Crossing France's Sunny South

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May 24th 2008

Published: July 15th 2008

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Andy and Christine

Monaco

Christine with her small collection of yachts in the harbour

It was odd, when we crossed from Italy into France on May 5th. One second, we were hurtling along on the train in Italy, and all of a sudden we were in France and didn't even know it. The scenery slowly started to change; the houses were slightly different, and the coast was beautiful, with long, empty sand beaches and the bluest waters. The train stopped, and some guys dressed in plain clothes asked to see our passports. This, we realized, was the pint-sized country of Monaco, which we were passing through on our way to Nice.

Half an hour later, our train arrived. There we were in the south of France, also known as the Cote d'Azur. We stopped by the tourist office for a map and a list of the cheapo hotels. To our surprise, they insisted on finding and booking a hotel for us. The room was cheaper then what we had planned on paying, and the office didn't charge for this service. The only catch was that we had to be there within an hour, or our reservation would be given up.

This was a fantastic start to our France adventure. The only part about

Monaco

Great view from the Prince's Palace

travelling to a new place we really don't enjoy is the never ending search for a place to stay. Now, the hard part had been done for us. We arrived at the hotel, praying that this wasn't too good to be true. We figured that something must be wrong with the room. Happily, we were wrong. The room was great, the staff were so friendly and didn't laugh too hard at our feeble attempts to converse in French. Best of all, we were only a few minutes walk from the beach.

Once we had settled in, it was time to do some laundry, which we had been neglecting for a bit longer than was sanitary. With that done, we had nothing to do but pick up some groceries for lunch. The great thing about the grocery stores in France is that they are full of delicious stuff, it makes the mouth water just thinking about it. It was difficult not to purchase one of everything in the store.

Our favorite lunch was to buy an assorted package of various delicious cheeses, some tasty olives, some fruit, and a fresh baguette. And what better way to wash it all

Monaco

I love Club Monaco

down than with an inexpensive bottle of French wine. This became our lunch and dinner ritual almost every day, affordable for travelers, and just perfect for the warm weather.

It was funny to see people walking down the street with their little dog in one hand and a baguette in the other, people riding by on bicycles with a baguette in the basket or kids with baguettes sticking up like a flag pole out of their backpacks. You would never see that back home, or if you did, people would give some pretty strange looks. Sadly, they have no idea what they're missing out on!

Nice was supposedly one of the more rugged southern French cities to visit, especially by the train station. We personally never had a problem, other then dodging numerous pieces of dog crap on the side walk. We didn't even noticed too many weirdos, but a couple people, including a guy working at a Kebab shop, told us to be careful and watch out for our belongings. We did noticed some prostitutes and some strange people at night, but that's pretty normal for any city in the world.

We decided to first explore

Monaco

There's nothing like a good protest to get the blood pumping

Monaco, only a quick train ride away. Monaco is the second smallest nation in the world, next to Vatican City. It's famous for the Grand Prix, the Monte Carlo casino, and it's wealth. It has been ruled by the Grimaldi family since 1297, when François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, entered and seized the fortress of Monaco. They've been there ever since. Monaco is now is ruled by Albert Grimaldi, since 2005, after the passing of his father, Prince Rainier, who was married to Hollywood actress, Grace Kelly.

We decided that we would spend the day walking and imagining the lives of the very wealthy. Getting out of the train station, our first view of Monaco was of the water. There were multi-million dollar yachts lined up and down the harbour, hundreds of them. We hiked up a steep hill to the Palais du Prince, the palace, where we had some gorgeous views of the city, harbour and the ocean. After admiring the pretty streets and buildings, we stopped to watch a march of protest that took over the main drag, which was interesting too.

We crossed our fingers that in the morning, the weather would be nice.

Nice

Kids and their dinghy heading for the beach

We were planning to hit the famed beaches of Nice, and see what the French Riviera was all about. This was something that we hadn't done since visiting Crete, so we were pretty excited about it. Luckily for us and all the other sunbathers, the weather was hot and sunny, just great.

We had a light breakfast, and were off to join the many different beach lovers on the sands of Nice. The tourists, the topless, the guys with speedos, the old and young, and the bronzed and fit. The beach was not nearly as crowded as we first thought it would be on such a scorcher of a day. We put some major sunscreen on, and just laid there for a few hours, taking breaks to swim in the icy, but refreshing, water. Somehow, we came away without sunburns, so it was a successful day.

The rest of our time in Nice was spent between the beach and walking the seaside to Vieux Nice (Old Nice). The walking paths in front of the beaches were pretty cool. Many rollerbladers, joggers, dog walkers, bike riders, and people with kids strolled along, enjoying the blue waters and the fresh

Nice

Olives, cheese, wine and a baguette, a perfect French lunch

sea breeze.

We also saw a very weird street performer doing this odd sort of really slow motion creepy dance that made people, including us, not be able to stop watching it. It was strangely hypnotic and bizarre. He reminded us of the guy from 'Silence of the Lambs' but he danced slower and lighter on his feet. Very strange...imagine the sound of 'Goodbye Horses'.

Exploring Vieux Nice was a treat. It was filled with tourists, shops, and cafes, where many people gathered at the outdoor patio restaurants that displayed and served up great smelling seafood, such as steamed mussels and Bouillabaisse. From there, we hiked up a steep hill, the Colline du Chateau, to check out the view and ended up at an old cemetery. Unfortunately, it was closing time, so we only got a quick peek, hanging out there for ten minutes. From the top, we could see most of Nice, as well as the coastline and the sea. Large churches sprang out from between the wide stretches of red-tiled roofs.

