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Published: September 6th 2007
Posing in St. Tropez
It's very interesting to walk around the waterfront and watch the posers sitting in the cafes. It's another harbour for the yachts of the Rich and Richer. - Rise and shine! Time to get up and head out! We tidied up around the house and then headed off towards Nice. Knowing we didn’t have to be there until 3 PM we took our time and drove east on the coast of the Mediterranean, going through various towns such as Hyeres, Le Lavandou, and stopping at St. Tropez. Boy, has that town grown! And though I had a great time when I was there 30 years ago, I frankly can’t see the attraction it had for me. Different age, we all grow up. We were laughing at the “posers” sitting at the waterfront cafes, very impressed with themselves for sitting at the waterfront cafes in St. Tropez. We watched a very large yacht back into a double space, had a walk around town, and then left. We then carried on up the coast until Frejus, where we cut in to the Motorway, and beat it to Nice. We rolled in about 5 PM, found the apartment, admired the view, and headed out to the market for dinner. We got settled and are still in awe of the view of Nice, the port, and down the
The View from the Apartment
This is only part of the view from the apartment that we are staying in. We have a Full 180 degrees of views. coast. It is truly a lovely apartment, and will be a great place to sit for the next week.
Sunday, September 2, 2007 - We were going to head into Nice proper today and have a good look around, but Kevin realized we needed gas and we ended up in Villefranche instead, which was okay with me. The town is very cute, and unspoiled, as I see it, though there was a huge cruise ship in at anchor. It was strange to hear so many American accents for a change. A funny story - We were walking the back streets of the town trying to find a restaurant (that’s another story) and there was this American woman saying “Gary….Gary! GARY, WHERE ARE YOU?” At this point we heard a voice say, in a monotone, “I’m in the house. You locked me in.” We couldn’t help but laugh, as he sounded like he had been through this before. You see, keys are required here to lock houses from the outside. After finding a place to eat at a reasonable cost for great food, we got in the car and decided to drive up the road to Monaco, since it is
Villefranche
I took about 5 photo's to stitch together to get this photo. However, it's very slim.... only about 15 KM away. There are 3 corniches (roads) running from Nice to the border - the Grande Corniche (the highest one), the Moyenne Corniche (the middle road) and, my personal favorite, the Bas Corniche or Corniche Inferieure (the lowest road and my favorite because it goes through all the towns). We made it up to Monaco, and drove around, determining that we would come back tomorrow and spend the day. We came home via the Moyenne Corniche, which Kevin swears that is the one used in all the movies, but I think it is the upper one.
Monday, September 3, 2007 - We got up bright and early this morning so we could go to Eze, a mountain-side village that looked interesting, have a look around, have petit dejeuner and get to Monaco for the Changing of the Guard. Eze is charming, and we are going to have to come back later this week, as Kevin’s camera wasn’t taking pictures and we needed to consult the instructions…. We drove on the Moyenne Corniche to Eze, which wasn’t a thrill for me as I was on the outside lane, and it was straight down…
We headed into Monaco,
Changing of the Guard
This is a shot of the Prince of Monaco's guard. At 11.55 every day the tourists gather in anticipation for the changing of the guard. Not quite Buckingham Palace, but the weather is certainly better. parked the car and walked up to the Palace, which we have to say doesn’t look like much from the outside. And there were lots of souvenir shops across from the palace which was a little distracting. An interesting note - the monarchy was founded in the 13th century, making it the longest continuing monarchy in the world. They must be doing something right! So, 11:55 AM (PRECISELY, according to the guide book) came along and so did the changing of the guard. There were lots of people, since there was a cruise ship in the harbor, and it was difficult to see. But we thought it was nice that they keep the tradition up daily. After it finished, we took an audio tour of the palace and were surprised at the décor, frescoes, and furnishings inside. A very pretty place, but not overly stuffy. We then went and looked at the Museum next door, which housed many Napoleonic artifacts, including a snuff box with his initial on it, in gold and blue lacquer. My sisters might remember our mother having a copy of this box, as she was very enamored of Napoleon and Josephine. She would have loved this
I wish....
