Nice Monte Carlo and back to Paris

Tuesday 16th October (Day trip to Monte Carlo)

This morning we all took the train to Monte Carlo where we were to be met by a guide and taken on a walking tour. She however, did not turn up so we hopped on another bus and went to visit the Royal Palace. Due to our lack of language skills and a less then helpful bus driver, we actually overshot the palace and continued on around Monte Carlo before working out where we should have gotten off! Eventually got off at the palace, passing many great yachts and apartments, and made it just in time to see the changing of the guard. The palace is high on the hill overlooking Monte Carlo with magnificent views. Paul and I had lunch here, then back down the hill to meet the coach for a trip back to our hotel in Nice, via Eze which is a medieval village perched high on the top of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean. This was supposed to be a little stop for us, but the driver was not aware of this proposed stop and continued around the narrow winding road to Nice. Paul, Grant, Di and myself went into town for dinner. Had a lovely meal in a very busy open air mall which was closed to traffic. We were entertained by a young man playing an electric guitar, with a developmentally delayed boy with a tin can next to him, asking for money. The boy had the most gorgeous little dog with him who sat patiently for around 2 hours, albeit barking at every other dog in the area. I noticed that one lady instead of giving money in the can, gave the dog a can of dog food! We weakened and made a donation as the guy playing was excellent. He was very grateful. There are a number of gypsies in the area and we have been warned about our bags. When we got back to our hotel later that evening a woman in our group had had her wallet taken from inside her zipped up handbag. She was most upset as it had all her credit cards in it, as well as her drivers licence. Paul has been wearing our important documents around his neck, and I had separated out my credit cards from Day 1 so they did not all get stolen. Just imagine what a nuisance it would be to have to cancel all of them!

Wednesday 17th October (Day trip to Canne, Antibes & Grasse)

My birthday (Pam)!!!!!!!!! A full day tour of Provence with a local guide which included a visit to a local vineyard where the owner produced his wine in huge 50 litre glass containers which were left out in the elements for around 2 years, before being bottled. Very different to how we do it in Australia. Onto Cannes, and then to Antibes which is a medieval walled city by the sea, where we had a beer, but no shopping as it was lunch time! A few miles further up the coast we pulled into a lovely restaurant for lunch overlooking the Mediterranean. The girls on the tour were fascinated by a hunky looking guy in short swimmers (who spent some time arranging his “bits”) before going for a run along the beach. We all clapped and wolf whistled which prompted my dear husband to tie a knotted hanky onto his head (it was hot), strip to his singlet and mimic the hunk in the immortal frames of Chariots of Fire running along the beach in slow motion.!!!! It is probably important to point out at this stage that all of the people of the tour are more than comfortably well off and the women on the tour (me being the exception) think that buying Prada is an everyday event! After the hilarity of this event we were off to Grasse, which is world famous for its perfumes. We visited the Fragonard factory which was very interesting but as I did not like any of the perfumes (and my bags are overweight) my money stayed in my pocket. Tonight we all had a lovely buffet dinner on the roof of our hotel overlooking the lights of Nice – absolutely gorgeous. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and out came a series of lovely little French cakes complete with 3 candles. I had a lovely day – there would be something drastically wrong with me if I did not appreciate a birthday on the Cote d’Azur of Nice.

Thursday 18th October (Nice to Paris)

This morning we slept in which was wonderful and were then collected by our coach at 12md for our flight back to Paris (Orly airport), where we were transferred to the Concorde du Louvre Hotel. The room was typically smallish being in the centre of Paris, but very comfortable and overlooked the Louvre. From our window we could see some of the exhibits in this magnificent museum! Had a great meal with Marty, Naomi, Grant and Di at the restaurant across the road called Cafe Du Roc then off to bed.