Don't get me wrong, the Côte d'Azur is beautiful, it's almost like heaven with azure turquoise seas which you can't believe haven't just been painted into the scene before you but when it comes to paying around 14 euros for a litre of sparkling water I have to question how likely I am to  consider it as a regular holiday destination!!

When I asked Abigail earlier in the year where she wanted to go for her holiday this year she said "France" it then unfolded that specifically she'd like to go to the French Riviera, I've since come to think that if someone had told her that it was going to be over 25c every single day she may have rethought that idea and gone somewhere less hot being that she hates the heat, in hindsight she probably would have chosen somewhere less hilly being that she also hates walking long distances up steep hills, retrospect is such a wonderful thing isn't it?

On the Monday nearing the end of our first week we hung out at a beach club at Juan de Pins, after paying 40 euros just to lie on a lounger she removed her T-shirt for 10 minutes, let's just say that pale vampiric teens aren't meant for the sun and she still started to burn despite the factor 50, it's no wonder that next year we've booked to go to Norway where it perpetually rains and occasionally reaches 20c.

Apart from the hills which were too big, the sun which was too hot, the costs which were too expensive and the breakfasts which meant she had to grace the dining room by 10am in the morning the sunsets were also too late and this meant I was extra demanding wanting to try and catch the golden hour for photography purposes each day, I caught 3 of them during our weeklong stay and that was only after a considerable period of begging.  Parents of teens, if yours is anything like Abigail, don't go to the south of France for your holidays!

I must say though that despite the 3 hours of not speaking after we had a row and the disagreements which were often we did have times which were as close to wonderful as I've ever imagined, we had a meal down by the harbour in Villefranche sur Mer which was divine, the sun was shining, the food was amazing and for a short while we were best buddies, this was also the day which descended into the 3 hour period of stomping and silence (mostly mine) but hey, when the memories fade I'll always remember that day as the day I finally went to the place where An Affair To Remember was shot.

Abigail and I are vastly different people and because she lives with dad when we spend intense periods of time together we have to learn over and over about how to spend those times together, Abigail is actually one of my favourite people to travel with because she's just so very interested in absorbing all of the culture, she came back disappointed from not having enough French conversations whilst I watched in awe as she navigated her way through southern France whilst I sometimes had no clue what she was talking to the locals about and once or twice they shared jokes about just how bad her mothers French was!

I think it's wrong to expect that every holiday you ever have will be the best holiday ever, it's a lot to live up to and for me, if I'm completely honest, my favourite holiday this year was a bargain break to Mallorca, I'd go back there in an instant, actually I'd go back to Antibes tomorrow if it wasn't so expensive just to live every day, it's no wonder I've been furiously working each hour God sends since I've come back just to try and restore some order to my bank account.  All I brought back with me was a fridge magnet from Monaco because it was just so costly to live every day, almost certainly, it would have been cheaper if I'd favoured wine over water but as many of you know, if I have 1 glass of wine a month I'm somewhat living on the edge.

I've sworn off France for the near future, firstly because I prefer Spain and secondly because I've decided my next few trips will be to places like Poland and Estonia, oh and perhaps Croatia where you can live like a queen for a week on next to nothing!

I'm a nightmare to travel with

It's Saturday morning, just after nine on the beautiful Côte d'Azur and I'm having breakfast on my own at our hotel, Abigail is still fast asleep after begging for a lie in because she's exhausted and I'm wondering just how long I'll actually have to stay still.   To me if you're not up and out pre 9am when you are travelling then you are wasting precious seconds, it's no wonder that I'm pretty much seen as a nightmare to travel with!

The thing is you see, I've always been someone who believes that you have to grab life by the neck, that you should go out there and not stop until you have extracted the very last drop of juice from that fresh orange that we call our existence.

I have a blister on the bottom of my foot, yesterday evening after climbing every possible hill for the best view in Villefranche-sur-Mer I decided that once we'd got back to Nice on the tourist bus that we should walk the length of the Promenade des Anglais back to our hotel, the promenade of course starts at number 1, we're around 450 (ish) or maybe 6 or 7k, I can't be sure but I know when we got back to our room yesterday we'd walked over 22k, not that much, you might think, well try it in 34c heat.

I'd say that it was the straw that had broken the camels back but we'd already argued before that point, Abigail likes to know what's going to happen and although I like to have a guiding schedule, it's not quite moment to moment and I do tend to wander and dander just a little too much.

This morning I promised that she could not only stay in bed but that the first half of the day would be a pool day, this is my actual idea of hell, I can manage a pool half hour but then I get a little stir crazy and want to be out exploring so that I feel I've gotten every last moment of the travel experience whilst we're here.  When you go to a destination you only have a few days, a week, if you're really lucky, a fortnight but what if you never go there again?  What if you miss the best thing you'll never see?  I don't want to be that person and yes, I can understand how this makes me the person you'd least like to travel with.  I'm sure if you asked Harriet, she'd tell you exactly how it is, that I have an inability to stay still in one place for more than 20 minutes, when we went to Barcelona I actually enjoyed our mid afternoon pool hours but that's all they were, I don't think I ever managed any longer before I wanted to be out there experiencing life and other cultures and capturing each experience so that I can not only hold it in my mind but so that I can share it with the people who read my blog or watch my vlog, oh and that's another thing, my usb and camera aren't speaking to each other which means my daily vlogs are pretty much trapped in my camera until we get home next week, it's a good thing I suppose as it forces me to not worry about working for several hours each night editing the masses of video I've captured.

