COTE D'AZUR, FRANCE

Wednesday, March 25th

I've wanted to see the Cote d'Azur and Provence for some time now. I had hoped that I could convince some friends to come with me, since Nick's gone. Unfortunately, people were busy or not that interested. I was shocked! It's only a 6 -hour drive or one hour flight from Venice. Since we don't have that much time left in Italy, I decided to try my first solo trip in Europe. 

It was raining on my drive out and when I arrived. Driving in a new city in the rain could have been a disaster; however, I had not just one but two GPS's. (And I only got lost a few times.:))

 I decided to do some indoor activities (aka shopping & Starbucks) on my one rainy day in Nice. The Cote d'Azur only has about 30 days of rain a year. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I got to see one of those days.;) 

I didn't have any dinner plans that night, so I bought a fresh sandwich on a baguette at the local grocery store, Monoprix. ( I love that grocery store!) I also bought some delicious dijon mustard and foie gras! Can't wait to taste those when Nick returns. 

Thursday, March 26th

I tried the website Viator, for the first time on this trip. I purchased a 3-hour bike tour of Nice and Old town. Our group met in front of the Opera house. I poked around the Cours Saleya market just before the tour.

Cours Saleya market in Old Town.

This area has been cleaned up in the past 12 years. Locals would not have recommended walking through this area at night. 

Matisse lived in a building with a view overlooking the Cours Saleya market. I can see why so many artists painted some of their best work while they lived here. 

I walked across the street to the Promenade Anglais - - literally the English walkway. The rich and fabulous rubbed elbows along this paved pathway lining the coastline, a century ago. Today it's where local tour guides meet their groups. :)

My tour group consisted of me, a young couple and old couple from Minnesota. We started our tour riding through Old Town.

The Opera building faces away from the beautiful beaches. Do you know why? The British aristocrats didn't want to get tan! They were living at the beach, and tried to avoid getting a tan! Ha! Supposedly, Greta Garbo made having a tan popular after accidentally getting tan while filming in Southern France. She returned to Paris with a glow, and the sun tan took off!

Next we rode down the Promenade to the Negresco building.

Romanian born, Henri Negrescu, wanted to build a sumptuous hotel for the wealthy people of Nice. He had to change his name and the hotel's name to Negresco because in French, Negrescu, translated to "Black butt." 

Finally, we biked over to castle hill for the grand views of Nice.

At the top of the hill is a Christian/Catholic cemetery next to a Jewish cemetery. You can pay 30,000 Euro for a nice plot of land here. And you have to have someone care for your gravesite after you've passed; otherwise, it will be given away! 

Not the best pic, but proof at least that I was in Nice!

Old Town below us

I couldn't believe how blue the water was! The day before, the water wasn't nearly this color while it was raining.

We rode back down to Old Town to finish our tour. Going down the hill was MUCH easier the the ride up. ;)

Nice is really a beautiful combination of France and Italy. There is french architecture with Italian colors. The food is primarily Italian, since Nice was once a part of Italy. 

Nice used to be called, "Nizza." which derived from the Greek goddess Nike. It was the town of victory because it was so well fortified and therefore, victorious! (until it wasn't) :) 

After the bike tour, I ate lunch at Marc du cafe just down the street from the bike rental. My tour guide decided to join me as well. :) She was Irish, her husband was from India, and they met in Nice, France. Haha! I laughed because she looked more like a Californian with her blonde hair and blue eyes, and I looked more Irish. People probably wouldn't believe us if we told them where we were both from.

We had a quick and yummy lunch. We both had this amazing sandwich! 

I had to finish it off with some gelato at Fennochio's. They have hundreds of flavors including: avocado, tomato, and lavender. I tried the chocolate/orange. It was good! But not as good as Italy's gelato. :)

By this point, it was getting dark. Were did the day go?! I stuck around the main square, Place Messena, to watch these strange statues turn on. The square used to be a bus station, parking lot, and Mcdonald's 10 years ago. Now, it's a beautiful park with art sculptures. There are 7 statues total; they're supposed to represent each continent working together harmoniously.

I walked back to the promenade mostly because I wanted to walk inside the Hotel Negresco. 

It was much farther than I remembered.

Men passing by would say, "Bonsoir, Rousse." At first, I thought people were mistaking me for someone else. "Who the heck is Rousse?" After googling it, I finally figured out it means "redhead." Ha! Add that to my repertoire of nicknames. :)

These chairs are all over Nice. You can't visit Nice without sitting in one of these to enjoy the view.

I made it to the Negresco. Better yet, I made it all the way inside. It wasn't long before someone ushered me out. I asked if I could take a picture of the chandelier. They told me, "no," and then said I could take one quick one. Haha! It's a little blurry because I was moving so fast. :)

I walked along the beach just after the sun had set. I'm still surprised this beach is so popular considering it is all rock! They were in the process of rebuilding the beach during the winter. 

This sculpture has been fairly controversial in Nice. The artist had to "trim" the sculptures lower body part because the women found it too vulgar. The artist made it very small to not insult anyone. Still, the statue was removed for several years. In 2011, it was placed in the square once again. This may be a sign of the times, but our tour guide also mentioned that he's known as having the "best ass in Nice."

I had walked past this fountain several times, and it hadn't been working. I finally caught it at the right time!

