Day 6 - Nice

I had received several comments from people about how much they liked the city of Nice and was excited to set out on my own to explore. My Rick Steves' book had a walking tour of Old Nice. I figured I couldn't mess it up if I just followed his map. Well, sure. Of course I can get lost due to my horrible navigation skills. To me - North is always straight ahead. South is, you guessed it, behind me. West is left, East is right. It doesn't make sense but unfortunately these are my navigational instincts. I'm "touched" in this department.

So yes, I got lost, but was able to backtrack to the train station and stopped into the tourism booth to get an actual map. I was on my way to Old Nice!

Carnival had just happened the previous Sunday. I was amazed to see their beautiful plaza and the gigantic floats.

The first thing I needed to accomplish on my walking tour was to find an olive oil store. My guidebook mentioned this store and I was on a mission to buy olive oil for me and some for Hillary. Due to my fantastic navigational skills I found it right away!

I was so excited that I found it I went right in and purchased 5 bottles of olive oil. There was a film crew inside this little store. I was hoping to see Rick Steves. It wasn't.

Anyway, me and my five bottles of olive oil began exploring Old Nice. It was great! Except for the fact I had five bottles of olive oil with me. I'm not sure why I bought them right away. I guess I was so pleased with myself for actually finding the store that I figured I'd never be able to find it again.

I walked all the way up to that big grey thing up there.

This was a really pretty church. I ate a nice lunch in this plaza. Life was grand!

I loved the colors of the buildings in Nice. You can definitely tell there has been an Italian influence in Nice. Well, that is what my guide book told me and guide books never lie.

I started walking up to the big grey thing on the hillside that I referenced a couple of pictures ago. Lots of stairs, lots of walking but the views were breathtaking.

Here is the big grey thing that I thought would be a castle or something. Turns out it was just big and grey.

The views from the top were amazing. Here a few of the shots.

It was up here where I had a special moment all to myself. Before my Mom died, I always thought that my brother and I would take her to France or Italy on vacation. I never told her I was thinking of taking her and I regret that very much. I think she would have loved France. No doubt about it. I've felt guilty for years about that and a lot of things with my Mom. Up here, I took an opportunity to release my guilt and say my final good bye. It was a tough one and there were tears involved but it felt very very good.

Did I mention the beach is nice in Nice? Ha! I didn't even try to write that - nice in Nice!

I just sat and stared at the ocean and the sun. Loved it!

Me and my five bottles of olive oil made our way back to the train station. On the way I saw this creepy site.

The cats were real and the guy was just standing there talking to the crowd. He wasn't like one of those "frozen" people in Vegas. It was creepy. Those cats had to have been drugged. I know French cats - they bite.

Day 5 - Exploring Cannes

After being on the go and touring cities for 4 straight days, exhaustion finally set in. It was Wednesday and I was really really tired. Instead of taking the train to a new destination, i decided to stay in Cannes and explore the city a bit more.

There are two small islands that can be seen from Cannes. One of them we toured on Sunday, the second one, St. Honorat I toured today. It is inhabited by Monks and there isn't much else on the island. This doesn't mean the photo opportunities are any less. The island was really beautiful.

I had a really lovely nature walk and was enjoying my time by myself when all of a sudden I turned the corner and saw THIS:

I was mesmerized, I just couldn't stop taking pictures of it. It is the old monastery and it is literally right on the water. I just had to explore this old building I was so intrigued!

The view from the very top. This is where the monks live now.

I really loved this place. So amazing.

I hopped on the boat and headed back to Cannes. It was a bit of an overcast day but it was still quite nice outside. Here are some more shots I took from the boat.

The white building on the left is where they hold the famous Cannes Film Festival. Apparently the city of Cannes turns into a crazy town during the festival. 

This was our building!

I made it back to the apartment and was absolutely exhausted. I guess after 4 days of walking and touring it all caught up to me. That and the fact that I'm not a good sleeper at night. I took a nap and woke up just in time for Hillary to get home. 

Hillary and I decided to go to a seafood restaurant around the corner. As an appetizer, they brought us this:

Escargot! We had a hell of a time trying to get those little buggers out of their shells. They were quite tasty but a lot of damn work. Our meal was very very good. Hillary ordered a whole fish (scales, eyes, fins) and I ordered prawns. They were huge! My prawns (like Hillary's fish) still had eyes. It was a bit creepy. I tried playing with my lovely prawn's eyeballs but was quickly chastised by Hillary. Bad Ann!

It was a meal to complete a really nice low-key day.

Day 4 - On my Own!

Today Hillary had to go to work and I was going to set forth on my solo adventure to Monaco. Last year when Brian and I watched the Tour de France, we thought Monaco looked really cool. I was a bit nervous about the thought of traveling by myself and navigating through an unfamiliar foreign city. Up until now, I was somewhat attempting to "fit in" and try to not look so much like a tourist. Why? I have no clue. But, today I decided to not be ashamed of carrying my Rick Steve's guidebook and owned the fact that I am a tourist in a foreign country.

Here are a couple of shots of Monaco:

Hotels and boats

Oceanographic Museum. I didn't visit it given my previous track record with museums.

