Glittering Monaco

Hey, let’s take a train to Monaco this morning! We’ll ride along the Low Corniche to see for ourselves those tiny villages nestled along the the Cote d’Azur with harbors sharing space with some really enormous yachts! 

And then we'll arrive in Monaco where even the train station floors and walls are made of marble. (Later we would notice that public trash cans, tree grates, and benches were matching and tastefully decorative. And even later we would read that this place has the highest per capita income in the world. Well no wonder then.)

Monaco is French but not exactly in France. After getting a bit disoriented after emerging from the train station - a situation that for us always involves lots and lots of walking! and of course discovering some lovely areas (but we never did stumble upon Monte Carlo!) - we made our way at last up a tall mountain to the sumptuous palace of the Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of the Principality of Monaco. From that breath-taking vantage point we could look down upon a larger harbor with even bigger yachts. Our pal Rick Steves says “lots and lots of yachts” - mais oui!

And later, as we savored an especially yummy dinner back in Nice, we played the “Happiness is” game. With our families and friends back home as our treasured “givens,” we threw out ideas about today.

Happiness is:

• The Cote d’Azur looking very azure today. 
• Ordering our meal and wine in French. 
• French bread - in France! 
• French wine - in France!
• Asking for directions in French and pretending we knew what they’re telling us in return (actually not such a useful strategy for finding the bus back to Nice).
• Actually finding the bus to take us back to Nice, even though it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole way as we once again experienced the winding Low Corniche.
• Watching a boule match in Villefranche-sur-Mer (um, nice view of the ocean, guys!) played by young men while a much older man watched and clapped.
• Reading street signs and making up what they mean based on our teensy bit of French and lots of imagination.
• Experiencing French Riviera and pinching ourselves to keep believing it's true!

A Day of Wonder - Nice, France

When your daylight hours begin at midnight because the sun is already up in the sky and you’ve flown across so many time zones so that it now registers as 7 a.m., you know you’re in Europe! And it’s how you begin a long marvel-filled day.

We landed in Dusseldorf, Germany to spend several hours in the quiet, immaculately clean, precisely ordered airport where everything was in, well, German - and oh, how we’d practiced our French! Yet soon we found ourselves on an AirBerlin flight gazing down in awe over the massive, rocky Alpes Martimes to quickly find ourselves landing practically right onto the sparking, fabled, exciting Mediterranean Sea in Nice, France!

It’s warm! It’s sunny! It’s 75 degrees! Shedding our travel jackets and changing into sandals, we moved from plan A to B and even C when we learned of the bus strike, but we eventually got to our hotel, exclaiming in wonder at the sparking Mediterranean out our taxi windows.

Exploring the city on foot was a marvel - the Sea is right here with its fabled rocky beach, sun-loving clothing-optional fans, four-mile long Promenade des Anglais, quaintly beautiful buildings. And into the old city Vieux Nice, the narrow winding stone-paved streets bringing charm and exclamation around every turn. We stopped for socca (chickpea crepe) and un verre du vin rouge, found a torte au blette pastry to save for breakfast, and thoroughly enjoyed two scoops of gelato in a place we’ll never be able to find again! Not a bad dinner for our first night in France.

Oh, what a joy to enjoy the day the full day through!

Off to France!

Today I leave on another adventure, this time exploring France from the Mediterranean coast to the English Channel - and many things in between - that is, as much as can be squeezed in while still savoring it!

I'm traveling once again with my friend Diana, who has been a part of both Italy and Scandinavia trips over the past few years. We're each a bit intrepid, and together we feel we can handle whatever comes our way. And there's always plenty of that on these journeys! We've been learning to speak a little French, but are pretty sure as soon as we get there we probably won't know any at all!

Itinerary, in brief:
Nice - on the French Riviera for a few days
Avignon - in Provence for three nights
Paris! for five or six days or a week!
Bayeaux - in Normandy for a day or two
Amboise - in the Loire Valley for a day

Need to run catch a plane! Au revoir, mes amis!