Nice, France

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Geo: 43.7042, 7.31015

September 29, 2009 ~ Nice, France ~ The Port of Villefranche, France

After being awake again until super late last night, our wake-up call was for 7:15 this morning. Well, we awoke to the most beautiful site ever ~ France ! Wonderful! This is an absolutely beautiful area. The trees are gorgeous, the hotels and apartments are nice, the streets are clean, graffiti is non-existent - unlike Italy, which has graffiti everywhere, and basically, I loved France. Loved it. If we were ever to take a holiday somewhere and stay for a week or so, with money being no object, VilleFranche or Nice would be on the top of my list. That being said, our day was long and again, Hubby & I did a lot of walking but today we were much better at it then yesterday ~ I'm going to have insane leg muscles and be in much better physical shape by the time return ~ well, if I can stay away from the dining room and quit ordering room service, that is. Hee Hee

This morning Hubby said maybe we should attempt to go to see our favorite baby and her mom's place. What? Grace Kelly's place. HA! However, we ended-up not going to Monaco because we had a great time meandering and ran out of time in Nice. Our dinner tablemates told us it was fairly comparable to our journey into Nice and explained the palace in detail.. fabric wall coverings, pristine condition, etc. Our tablemates also went into a real estate agency to check on prices ~ and a simple 1-bedroom flat in Monaco is 1.4 million Euro!!

So, we were up at 7am, on the tender boat into port by 9am, and walking the streets of Villefranche, France by 9:30am. It was awesome. They were steep and winding but it was a quick walk to the bus stop where we took the public bus system (clean and quick) to Nice, France. Nice is approximately a 10 to 15 minute ride away from Villefranche and the bus ride is only 1 Euro per person with awesome views along the coastline while riding. We were dropped-off in a sort of city square area and weren't for sure where we were for a while which made us both a bit grouchy but we finally figured-out where we were and slowly meandered our way through lots of shops going toward the market and beach. We bought a beautiful tablecloth for our dining room table in a rather unique linens shop. It was our find of the day. It matches our butter yellow and deep red colors. It was a surprise find & purchase and we luv it! Hours later, we found a matching appetizer tray and purchased it also. So, after meandering through lots of shops and alleyways, we finally came to the flower market. Flowers, fruits, etc everywhere. We wandered around several court yards just looking at everything. At this point we had walked for an hour and a half and we were both a bit tired. The shops close around 12 and don't open again until 2pm so we got some iced tea and soda and went and sat on the beach for a bit. It was actually beautiful. It is mostly rocks however, there is one big sand area ~ which Hubby later informed me was full of topless ladies ~ if you look closely in today's photos, you can see this ~ because I did not realize and had taken photos before he told me. It got warm on the beach quickly so we went back into the shops/café area and noticed the Italians eating the biggest meals we have ever seen ~ and I'm not kidding folks ~ there were rows and rows of outdoor cafés and these thin women and men were eating HUGE (like 12 X 12 or bigger) plates and bowls of pasta with muscles and fish. Everywhere ~ HUGE salads with shrimp and chicken, buckets of muscles, one guy was eating a big plate of sea urchins. I'm not kidding you when I say that one person's serving of pasta was as big as we would put on the table to serve a hungry family of four. We again think these people stay thin from walking everywhere. Apparently, their routine is a small breakfast (croissant or pasty) and then a huge lunch (with plenty of wine) and then a nap and they don't eat again until 10pm or midnight. Crazy, huh? We think so. Well, we walked out to the shops again and got a slice of pizza for 3 Euro ~ it was great, as usual. Later, I had a gelato (again) and it was, as usual, fabulous ~ I'm telling you, that Malaga stuff is awesome. I noticed today the sign said Malaga is made with raisins?? Hmmm Tastes like lemons and caramel. Who cares. I'm on vacation and this is the best stuff out there. So, we walked back to the bus stop, slowly, stopping in a town square park-like area for a long time to sit and people watch. It was truly interesting. There were several little old ladies that could be book covers, they fit the "stereotypical" European old-lady picture I already had in my head.

