Day Trip on the French Riviera

After spending some time around Nice and Cannes, Rebecca and I decided to do a day trip around the French Riviera. We found a local tour guide that would drive us around the coastline, stopping in various locations. Here is our first stop outside of Nice. 

It was just so beautiful that I tried to do a self portrait!

Our first big stop was the perfume, soap, and cosmetics factory of Fragonard. We were able to do a small tour of the factory, but were not allowed to take many photos.  Here is a old drum that was used to extract the oils from flowers.

They had a number of displays set up that were all for show. I don't think they had any function.

We were able to see some of the soaps being made. This huge machine is squeezing out a pink tube of soap.

Then this guy takes a foot long section of the tub and places it under this press. He was pressing the tube into a flower petal shape. So that's how they do it! At this point I was yelled at because we were not allowed to photograph the workers.

After the tour, we were given a chance to smell all their perfumes. And of course, we were all convinced we needed to buy some. I am now the proud owner of Belle Cherie!

After we were done, we headed to the medieval village of Eze. It was built in the twelfth century and is built on a high cliff overlooking the Mediterranean sea. The village is very small, but there are a number of restaurants, art galleries, shops, and hotels.

The stone buildings were very close together...

...and there were paths leading in multiple directions everywhere you looked.

It was extremely charming.

Here is Rebecca walking up one of the paths.

Some of the shops were so tiny.

There were also archways.

Here is a picture looking out over the sea.

I particularly liked this cactus and the supports that had been put in to help it out.

Just beautiful.

After Eze, we headed on to Monaco, which is considered the second smallest country in the world. Here is the Saint Nicholas Cathedral where Grace Kelly is buried.

I particularly liked this sign when you walked into the church.

I have to say that Monaco was rather weird. It has a Disneyland feel about it. Everything was painted in pastel colors, had a sort of fake façade, and the streets were really clean. Here is a picture of the palace. Doesn't it look like Disneyland!?

From the palace, there was a nice view of the harbour area.

Here is one of the popular tourist streets.

Here is one of the government buildings.

We also got to see the Monte Carlo Casino. It has featured in a few Bond films.

The cars outside the casino were rather impressive.

Money, money, money!

After a short time in Monaco, we headed to Saint-Paul de Vence for lunch which was about 45 minutes away. It was an absolutely beautiful medieval town. We spent our lunch time sitting under a big tree and taking in the scenery.

The town had a similar feel to Eze. The place is famous for attracting many artists and has many different studios selling artwork.

There were also nice sculptures throughout the village. Here is a very large bronze cat of some sort.

After lunch, we set off for Antibes which is known for housing some of the largest yachts in the region. What I found funny was I thought the yachts in Cannes were big.....but these things were huge!

They were certainly beautiful. Many of them had deckhands polishing the railings while we walked by. This baby is currently available to buy or rent and has its own website. It can be yours for only 125 million Euros or rented for 650,000 Euros per week. Bargain!

I liked this one with all the scuba gear on the left (hard to see).

And the scary part was....there was over two dozen of them! Crazy!

We also walked around the rest of the harbour as they were having a big sailing competition in the area. There were many nice sail boats on display.

We finished by walking along a stone wall around the city.

It was a long day, but we were able to see a lot. It was a great trip around the French Riviera!

Hello Cannes and Nice

After getting back from Arizona, I headed out for a three week holiday starting in the South of France. My friend Rebecca joined me for the first leg of the trip. Our first stop Cannes!

We started off the holiday on a high note eating our first meal of many great ones. Being so close to Italy, most of the restaurants served both Italian and French food.

We spent our few days there walking around the city and doing a lot of window shopping.

The buildings were also lovely with all the pretty iron work on the windows and balconies.

We also walked along the boardwalk to take in the views of the ocean. It was interesting because most of the beach was divided by fencing with each hotel/restaurant owning a portion of sand. Not very pretty if you ask me.

The weather was great, not too hot or too cold.

We had just arrived a few days after the Cannes Film Festival and some of the displays were still up. Here are the stairs all the famous people walk up during the Festival.

The other thing that we noticed about Cannes....all the money! There were nice cars everywhere.

Ferrari anyone? Not enough cash, well don't you worry. You don't have to buy one. This one was renting for 2,000 Euros a day. No big deal.

And because the cars were so extravagant, you would often find tons people standing around them. Many people were taking photos of this one.

But the money didn't stop there. Yacht anyone?????

The marina was stocked full of them. It was unbelievable.

And these things were not small. I particularly liked this one with the two wave runners next to the lounge chair, with sunblock displayed nicely next to rolled towels. And if you were wondering.... this is only the bottom deck of five! The 200 foot yacht has its own website (if you were wondering) and rents for $350,000 a week or you can just buy it for $59.5 million. Crazy town.

While I was on the dock, this yacht was backing in. There were about a dozen people watching from the shore to see million dollar yachts hit each other.

We also decided to visit Nice while we were there as it was only a 45 minute train ride away.  Here is the beach in Nice.

I was surprised there was no sand! Just big round rocks. And it made a really loud noise as the water crashed along them.

The water was absolutely beautiful. One of the locals told us that the water looked turquoise in color due to the rocks. The rocks are being smashed by the waves and the residue from the rocks gives it the milky color. Have no idea if it is true.

We also walked around the old town which was lovely and had tons of great shops.

You could buy different spices.

Or sea salts for your bath.

Soap was also very popular. I loved all the different colors.

And also bags of lavender could be purchased everywhere.

We also walked through a market and saw these strange little cactus.  They looked like someone had dyed all the flowers different colors!

The most surprising thing of the day was watching some movers unload boxes into a three story window. They would load everything onto a platform that would then move up the ladder. So that's how they do it! Genius.

Of course every window we walked by looked way too good.

And the candy shops piled high with sweets. I just loved the displays.

Towards the end of the day we walked by this courtyard with huge potted trees. I thought they were fun.

All in all, we had a great time in Nice and Cannes.