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Published: July 14th 2008
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Roquebrune
The view back towards Monaco. So, the morning after the night before. I open one eye around 8.00, understand THAT is not going to happen and roll over for five more minutes. The next time the eye flutters open it is 10.00. OK, I can get going now.
The nice thing about seeing everything yesterday is that I do not feel the usual tug to jump out of bed and run around town, camera in hand. Instead, I decide to have an easy morning. I order café au lait from room service, open my window to the beautiful sunshine and sit and write for almost two hours. How lovely. The afternoon is now stretching out in front of me and I can do whatever I want. I love lazy Sundays - especially in Monaco.
A bit of internal debate about what to do this afternoon. The first thought was to go to Café de Paris for lunch and then to the Casino. Two problems with that. The first is that it much too nice a day to sit inside an artificially lit casino. The second is that I promised Steve I would come back for a weekend in January so that he and I
Roquebrune
One of the small, winding streets. could spend the day gambling. (Kirsten is one of those odd people who could take it or leave it.) I don’t think he would really appreciate my going without him today. The next debate was the classic beach or pool debate. I was leaning towards the beach, but it is twenty minutes away by bus and, because today is Sunday, the buses don’t run all that often. I decided that I did not want to spend a lot of my day just standing. So - the pool won.
On my way to the pool, I have to pass through the lobby bar. I saw someone eating a sandwich that looked to die for. Well, that’s an idea! So, I sat down and spent a lovely hour eating my sandwich and watching the people come and go. Because it was high noon (check out time) on Sunday, a lot of people were leaving the hotel to head home, so I had a lot to watch.
I eventually made it to the pool where I found a sun lounger off in one corner by itself. Perfect. It was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. Bright sunshine, but there was a still breeze,
Roquebrune
The castle. so much cooler than yesterday. I went swimming in the salt water, baked in the sun, read my book and snoozed. At 4.00, I figured three hours of direct sunshine was enough for this old face, so I came back to the room to shower and change. For the first time since I have been in France, I have put on jeans for the evening. Nice to be a bit casual for once.
Kirsten and Steve came by to pick me up around 6.00. They drove me over to a small town above Monaco called Roquebrune. It is one of those wonderful, medieval towns that seem to be all over France. It was begun as a fortress in the 10th Century and was used as a prison as late as the French Revolution. We toured the castle, then walked around the town. It has wonderful, winding streets and small shops. The view back down to Monaco was magnificent.
After about an hour, we got back in the car and drove across the top of Monaco to a town called Cap d”Ail. As we were now on the other side of Monaco, from the top of the road we
Roquebrune
A view of the town from the castle. could see as far as Cannes. We went to a restaurant called La Pinede. This is one of those places one dreams about. We sat outside on a terrace that sits directly next to the sea. The wind had picked up, so the sea was crashing in on the rocks and every once in a while, the spray would come up and hit us. We dined on seafood salads and scallops as we watched the sun go down behind Cannes and the lights come up all over. Smashing.
We ate until we could not eat anymore, then took ourselves out to the bar. Again on a terrace, we sat in big, comfy chairs while we finished our wine and had our coffee. As we were sitting there, we were able to see a fireworks show that was coming from somewhere beyond Cannes. It went on for quite a while and was really quite impressive - even from that great a distance.
Just as we were beginning to reluctantly agree that it might be time to call it a night, the manager came over with limoncello for all of us. What we were to do? We didn’t want to be rude. So, we settled down with another coffee and our limoncello and watched the moon shine down on the water.
Eventually, even we couldn’t think of another excuse to stay, so we all piled into the car and drove back into Monaco. It was a smashing evening - the perfect way to end this holiday.
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