If I were to do a trip like this again, I'd do it differently.
I'd rent a place so I wouldn't pay through the nose for hotels
I wouldn't do extra travelling two out of six days (Nice-Marseille-Nice)
I'd preferably bring a friend so we can talk about how good the food was
I'd not bring expensive gear so I can go swimming
I'd have to re-learn to pack for sub tropics
I would try not to twist and sprain my ankle stepping out of my frontdoor to leave for the airport
I'd sit on my arse more and not walk 8 hours a day on a gammy foot
As for photography:
If I brought the EOS again, someone would have to teach me how to deal with bright sunlight because a lot of my shots are partly overexposed
When people *want* to have their picture taken, take five, not just one
Concerning the photography:
The dynamic range of digital sensors is not as good as film yet. I tend to expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights, which basically means I underexpose most of my shots about half a stop and then brighten up the shadows in Photoshop a little. When shooting, check your histogram often. If there are many blinking overexposed highlights, take the shot again. Also, if you shoot in RAW mode, it is possible to bring a bit of the blown out highlights back in post processing.
Yeah, I did the histogram thing in the end, taking 4 or 5 shots of the same scene, but just couldn't get it working with bright skies coming through shadowy city streets.
UV-filter?
I was using a polarisation filter.