The Cote d Azur has become the Cote criminelle. You are warned to always lock car doors. Luxury cars are routinely held up at gunpoint at red lights. Europe s new open borders have made the Riviera a summer Mecca for the continent s pickpockets, burglars, and thieves. A lady told me all four houses she owns on the Riviera had been robbed in the past year.
Homeowners live behind high walls, security systems, steel bars, and nazi dogs.
I even met an entrepreneur who delivers savage dogs to houses at night by van and picks them up in the morning. The French cops are not much friendlier. I stopped to ask directions in my politest French from two CRS elite motorcycle policemen. The first glared at me in outrage that I would have the audacity to address him. Service with a smile, that s the Riviera in August.