A Day on the Riviera

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After touring France and spending some time in the area around Nice and along the Riviera a couple of years ago, we decided to take it easy today while we were anchored off Villefranche.

We slept in and finally took a tender off the ship in the early afternoon. We had a nice lunch and walked the streets and beach of this beautiful seaside town. Once again the streets were narrow and curving, carved into the side of the mountains that rise out of the Mediterranean.

The day ended with our final formal night for dinner. This included a final recognition of all our servers and waiters… and a flaming baked Alaska for dessert! The show tonight was after dinner, so we enjoyed a marvelous montage of singing and dancing numbers. The quality really was top-notch with costumes and sets. The acrobatic acts with hanging hoops and fabric were very much like Cirque du Soleil. After the show came the “Grande Buffet” in the main dining room. Although we were still stuffed from dinner, we ventured into the dining room to see what this was all about - WOW! The spread off food accented with ice carvings and extremely intricate vegetable and fruit carvings was absolutely fantastic! Too bad we couldn’t partake in any of the food.

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