyres. You could probably go in for a baguette and come out having rebuilt a Renault.
Naturally, we emerged with considerably more than we intended.
So the area behind the Z,s seats has now officially joined the luggage department.
One thing that has really impressed me on this trip is how much the G29 Z4 can actually carry. By the time we get home we will have been away for nearly a month, yet somehow everything still fits.
Although, to be fair, a very large part of that achievement is down to Mandy’s packing system.
Without Mandy, I suspect we would currently be towing a trailer.
Tonight we are staying somewhere a little different — a lovely house with just six rooms and a balcony.
The only slight concern is that the Z is parked out on the street.
This is our penultimate night in Europe, so tonight is deliberately low-key.
Feet up, a drink, and absolutely no attempt to squeeze another attraction into the day.
Well… probably.
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Day 19
We had an amazing breakfast at our accommodation this morning before heading off to Biarritz, where we’re staying tonight. We’re now only about an hour from the Spanish border, so the French part of the journey is very nearly done.
Lunch was a picnic at one of the countryside aires, and after that the drive was pleasantly uneventful. We had the pyrenees in front of us for most of the journey, which was quite a sight.
Our hotel tonight has its own golf course, and our balcony looks straight onto the 1st tee and the 18th green. It’s been quite entertaining watching the golfers, especially as we both used to play. Mandy played on Saturdays with two four-balls, while I played on Sundays with the same sort of crowd, because one of us had to stay home and look after the kids. Very considerate parenting: we took turns abandoning them for golf.
I really enjoyed playing, but once we started moving around the UK and then eventually overseas, keeping up a golf membership just wasn’t practical.
This course has a particularly unusual driving range — it’s a lake, with floating greens dotted around it. I’m not sure whether the idea is to improve your accuracy or simply keep the local golf-ball manufacturer in business.
Tonight is our last night in Europe on this trip, although we’ll be back again in about a month — next time in our mobile hotel.
Tomorrow we head for Santander. The ferry leaves at around 6.15pm and arrives the following day at about 3.00pm, so we have an overnight cabin. Hopefully that means dinner, a drink, a decent sleep, breakfast and lunch. We are staying about an hour outside Plymouth.
The journey won’t quite be over when we reach Britain, as we’ll be making our way north through England to visit relatives before finally heading home to Argyll a few days later.
Today’s personal highlight, though, was spotting a BMW M35i in exactly the same colour as mine. I bought mine in March 2024 and, in all that time, I’ve only seen five other petrol versions. I’ve seen plenty of electric ones, of course, but as far as I’m concerned, you plug toasters in — not cars.
We had an amazing breakfast at our accommodation this morning before heading off to Biarritz, where we’re staying tonight. We’re now only about an hour from the Spanish border, so the French part of the journey is very nearly done.
Lunch was a picnic at one of the countryside aires, and after that the drive was pleasantly uneventful. We had the pyrenees in front of us for most of the journey, which was quite a sight.
Our hotel tonight has its own golf course, and our balcony looks straight onto the 1st tee and the 18th green. It’s been quite entertaining watching the golfers, especially as we both used to play. Mandy played on Saturdays with two four-balls, while I played on Sundays with the same sort of crowd, because one of us had to stay home and look after the kids. Very considerate parenting: we took turns abandoning them for golf.
I really enjoyed playing, but once we started moving around the UK and then eventually overseas, keeping up a golf membership just wasn’t practical.
This course has a particularly unusual driving range — it’s a lake, with floating greens dotted around it. I’m not sure whether the idea is to improve your accuracy or simply keep the local golf-ball manufacturer in business.
Tonight is our last night in Europe on this trip, although we’ll be back again in about a month — next time in our mobile hotel.
Tomorrow we head for Santander. The ferry leaves at around 6.15pm and arrives the following day at about 3.00pm, so we have an overnight cabin. Hopefully that means dinner, a drink, a decent sleep, breakfast and lunch. We are staying about an hour outside Plymouth.
The journey won’t quite be over when we reach Britain, as we’ll be making our way north through England to visit relatives before finally heading home to Argyll a few days later.
Today’s personal highlight, though, was spotting a BMW M35i in exactly the same colour as mine. I bought mine in March 2024 and, in all that time, I’ve only seen five other petrol versions. I’ve seen plenty of electric ones, of course, but as far as I’m concerned, you plug toasters in — not cars.