Sun, Pebbles, Grace Kelly and a return to Paris

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From Geneve we made the long (ish) train ride to Nice on the French Riviera. We spent 2 thrilling hours at the Marseille train station before arriving in beautiful sunny Nice our first glimpse at mediterranean Europe. It could have been a few degrees warmer but the sun was lovely. Unfortunately the beaches have no sand just pebbles so it kind of looked as though everyone was sun bathing in a carpark but they love it.

We decided to have a little holiday at the end of all our tiring travelling so splurged on a backpacker pricey hotel near the beach with our own bathroom (big thanks to the folks at Oxters and HCT Rural!!!) We spent the 4 days in Nice doing nothing much but sleep, eat cheese and bickies and drink wine. It was great! Although we prefered the $2/litre Italian wine we got from Switzerland than the french stuff. We have concluded that cheap Italian wine is better than cheap French wine so can't wait to go to Italy!!

After watching a whole documentary on Grace Kelly in French at the hotel we were inspired to visit Monaco (only 20 minutes away) and went on a day trip. Monaco is full of expensive fast cars and yachts and heaps of casinos. It was great although we were glad we were staying in Nice. We visited the Grimaldi Forum's exhibition on Grace Kelly. It is massive and really detailed. Daniel got a bit bored but Trish was in her element. We also walked up the hill to the palace and visited the Cathedral where Grace married Prince Ranier and paid our respects at her tomb.

From Nice we trained it back to Paris to give the city another go after we left on a bad note last time. We actually really enjoyed it this time and can see why people love the city so much. On our first afternoon we visited the Sacre Couer and Montmarte that we missed out on last time and then on the Thursday went to a museum, walked through the Tuileries up to the Louvre and then found a street full of specialty food shops full of locals and finished our day with some out of this world Amorino Italian gelato and spoiled ourselves with a proper meal out (thanks again to Oxter's and HCT!!). We tried snails. Think of shell-less snails served like garlic prawns and that is what he had. Trish didn't mind them although as they still looked snail like didn't really like them but Daniel has found a new culinary delight and reckons he would eat them again. We basically spent our time in Paris doing (and eating) all the things we did like about Paris - the bread (although not 3 times a day!!), those gorgeous little pastries and tarts, chocolate croissants, Amorino icecream, strolling through the markets and now... escargot!

That brings our blog to an end for this "leg" as we are now back in the Motherland. She has welcomed us with open arms thankfully. Weather hasn't been too bad and everything has gone according to plan. Trish's good friend Sarah (who join with Lorinda to form the infamous TS trio) has a small flat in their loft and has asked us to stay and look after their pets while Sarah returns to uni and her parents return to Australia. It has worked out really well and we are sooooo glad to be back speaking English and reading everything in English.

We arrived on Friday so have been relaxing and catching up but will hopefully find jobs soon to top up the savings account so we can travelling again and explore new parts of the continent. We will keep you all updated when and if anything exciting happens otherwise next time we post we will be in some other exciting exotic place wondering what the hell we are doing!! Thanks for sticking with us and hope you've enjoyed the blogs and pics.

xoxoxox

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Photos

Marseille Train Station
Pretty much all we saw of the city.

The French Riviera
The pebbled beach at Nice. THe water was soooo blue.

Spices at the market
in Nice. So many yummies here. Really fresh olives in all sorts of marinades, cheeses, bread, chocolate, sweets, piles of sundried tomatoes and mushrooms and the fruits.......yummmmm!!!!

Daniel with lunch
Beautiful french bread. We are not exaggerating they do bread VERY well. You can eat it with nothing else, heaps better than Tip Top.

View of the beach
from the ruins of the Nice chateau up high on a hill.

Yachts at Nice
We plan to make our millions with our working holiday visa in the UK and buy the yacht at the front there. A yacht would be the best way to do the french riviera. \The sun and surf but no pebbles or pesky tourists.

Undies Undies..... Bathers
Dress codes in Monaco (thank goodness). Read, if you can, the bottom left square of the sign.

Monaco
from halfway up to the palace

The Palace
At Monaco

I try to be like Grace Kelly......mmmm hmmm
The cathedral where Prince Ranier and Princess Grace were married (these are the steps she walked up) and are now buried.

Sacre Couer
in Paris. What made this sight so great was not just the church itself or the magnicifent view of Paris (it is the highest point in Paris) but the 2 man band on the step singing almost good renditions of beatles songs. We rocked up to Lennon's Imagine....pretty cool with everyone singing along look out over the rooftops of Paris.

The View
from Sacre Couer

Parisian parking at its best
You are NOT a good parker if you haven't almost touched the bumper of the car in front or behind you. Also if you park on a corner but put your hazard lights on it is okay. You can leave your car there for ages........very different from rules at home. But makes it fun to be a pedestrian.

Fountain at Place Concorde
This part was covered up with a stage etc for Bastille Day last time we were here so here it is. This is the square where everyone was beheaded during the Revolution including Louis and Marie-Antoinette.

The Tuileries
Gardens between Place Concorde and the Louvre.

Daniel's icecream from Amorino's
YUM!!!

Comments

[Terry and Kathy]

Icecream
Can you send us one of those icecreams (for Kathy of coarse) Pics are great again Thanks and be carefull cheers Terry and Kathy

[janet]

howdo?
Hi Guys, sounds like you are having a ball! But alas if you keep eating all that food you are never going to fit on the plane to get back home.....or is that the plan eh? aha we are onto you now!!!! I've just started reading the Da Vinci code again so was quite excited to see some pics of places I'm reading about. Nothing much happening here... work work and more work. the dreaded flu has been through the office and once you get it you can't seem to shake it off. We've just had York show and Northam is coming up this weekend ..yahoo! very exiting compared to what you guys are up to... how can you bear travelling around Europe and missing all the excitement of the wheatbelt in show season...come on guys,...what were you thinking when you hopped on that plane????? :o) have fun and take care :o) catch you again.

[shelby]

pictures
hello, i like the pictures you sent. I have seen them all i don't have a favorite one because i like them all hope you have lots,lots,lots,lots of FUN

[Dan and Trish]

Glad you enjoyed them!!
We will have to take some photos of our new house (well until Christmas time anyhow) and post them for you. We live in a teeny tiny village right near a beautiful church and it is VERY green around here. Say hi to everyone for us! xoxoxo