St. Tropez

St. Tropez is also in "the book" but I don't really know why. It isn't a beach town, but it does have a lovely port. It does have beaches, but they are several miles away.

St. Tropez is difficult to reach and not really worth the effort.

Lunch in Cannes

Cannes, France is home of the famed film festival, and the home of the Carlton Hotel. The Carlson was featured in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief." The hotel is in "the book" so of course I went in for visit. It looks different than I expected based on the movie, but it is a very pretty hotel.


And the beach is much smaller than I expected. But, this was our best weather day of the entire trip so we ate lunch on the beach at a restaurant that Brad Pitt alledgedly ate at.

Bridges and Tunnels

We drove the Grande Corniche from Nice, over Monaco. We then drove through Menton, along the Mediterranean, to Italy. It was Andy and Jill’s first time in Italy – new country alert for them.

We found a Mediterranean café and had some proper Italian food – lasagna and spaghetti.

We decided to take the highway back to France. The A10 in Italy connects to the A8 in France. This road is a series of tunnels and bridges. Very high bridges! We never drove on normal road. It was an odd and unique experience. I admit to being anxious, probably because I wasn’t driving. And it was raining. I kept thinking of Princess Grace and her horrible death.

Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence - in "the book."

I was very conflicted on this one because I am a big fan of Rick Steves, and he said Aix is not a must see. It doesn’t have ruins, or significant museums. But it was a quaint town so we drove around, found a main thoroughfare and had a fabulous dinner.

Les Baux-de-Provence

Les Baux de Provence - in “the book.”

The very top part of Baux is known as the Dead City….ruins from long ago. It was very difficult for me to imagine living there – now or when it was built. I also can’t imagine how they built it. I think I can guess why they built here – easy to defend, and…..

The views in this area are breathtaking. But the wind was intense. Andy threw a rock and the wind brought it right back to him.

The lower part of Baux is a restored village filled with quaint shops and little restaurants. I did some shopping – hoping that part of the money I spend in places like this goes to helping keep it for future generations.

Baux is out of the way, but I am glad we made the trip.

Vincent Van Gogh was in a mental institution near here.

Arles Amphitheatre

Arles Amphitheatre - in “the book.”

It is pretty easy to find a huge coliseum / amphitheater / arena in a small French town. Arles has many Roman ruins, but the coliseum is the main feature. And…the ruins are in a compact area thereby limiting the amount of walking required.

The coliseum is being restored, but it is in really good shape considering its age. I am so amazed at what people built thousands of years ago without the technology we have today. The coliseum has many creepy, dark alcoves and hiding spots. I would not want to be there in the dark.

The other impressive ruin in Arles is the Ancient Theatre. The stage is now very modern, but most of the seating is original. Lying around the area are some of the original columns and other artifacts from Roman times.

Arles is also known as the city where Vincent van Gogh lived and worked near the end of his life. He apparently painted many of his masterpieces here, but the local museum does not have any original art; so we skipped it. Van Gogh was living in Arles when he went mad and cut off his ear.

We visited a local cathedral. It is not an ornate cathedral – pretty plain actually – except for the beautiful stained glass. One section of the cathedral contains boxes with remains. I saw a skull. I could have skipped this part.

Vieux Nice

Vieux Nice = Old Nice

In "the book."

This is the type of neighborhood where you want to get lost. Don't use a map. Just wander around and see where the winding streets take you. You can't really get lost because of the geography, so just go with the flow!

We walked through a market on the edge of Vieux Nice.



I stopped in a chuch that was built in 1640. I lit a candle there for the baby of a colleague. (This one's for you Kaylee Hope!)

I saw maybe a dozen art studio/stores. I love to buy from local, struggling artists. I didn't buy anything though because I saw too many beautiful things and couldn't decide.

I saw pretty fountains and was mooned by a pigeon who was bathing in one of them.


I ate passion fruit gelato.

I ate in a Dutch restaurant. (Yep, this was a bit strange in this part of France, but it was tasty.)


We climbed up to Castle Hill and saw beautiful panoramic views of the Mediterranean. We also stopped and played in a playground.

We saw a Shiba Inu as we were walking down the hill. He was just as stuck-up as my Shiba. I always miss my pup when I am traveling. (My prayer to all of the missing Shibas and humans in Japan.)

Mediterranean

I love the Mediterranean!

Yes, this is the entire post.

Boscolo Exedra hotel in Nice

I don't usually write posts about hotels that I stay in, but this one is special.