Other than that, we spent more time on the beach, taking advantage of every bit of sun we would get. We hung out in

Nice

Beach shot from the boardwalk

a few of the local parks, watching the world go by and people walking their dogs. Nice was pretty cool and we ended up staying four nights, although we could have spent the rest of our trip there, we were enjoying it that much. But it was time to move on again, to a place a few hours away, the lively city of Marseille, in Provence.

Marseille is the second largest city, after Paris. It's proximity to Northern Africa makes for a rich and interesting mix of French, African and Middle Eastern cultures. We noticed this immediately, as we hopped off the train and made our way through the streets. We passed lots of African foods and textiles on offer, drums playing, and tea shops serving up mint tea, along with a hookah pipe. After a long and hot march, we finally found the tourist office, got a map and some ideas of where to stay.

The first hotel we went to was full, the next, had no one at the reception, the third was sketchy and run by someone who looked like Iggy Pop's French brother, and the following one had big peepholes in the door. Another

Nice

Now that is a serious street light

was just plain scary, with smoke clouding the halls from the many chain smokers lingering around. These were the worst hotels that we had looked at on our travels.

It felt like looking for a room on East Hastings, in Vancouver. Finally, after a couple of hours and a lot of sweating (and swearing), we settled on a hotel. The room wasn't much better than the others, but it was still slightly cleaner, and the people running it seemed decent. After relaxing, we said goodbye to our bags, and hoped that they would be there when we returned. Fortunately, after returning from dinner, they were.

The following morning, we decided to go to a lookout point, to check out Marseille from up above. On the way there, we stumbled across a great craft market in town, which sold baked goods, as well as cool jewelry, soaps, art and other stuff. From there, we continued on to the Vieux Port, where fishermen displayed and sold their catch of the day. Creatures from lobsters to snails, prawns to fish, lined the harbour. It was very crowded, with people trying to purchase their dinner for the evening, or like us, just

Nice

Loving the sun and the beach

taking pictures of all the action at the port.

We walked a few blocks further and we could now see the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde, our destination, looming ahead of us, high up on the hill. Many breathless steps later, we arrived with our bottle of wine, cheese, olives, fruit, and of course, a fresh baguette. We took our lunch break on a grassy slope, just downhill from the basilica. We enjoyed a great lunch, and an even better view of Marseille, as the wind blew hard at us from this height.

We entered the church to admire the interior. Red and white marble decorated the inside of this nineteenth century structure. Glittering mosaics covered the ceiling, and paintings and models of ships filled the walls and hung from above. Prayers to bring people's loved ones home from the sea. From the outside, the views were even better of Marseille. We could see the Mediterranean, the harbour, the mountains, and most of the city from way up there.

We weren't sad to say goodbye to our beautifully sketchy hotel, so we next moved on to a more peaceful area, just a few hours away by

Vieux Nice

Street scene

train. Avignon; home to a famous bridge, immortalized in the French children's song. Once getting to this pretty little town, we stopped by the tourist office to get a map and directions to the campgrounds just over the bridge. But when we got there, it was closed for another fifteen minutes. We put down our bags and waited out front. Many people came there, noticed the same thing, and tried the door to find out it was locked.

Unfortunately, our visit to Avignon, which we just commented to each other was a beautiful and peaceful place, took a sudden turn for the worse. Getting up to go into the tourist office, we noticed that one of our small bags was missing. It had been stolen right out from underneath us, without us even realizing it! The feeling of getting something stolen, especially after making it this far with no problems, was pretty depressing.

We lost a lot of stuff, including a selection of gifts that we had for people we were yet to visit in Europe, as well as Christine's sleeping bag, our backup camera, and many other small bits and pieces. However, it could have been much

Marseille

Craft market

worse; we still had our photos, our passports and other important items, and there was no confrontation. But we still felt sad and angry.

We opted to find a hotel room, since we were a little skeptical about camping now, with only one sleeping bag. Then we went to the police station, to make a report for insurance purposes. The kind lady at the tourist office had written us a list of some of our missing items and a summary in French, to make things easier for us. But on arrival, we were told that due to a holiday, they were understaffed, and to come back the next day.

In the meantime, we scoured the town, hoping for the slightest possibility that we might find something of ours that the thief might have chucked in the garbage. It started pouring rain, just to make matters worse. We returned to our hotel empty handed, in a glum mood, and called it a night.

The next morning, after a complimentary breakfast at our hotel, we went again to the police station. We buzzed at the door and a young French officer let us in. As we sat and waited,

Vieux Port, Marseille

Fresh fish for sale

we heard David Bowie's 'China Girl' blasting on the radio in the sergeant's office. We couldn't help giggling and thinking that things might get interesting. And it did.

The police had English skills that pretty much matched our terrible French. We spent about an hour laughing, joking, and playing charades with the cops, who gathered around, trying to help with the translation. We mimed each of our missing items until they guessed correctly. They finished writing us a report in French, we said our thanks and good byes, and we were out of there. All we could do now was forget, put this little episode behind us, and get on with our trip.

Other than our little problem, Avignon was a very pretty place. The town is surrounded by more than four kilometers of stone ramparts. People flock there to kick back and enjoy it's fabled bridge, Pont St-Benezet, better known as the Pont d'Avignon. Everywhere there were cobbled streets, with locals and tourists slowly meandering down them.

The area we stayed in was peaceful, set along the river Rhone, and connected to a campground. There was a path along the water, which we walked, admiring the

Marseille

Enjoying lunch on the windy hill

sights. The area would light up beautifully at night and we would walk the river, and see the Pont d'Avignon lit up against the night's sky, reflected in the slow waters.

Although we had enjoyed ourselves in Avignon, we left a bit disappointed about our stuff. We decided to continue on our way to Spain. Our bags were now a little lighter and we were on our way, after a bit of a hike back to the train station, to cross the border and see what Barcelona had to offer us.

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