I'm thinking of asking Santa for one of these! I'll have to wait for Xmas, because this car won't have enough trunk space for us. museum. It even had a couple of his hats and, yes, they do look just like the paintings! There were some beautiful marble floors but, alas, no pictures again. And no postcards. After lunch, we headed down and took one of those little tour trains around the country. (I love that). They had the tour in 10 languages, designated by the appropriate flag, French, English, Russian, etc. Behind us a blond got in with her boyfriend/husband, looked at all the flags, and said, “There’s no American flag.” I swear we are NOT making this up! The husband/boyfriend suggested listening to the British flag…..We got in to the car and drove to the casino so that we could take pictures and spend a couple of Euros. There were some pretty high-powered cars parked in front. We are in awe of the amount of money that is in this small area. The 11th largest private yacht in the world, the Lady Moura, is docked. We were hoping that some of the green that was floating around would rub off on us, but the only green on us was envy. Amazing. Finally leaving at 5 PM we headed back to Nice on the
Overlooking Monaco
Caroline put on a brave face and even when I suggested that she take a look at the view she just murmured "press the bloody button". Grande Corniche. Good job we were headed the way we did - Kevin kept asking me to look at the view and I kept politely declining. I had to agree with him that they must use the middle Corniche for all the movies.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - Marseille (again!) - If it’s Tuesday it must be Marseille…We had to get on the road as it was going to be a two-hour drive to Marseille (210km) to pick up our passports from the Chinese Consulate. Kevin had been perusing the net and found out where the All Blacks were practicing, so we decided to include that in our list of things to do after the Consulate. Well, first off we realized that you NEVER take the shorter route, if it goes through a city. We got bogged down in Toulon. We rolled into Marseille at about 10 AM, leaving us plenty of time to get to the consulate and deal with that then to the practice. You can see where this is going, can’t you? We got lost for one hour. That was WITH the map! We finally got to the consulate and picked up the passports. I was
The Silver Disc
If you look in the silver disc you can see the reflection of the Monte Carlo Casino. sent in so Kevin could park illegally, and was told to pay 25 Euros more. The rate had gone up on the US passport and the guy last week hadn’t known about it. So, I finally got out of there and to the car about 11 AM, in search of team practice. By the time we got there to the field, the bus was just pulling out - practice was over for the AM. It was the worst thing that could happen. This was just a BAD morning. And to think we get to look forward to coming back on Saturday for the game!
After lunch (at a French fast burger place), we headed back up the coast, deciding to go to Cannes. We walked around a lot, and Kevin watched the patanque being played (like boules), and finally decided to have dinner there. We found a great restaurant that had reasonable prices. The difference between a café and a restaurant, we have worked out, is the price and addition of a white tablecloth. We had a really nice meal there - our faith is really being restored in the restaurants here - and then carried up the coast, again,
Monte Carlo Panorama
Another stitched-up set of photo's. but because it was night and dark we got lost, again. Next time we will want a GPS in the car.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - We decided to spend the whole day in Nice, not knowing really what we were going to do. The first thing was to take the double-decker bus around the city, and we bought a two-day pass when we found it passes near the apt. We got off at the Negresco Hotel as it had been recommended for lunch. We should have known better, but we were turned away for Kevin’s shorts. So, we decided to hit the “all-you-can-eat carpaccio” place instead. Except that was a misnomer - They cut us off after three plates! We got the hint, and left without having dessert. We would show them!
We walked up to the top of the hill where the chateau used to be (across the Vieux Port in our pictures) and walked down again. Then through part of the Vieux Port. All of a sudden we found ourselves in the Old District with nothing but walking streets and all sorts of shops. There were a couple of spice shops that have black and red
The Night View from the Nice Apartment
The same as the day view but with lights.... salt, and all sorts of other spices. And there was a lot of the regular tourist stuff. We decided to save some of it for tomorrow. We might also hit a museum or two, but we are sort of off them right about now. And we do have Rome to look forward to. I am hoping to get up to Grasse Friday before we go, and Kevin wants to go back to Eze. I think we can do both.
Thursday, September 6, 2007 - We watched a cruise ship park itself at the dock this AM, taking parallel parking to a whole new level. And without a tug! We jumped on the bus and after getting off near the Old Town we walked around, with a break for lunch. As an aside, I have started to look at the weight-gain thing as akin to a pregnancy. You know you will be gaining weight for a particular period in time, and then you can start losing it. There is no fighting it, so we’re not.
We saw that there was a Museum of Photography and went to find that, only to find it was closed to change exhibits. Jeez. We
An Evening in Cannes
I took this photo while sitting having a beer and it does say Cannes somewhere on the building. walked some more, then jumped on the bus to finish the tour. Oh, by the way, we did manage to make it back to the Spice shop and I am hoping it won’t be a problem bringing the purchases home.
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Jay
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NIce pictures
Great photos! BTW, that car looks quite like my Corvette.