Yesterday I didn't take my big camera, I thought I'd just take my small one, the pains in my back and neck had been bothering me and I thought I would get to see more if I just took along my vlogging camera and the result?  I'm disappointed with the images I did capture, to me they're not authentic or professional enough, I probably won't share them, or very few of them will make the cut and so part of my experience of Villefranche-sur-Mer will be lost forever.  You know, I waited my whole life to visit there, I'd fallen in love with the place after watching "An Affair To Remember" one too many times, when Nickie visits Grandmere Jalou at her little house at the top of the mountain of Villefranche-sur-Mer, even in the late 50's it looked like the most beautiful place in the whole of the world, and it was, it really was.  It's vast curving bay with an azure sea, we lunched on the edge of the harbour wall, our only views were the small yachts bobbing up and down with the gentle currents of the mediterranean sea, bougainvillea lined the walls of the old town, it's fragrant purple flowers smiling at us as we explored (although with me, it's more of a forthright march) and climbed to find the best vistas.  This pretty village will always remain in the corners of my mind, a place I dreamt of seeing and I finally got to fulfil my wish.

In all of the years that I have been a single parent, first with just me and Iain as we struggled together against the world and later with all 3 of my fabulous teens, through the dark and turbulent days, through the lean times, the mean times, the barely scraping enough money together to survive times, the one thing which pushed me onward is the thought that one day I would travel, I would travel as much as I possibly could and I would admire the jewels of the earth. For it's these very things that make me feel enriched and whole so I hope you'll excuse, now that I can, my inability to let each moment pass me by, I can't relax, I can't sit still, there's too much to see and next week I'll be back at my desk with only the memories of my time in the sun.  Of course I'll be planning my next chaotic full on trip to somewhere else I've never been, somewhere, no doubt I'll remain a nightmare to travel with!

10 Travel Experiences To Get Excited About

This week, it's been a strange one but overwhelmingly I've tried to focus on the exciting things I have coming up in my life so, currently - 

*3 days until I fly to Madrid

*4 weeks and 4 days until I fly to Nice

*393 days until I depart on a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords

I very much booked all of them on a whim, Madrid because I love Spain and had already been to Barcelona, Nice because Abigail wanted to go there and speak French, and Norway, well that really was on a whim, again Abigail said book it and so I did.

I think I'm probably most excited about the Norwegian Fjords because I know very little about Norway, when we go there'll be 17 hours of daylight every day (thank goodness for an interior cabin), the temps will probably be in the mid to high teens and, yeah, I'm going to have to take a waterproof, Norway didn't get so green and verdant without all of that rain it gets!

I think it's probable for me, as someone who has bipolar to get through the bad days, the sad days, the up and down crap days by focusing on the promise of travel, I love my job and the work that I do and I know I have trips just around the corner, this year I've averaged 1 trip a month and I hope that will continue.  Hopefully by Christmas I'll have the cruise paid for and the best part about cruising is that you don't need a lot of spending money because literally everything is paid for on board, my last cruise with NCL, I think I only spent a couple of hundred pounds for the whole of the trip and that was only because I was bringing home Christmas gifts!

So, whilst I'm focusing on the good stuff, here's my current 10 ten travel experiences I'm looking forward to

• Getting the train from Nice to Ventimiglia, we're crossing the border to Italy just for lunch one day upon the recommendation of my lovely friend PJ!
• Going swimming in the pool at the Parc Del Campo in Madrid, it's where the locals go to cool down on those hot summer days, the park is also home to an amusement park and a zoo, it's a big old park!!
• Going on a cruise through the Fjords as the sun is setting, the whole trip is pretty much a photographers dream and getting to share that with Abigail is going to make it even more special
• visiting the Oceanographic museum in Monaco, okay so I'm a hug fan of aquariums, you probably already know that if you are a regular reader, this one really does look quite special though.
• introducing my daughter to my Cotes d'Azur, the place I fell in love with a couple of years, I want to share Cannes with Abigail so it's a special place for both of us.
• Finding out more about the Norwegian culture, I know very little of Norway, only that it's somewhere I hadn't considered visiting until Abigail mentioned it.
• Getting on the fast train to visit Toledo from Madrid, a unesco world heritage site, the whole city is steeped in history and I can't wait to explore it.
• Setting sail on a cruise ship from Southampton, waving goodbye with flags as we leave the port just like on Titanic except with significantly less promise of death.
• Finally visiting Villefranche-Sur-Mer just like Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant in "An Affair to Remember"
• Watching the sunset over the Cote d'Azur, it really is such an amazing place for sunsets, I've never experienced a sunset like the one I saw when I was on the Norwegian Epic departing Cannes

So it really is going to be an exciting year and that's not even the half of it, none of those travel experiences are with Looby and I hope that I'm going to get to take a couple of trips with her too, she's rather more freeform than Abigail so last minute things always seem to happen when Looby and I plan to go away and of course, we are planning a year of big adventures but more about that in September.

I hope you'll stick around and enjoy the images and articles I share, whilst I'm only ever three steps away from complete insanity, I remind myself often that I'm only ever 2 steps away from my next travel adventure.