Big cathedral where famous people get married.

Princess Grace theater

Monte Carlo

More Monte Carlo

Monaco is quite lovely. After touring the city for a bit, I realized that in order to stay here and visit, you'd have to be very wealthy.  The city is so clean and pretty and bright. Even the public restrooms were beautiful. They had attendants whose job it was to keep them clean. Unlike other public restrooms where you had to pay .50 Euro to use them, Monaco's were free and there was just a donation tray for when you were done.  It is funny, I quickly realized that access to bathrooms (or w/c's) is really important when you are walking all day and touring a city.

I made it through Monaco, stopped in the Louis Vuitton store and found a handbag that I loved but could not afford and made my way back to the train station. I took a train that didn't have a direct connection back to Cannes. I had a brief moment of panic when I didn't understand why the train was not moving and everyone else was getting off and we were clearly not back in Cannes. Then, I eventually figured out (by asking a train station employee) that I had a 45 minute break between trains.

Here are shots from our dinner. Yum!

Salmon with red peppercorns and dijon mustard. A taste explosion.

Chocolate cake

Day 3 - Grasse

We decided to go inland on day three to visit a town that specicalizes in perfume making. We had heard mixed reviews about the town. The woman who rented us the apartment told us to stay away. The woman at the tourist information shop said to go. So we went.

Our plan was to visit the International museum of perfume and then also shop in the town. We caught the train to grasse and inevitably got lost trying to find the museum. The town is built on a hillside so guess what - stairs!

Just a fraction of what we climbed this day.

This museum was much more our speed. It gave the history of perfume and displayed several different cultures throughout the world and the reliance on perfume. I guess the point is - everyone gets stinky and everyone likes to cover it up with perfume. So true!

I didn't take any pictures in the museum (seriously I don't know what is wrong with me). I did however take a picture of a snarky cat. I will call him Pierre.

Here he was sitting at our table. This was after he bit me. Bad Pierre!

The town of Grasse was not as nice as we expected it to be. A little dirty, a little too industrial for us. Not the quiet, quaint town we were looking to tour. We stopped in Fragonard, a local perfume store and sampled all of the different scents they offered. Hillary found a scent, i did not. I kept liking ones that smelled like "old lady" or "teeny-bopper". So, I bought some soap and we left.

We took the train back to Cannes, ate a great burger and some french fries and called it a night. Wow - traveling and walking talks a lot out of you!

Below are some pictures of our apartment. It is defintiely aplace I would recommend to anyone who is visiting in Cannes. Perfect location and you could  fit 4 adults in here, it might get tight, but you could do it.


Our kitchen - so small!



This is our tiny dishwasher.

Our table, living area and one of the beds.

Our espresso machine. Love it!

And last but not least, the view. I just can't stop taking pictures of it!

Day 2

After sleeping 10+ hours, we headed out on our second adventure. We were on a quest to explore more of Cannes and needed more panoramic views like this one:

We had seen an old stone structure off in the distance and wanted to know more about it. We soon found out this old stone structure (and pretty much every old stone structure) had many stairs leading to it. After a good cardio blast, we came upon the entrance and parking lot.

 The reason I call it a "stone structure" is because for the life of us, we could not figure out what it was. Here is a recap of our conversation. Who actually who said what doesn't matter but it went something like this:

Hillary - hey look at that. What are all those people doing?
Ann: I dunno, weird. Must be some sort of procession or something.
Hillary: do you think they are coming or going?
Ann: I dunno. Looks like they are waiting for something.
Hillary and Ann (collectively): hmmmmmm

Then, about 5 minutes later we realized - hey, its a church! They are going to church! Wow, we had a good laugh about that one. It really took us a long time to realize what in the hell these people were doing. I'm going to chalk it up to not having any idea what day it was.

We snapped a few photos and also went to a museum. This one was free which is good for us since we are such museum snobs. We continued exploring and taking pictures.

I was fascinated by what looks to me as cherry tree blossoms.

Not my best photo but I am working on my panoramics.

We then climbed to the top of a tower to get an even better view of the city. There were many many stairs and the tower itself was really old. Lots of stones and cobwebs and stuff.

I like this panoramic shot. Check out the french woman in it. Totally looks the part. This is what I expected french woman to look like. What was amazing about this woman is that she walked up the stairs and all throughout the museum cobblestone area in 3-4 inch heels. I have no idea how she did it.

After hiking to the top of the world ( or so it seemed) we decided to visit an island near Cannes called St. Marguerite. It had an old fort on it which sounded cool to tour. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Being the fantastic navigators that we are, we got desperately lost  trying to find a fort on an island that was only 2.2 kilometers big. We seemed to walk every which way but the right one. We finally found the old fort but not before we had to climb a wicked amount of stairs. The picture below is only a fraction of what we climbed.

Waiting for us at the fort was another musem. We opted out of this one and stayed outside to enjoy the views and the sun. I realize that I don't actually have any pictures of the fort. It was big, boxy, creme in color - you can picture it. I've got to remember to take more relevant pictures.

We ended our day with a nice dinner and then stumbled back to our rooms once again like zombies. Perfect day!