It is the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in while in France.
There are benches in the elevators.
There is a spa in the hotel; with pool, sauna and steam room.
There is a pool table (billiards) in a room off of the lobby.
The door handle is a rose.
Bathroom has a bidet.
We have two balconies (ledges) - one off of the bathroom and one off of the main room.
We are four blocks (approx) from the Mediterranean.
We have four different fragrance options for bath products (shampoo, etc.)


This hotel allows dogs, so we also have a barking dog two doors down. I have a dog and love her to death. I like how much French people love their dogs, but I don't really like dogs barking in my hotel.

DH and Andy have their own room, which isn't quite as nice as ours. They only have one balcony; and their bathroom is separated from the main room by a curtain, not a door.

I think this hotel is in the top 2 of the nicest places I've ever stayed. Number 1 is still the Halekulani in Oahu, Hawaii.

Monte Carlo

I've been to Monte Carlo, Monaco once before; but this was the first trip with the kids. My previous trip to Monte Carlo was about 4 hours long - it was a port on a cruise.

It was raining so this was a good day for fun, family, indoor activity - an aquarium. Great aquarium! And it is built on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, so it has awesome views.

I like turtles. Big, sea turtles. Their main tank had one, lonely turtle. We hit it off right away!

I spent a very long time watching a little fish pick rocks up in his mouth, move them to a new location, and deposit them in a mound. He was creating a hiding spot, I think. He was constantly looking around for predators. I assume there weren't any in his tank, so I assume it was an instinct thing.

Andy had a good time scaring the clown fish. They would all scramble into their protective sea creature when he would wave his umbrella in front of the tank.

Yes, we are both easily amused.

We also drove around Monte Carlo....sort of lost, but it isn't really possible to get lost. The sea is on one side - so don't drive that way; and the mountains are the other geographical feature.

I picked out a lovely yacht in their port, for after I win the lottery.

We also poked around in some of the expensive stores, like Louis Vuitton. Jill tried on a lovely, 3100 euro leather jacket. It was the softest leather I've ever felt, but not really in our budget.

I purchased a bottle of my favorite French champagne. It is chilling in the mini fridge in our room.

Eze

Eze is a medieval town in France between Nice and Monaco. And, it is in "the book."

I applaud the courage and determination it must have taken all of those years ago to build this town on a cliff. What a huge challenge, but worth the view and location! It was cloudy when we arrived so we couldn't see the Mediterranean, but I can image what it should look like.

Eze reminded me of Mont Saint Michel - narrow, winding streets that were not built for high heels. I wasn't wearing high heels because I know better!

Eza had a really cool garden.


There are many cute, quaint little shops on/in Eze. I have mixed feelings about that part of tourism, on a site that is so important it was included in "the book." I suppose selling stuff to us tourists helps everyone here financially, but I didn't go to Eze to buy stuff.

My little rant - I was reminded in Eze of something about France that drives me crazy -- the lack of public restrooms. Very frustrating! But a very nice man who runs the Eze gas station (yep, there is only one) let me use his bathroom. We "rewarded" his generosity by buying a bottle of water from him that we didn't really need.

A change in plans

I like frequent flier miles. I use them to take international vacations with my family. By international I do NOT mean Canada. (Love my neighbor to the north, by the way.) I save my miles for as long as it take to get tickets to Europe and Japan.

I cashed in 180,000 miles nearly one year ago for three tickets to Tokyo. A friend woke me up Friday, March 11th (my birthday, by the way) to tell me there was an earthquake in Japan. I rolled over and went back to sleep. Japan has earthquakes - no big deal.

I woke up 30 minutes later and turned on the tv to watch the news. It was a huge deal! Narita airport was closed and tsunami warnings were issued for Hawaii.

I was sad. Sad first and foremost for those affected by this tragedy. And sad for me and my family. What was going to happen to our vacation? A trip we planned for nearly one year.

I've never tried to plan an international trip on short notice. It isn't as stressful as I anticipated. I checked major cities in Europe to see where we could go with the minimum number of Delta miles. I came up with London, Paris, Nice, Venice and Athens. I then checked the weather forecasts for all cities. I really wanted to go to Venice, until I learned it was supposed to rain every day. Every day.

We are going to Nice! The French Riviera isn't going to be warm enough for beach and swimming time, but we will still have fun.

Andy is very sad we aren't going to Japan. We made him watch the news to help him understand why we made the right decision to go somewhere else.