O! We also heard and saw several policia cars and an ambulance SPEEDING by us today for one reason or the other ~ so, here's the deal with these scary vehicles ~ they are sooooooo loud they sound like what you heard in Schindler's List when the Nazi's were coming “Ennnnnn Errrrrrr Ennnnn Errrrrrrr” Hearing that stuff was like watching a scary movie… and then, many seconds later, you finally see the road clear and these policia and ambulance cars go FLYING, and I mean FLYING, down the road. The second policia car was going so fast today I couldn't get a picture and the noise was so loud I had plenty of time to get my camera ready. I did, however, get a quick picture of the ambulance. Words can't describe the different culture here but, good or bad, it is almost exactly as you see in the movies.

O! Another thing ~ dogs. There are dogs everywhere here – in Italy and France – there were even dogs allowed in the home of Grace Kelly today, according to our tablemates. We have seen dogs everywhere ~ especially today. They are pets. People have little yorkies (like Simo) and little poodles and medium & large dogs ~ all sorts of dogs ~ without leashes ~ that quietly follow them ~ everywhere. It is the sweetest thing you've ever seen. Dogs are allowed in the stores, in the meat market, in the streets, everywhere. They are very docile and well-mannered dogs of every size ~ from tiny to huge (even Labradors) and they are obviously treated well but very, very well mannered. They just follow their masters everywhere. Poor crazy, stupid Simo, he would never make it here. Still, seeing all these dogs pulls at my heart at times because I do miss my baby Simon sometimes. I hope Brett is giving him lots of love and being good to him. I'm sure Nanna is walking him every day and letting him pee all over the neighbors lawns. He's probably treated better now than he ever is when we're there! (ha)

So, after a long day walking and sight-seeing and people enjoying and talking ~ in French ~ we are both very good with French as compared to Italian ~ even I am very comfortable with French and enjoying talking in the shops ~ it makes me feel good to know their language since most of them seem to know some of ours. Hubby, however, is fabulous at French. I am so proud of him. So, we found the return bus to Villefranche and went back to the port where we looked at lots of for-sale items and took some good pictures of this and that. We finally got back on the tender (transfer boat) and came back to the ship. It was a long, good day ~ probably my favorite day in port so far ~ and DEFINITELY my favorite country so far!! France has won my heart. I love it.

We got back on the boat, ordered turkey sandwiches from room service and took a 2-hour nap before getting up to get ready for dinner. Tonight at dinner we had four new tablemates, along with the Brits, four people from Atlanta, Georgia. They are nice. Dinner was just “okay” ~ we weren't hungry ~ I ordered a salad and a scallop appetizer ~ Hubby & I shared the scallops and then he had butterfly tiger shrimp baked in some sort of herb cheese sauce with asparagus and I had a chicken breast with asparagus ~ neither of us cleaned our plates. Desesrt was tiramisu, however, and it was a small portion but quite good. There was also a couple that got married today, apparently just a bit before dinner, because they came in the dining room with the bride (gorgeous lady) in her dress & veil and him in his white tux and their families clapping and cheering and the entire dining room ~ 2 floors ~ gave them a standing ovation and I felt tingles all over me. They started playing loud music and announced them and gave them champagne to toast. It was so sweet I almost cried. Then the wait staff sang a song and everyone clapped and cheered! Hubby & I came back to the room to find our room steward, a cool guy named Duane, just leaving ~ and he left us a cool towel animal wearing my sunglasses! HA We changed clothes, and went downstairs to walk around a bit and we found our picture the ship took when we disembarked today and bought it ~ it's nice. We returned to our room a short time later to find roses petals all the way down the floor and all over our bed, two swan towels kissing on our bed, two champagne glasses on our coffee table and a HUGE bottle of Moet champagne!! YAY!! We don't know who this gift is from yet but we are guessing it's from Mr. and Mrs. In-Law. We will ask Duane tomorrow. So, now we are in our favorite nighttime place here on the ship ~ the 19th hole ~ which is a sports bar on the very top floor of the ship that is see-through so you can see outside all the time. I am on the computer typing this and drinking a Margarita while Hubby is reading and smoking and drinking a long island iced tea (my husband is a great multi-tasker). Soon, we will go to the room and start on that chilled Moet and enjoy our honeymoon even more…. ;~)

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Photos

Three ladies on bench in Nice, France
I love this photo.

Beach in Nice