France 2016

Bonjour! Well my school French classes and recent U3A refresher lessons helped a little bit during our 3 day sojourn in the French Riviera. The locals may have had trouble with my accent, but between their English and my French and a lot of pointing in the bakeries and at menus, we survived. We couldn't believe that the first place we found to have lunch in France was below an Aussie pub! You might have to click on the photo to read the orange writing on the rooftop!

Our first hotel over the border in France was near the mouth of the  Rhône River in the city of Arles - our hotel was was up a very narrow, one-way cobblestoned lane way (see top left photo of collage at left), but right behind an arena that was constructed by the Romans in 90AD and was built to house 20,000 spectators - we wondered where that many people could have come from back then! Another nearby structure was built in the first century BC. The mind boggles. The Ligurians lived in Arles dating back to 800 BC - then the Romans arrived centuries later, in 123 BC. 

The painter Vincent Van Gogh lived here in Arles for a few years in 1888 and painted over 300 of his trademark Provence paintings during his stay in this city before cutting of his ear!

Here at Arles I tried a local Pastis (aniseed aperitif recommended by my chiropractor Alan) and thoroughly enjoyed my bucket of mussels steamed in white wine and garlic. Delicieux!

Ancient city architecture

Rhône River

Marseille, France

From here it was off to Marseille for lunch where it was breezy and cool, and the traffic was nasty. We then had a drive through the main streets of busy Cannes (no sign of George Clooney or any of our mates) before heading onto our next hotel in the French Alps overlooking the Mediterranean. Murray did a great job driving in the narrow, winding roads of the medieval villages where we stayed or visited, and through the milling crowds attending the Cannes Film Festival. We couldn't work out why so many photographers were out and about in Cannes until we saw signage advertising the Cannes Film Festival - we managed to drive through during the festival without even realising. 

The next two nights were spent in a town only minutes from the medieval walled cities of St Paul de Vence and Saint Jeannet. We parked outside St Paul De Vence and enjoyed a walk though the quaint cobblestoned alleyways which must tell stories from such long ago! Then we drove into St Jeannet - pity we didn't realise how narrow the roadways were until we nearly got stuck and had to backtrack! Yikes. 

Nice

After 2 days in our mountain spa hotel we continued our route towards the Italian border by heading down the mountains for a drive along the Côte D'Azur. Breakfast was in Nice where we also took a walk by the Mediterranean Sea - the water was a tad cold, but I managed to dip my feet in! The beach was made of smooth stones rather than lovely sand like our beaches or those of beautiful Destin, Florida - the shingle beach made it very difficult to walk on without shoes. The scenery as we wound along the coast was absolutely stunning though - our cameras were in overdrive. We kept stopping just to look at the view.  

For Eric - Murray doing a Lewis and Clark on the Côte D'Azur

Preparations for Grand Prix in Monaco

When we reached Monaco we couldn't work out why we saw so many police and lots of road closures - this time the disruptions were due to preparations for the Grand Prix due to be held just over a week later on Sunday 29th May. Murray was put to the test once again. As we drove along the winding, mountainous roads around Monaco, we didn't have to stretch our minds too much to see how Princess Grace of Monaco could have easily lost control of her car's steering (she had a mild stroke while driving) in that long ago accident in 1982 where she lost her life. 

Monaco marked the end of our France travels, so we handed the rental car in, said 'au revoir' to France,  and caught a train to Genoa where we changed trains, and hurtled on to our next stop in Italy…ah, belissimo.