That night I had a reservation at Le Sejour Cafe around the corner from my hotel. It was the top rated restaurant in Nice. I ordered the foie gras for an appetizer and then seared tuna for the main. They were delicious. The tables were SO close together, I couldn't help overhear the conversations next to me. I was surrounded by mostly older, British couples and a young group of Malaysians (I'll explain later how I found that out.) The British couples all sounded SO snooty, except for the couple on my left. We struck up a conversation about the Germanwings plane that had just crashed in the Alps. There really aren't words to describe it, so we quickly moved onto British TV shows. We were all in shock that Jeremy Clarkson has been given the boot on Top Gear, AND Downton Abbey has been canceled! They filled me in on how most women in England don't like Jeremy Clarkson, but all men love him. In any case, the BBC has it's work cut out for them with their top shows possibly being canceled soon. I also learned a new British term, "Petrolhead." After I had brought up Top Gear, the woman asked if I was a petrolhead. Luckily, my assumption was right; It means someone that is interested in cars. The man leaned over and said, "It's a much better term than Gas head." Haha! As I left, the couple said, "You've really made our night," about 2 dozen times as I was leaving. I had to say, I felt the same way. They were so fun!

Friday, March 27th -

Early Friday, the driver of my second tour arrived at my hotel. (Hotel Boreal) His name was Rolph.
Then we picked up a Belgian woman that only spoke French, two older British ladies, a nervous Irish man, and a couple from Florida. They quickly became my "family" for the day. I hit it off with the older British ladies immediately. We laughed ALL day long.

We drove along a corniche to view Villefranche and Cap Ferrat. After our driver listed off about 30 celebrities that live here, I asked which celebrity didn't have a home on that peninsula. Elton John is selling his place for 26 million Euro's if anyone's interested. ;)

Villefranche

We stopped briefly for a free tour of the Fragonard Perfumerie. We were thrown into another groups "English" tour. I put that in quotation marks because no one could understand the sweet girl that led our tour group. She would say something, pause, then look at us to see who got her joke. I just smiled. The Irish man left the tour within 2 minutes. He started to make a scene at the back of the group, and unfortunately he was directing it toward me. "I can't understand a word she's saying! This wasn't on the agenda. I didn't pay for this." FINALLY, he just left the building to wait for us. Ha! The tour was only about 10 minutes, and led to the gift shop. The perfumes really did smell good. I got a small bottle of the Belle Cherie. 

Next, we were driven up to Eze Village. (Not Eze sur mer) This was the part I was most excited about on the tour.

I was so grateful to be traveling this time of year. There was hardly a person in the village. 

I need to learn how to paint this asap! 

I was slightly behind the Belgian woman on my walk up. She came back down and said that the garden on the top of the hill was closed in very broken English. I was SO disappointed. That was the main reason I wanted to see Eze. The garden at had breathtaking views from the top. I decided to walk up anyway. Sure enough it was open! They charged 6 Euro, and it only took 20 minutes to walk thru. By that time, the Belgian woman was long gone.

When I reached the top, the same cute group of Malaysians were there! I smiled at them and I could tell they recognized me as well. We struck up a conversation. They explained they were on spring break from school in the UK, but they were from Malaysia. I've met the nicest Malaysians on two different trips now. 

They offered to take my photo. 

Proof again that I was in Eze! I think you can sort of tell it was Eze. :):)

Running back down through the garden to reach the tour group...

Once we were all back together, the Irish man wouldn't let go of the perfumerie tour. He said he only wanted to see the village, not perfume. I can totally understand that. I asked him what he did while we were in the perfume tour. He said he walked up to the village and sat at a cafe. I asked if he had seen the garden. His response was, "What garden?" He made it to the cafe just inside the lowest part of Eze, and hadn't seen the rest of the village!! Haha! 

We all hopped back in the van and drove to Monoco. I could smell the money when we first arrived. :)

We parked under Jacque coast's aquarium. It really is a beautiful building. Across the street were the villa's of Prince Albert II sister. There were some beautiful old cars sitting out front. We were told that the Prince's nephew likes to collect old cars. 

We walked a bit farther to the church where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III were married and are both now buried.

This seagull was very bold. 

As we were standing here, we saw a pompous man walk by with his little dog. I've never seen a more perfect stereotype. He clearly looked like he belonged in Monoco. My British friends told me to hide so they had a chance at him. Haha! Then one said, "No, he's too old for me." Haha!

Rolph was describing how it's cheaper to take a helicopter for Monagascs that driving or flying to Nice. Ha! 

Royal Palace

Almost all of Monaco in the picture.

Our group from left to right: Eunice, Greg, Marylynn, Nicolas, Marie, me, and the Belgian lady. (I don't think I ever found out what her name was.)

The Irishman and the Belgian woman drove back because they only had the half-day tour. The rest of us went for lunch. We were given time to eat and wander, but we just ate and laughed instead. 

Marie was a neurologist in Florida, and her boyfriend, Nicolas, was a anesthesiologist. They didn't even look like they could've been my age! I couldn't believe it. 

After lunch, I wanted to get a photo with one of the guards. I waited for an opportune moment while he wasn't directed traffic. His response after I asked was, "No, it is STRICTLY forbidden....ok, just one." Haha! 

We decided to walk in the church on our way back to meet our tour guide.

On our way back to the car, we saw a few of the Prince's Nephew's cars. They pulled them into the aquarium parking lot to keep them running before driving them around Monaco. I'm pretty sure I saw one of the sons of the Princess. 

We had a great ride together. It was so much fun getting to know my group. 

That night I tried Vintg4. I still don't know how to pronounce that. :) I had a hamburger. (You have to say it with a thick, French accent.) It was delicious! 

Saturday, March 28th