Chapter 4- Coté d'Azur

MENTON, FRANCE
Early the next day, we finished breakfast and walked to the Geneva train station and took the 10:15 am train to Geneva airport. Our flight out was 12:40pm aboard Swiss Air. We landed at Nice Airport and then it took another hour by the time we got our car, an orange (crossover)Renault Captur with SatNav. Unlike the British vehicle, our voice system on the GPS didn't function. We weren't sure initially sure about the car, but it was nice and spacious inside yet small enough to navigate the very narrow roads of southern France. So we headed east from Nice airport to Menton, the "Pearl of France" just beside the Italian border.

Menton, with a population of 30,000, was once administered by the Princes of Monaco until the French Revolution and Emperor Napoleon. The city and region then passed to control of Sardinia (Italy) for ten years and then back to France and finally controlled by the French Vichy government. On September 8, 1944 a Canadian and US Special Service Force liberated the city. Indeed it is the perfect place to journey out to all points along the Mediterranean. Even Queen Victoria vacationed here in 1882.

We drove close along the coast, but most of the time we were high above the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful and scenic views. We arrived at our hotel, Prince de Galles located just 500 feet from the Mediterranean Sea. The hotel was built in 1865 and was once the former barracks for the carabiniere of the princes of Monaco. This 4 star 63 room hotel had excellent service, with a breakfast room at an

added cost, a bar and an outside restaurant. Amazing! It was very warm weather all week. After settling in to our room on the main floor we decided to take a walk along Menton beach promenade. We had dinner at one of the Promenade open restaurants. I had ravioli and Pat had a pizza. We also enjoyed 2 cafe creme and a giant banana split! We then walked to the large casino and played a a game and won 30 euros and 50 centimes, about $45 Canadian. Later in the night we walked back to the hotel, relaxed, and went to bed at 11:45pm.

The next morning at 8:30am we woke and had breakfast at the Vanilla Cafe, a lovely patisserie a few minutes walk from the hotel, all decorated in white interior, with dozens of cakes, pastries, tarts and crepes. It was regarded as the best in Menton and you could tell from the people. We enjoyed une cereal mielle, croissant natural and a chocolate croissant all with our traditional cafe au lait. Yum.

MONTE CARLO, MONACO
Afterwards, we drove to Monaco, navigating through the windy streets along the coast. It was a wondrous drive but also with some carefulness because there was only two lane traffic, with scooters and motorbikes zooming in and out of traffic, often in between lanes! We passed through a beautiful town called Eze and finally we arrived at the massive fortress called Lle Rocher, or the rock in the Principality of Monaco. We parked on the 7th floor of this massive parking garage and had to take the elevator up to the top. What a sight. We saw the Roman style Oceanographic Museum. Then we walked to the Grand Palais where the Royal Family of the Grimaldi's of Monaco live and work. We took a tour of the 16th century palace at 1:00pm, saw the state rooms and Throne Room where the Princes of Monaco were crowned.Outside of the palace we could see the entire Principality of Monaco, the old and new city with rich yachts, palatial homes and and beautiful Mediterranean waterfront. What a site it was!

In the late afternoon we drove to Monte Carlo to see the famous Monte Carlo casino, which was a harrowing journey. But we finally walked through the palatial casino and visited the area and the park. The people and visitors alike were very rich, well dressed, fashionable and even very young women were driving Rolls Royce's, Mercedes Benz and fancy sports cars. The wealth was awe inspiring and pervasive. Throughout Europe especially in the South of France we

saw young women pushing prams often with 2-3 children, everyone was young, the cities are full of vitality and there were expensive Audi, BMW's and Ferrari's everywhere. I was utterly blown away. We returned to our car at 5:00pm and arrived back in Menton at 6:00pm. I went down and had a drink on the patio while Pat rested in the room. By 7:30pm we we had dinner of salmon and chicken on the Menton Promenade. We played a game at the casino (30 Euros) and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

NICE, FRANCE
Tuesday June 21 at 9:30am. We woke and again had breakfast the Vanilla Cafe. I had Chaussons au pomme and Pat had Croissant Chocolat/Croissant Natural and we both had a cappuccino. Next we were off to Nice at 11:45 am and drove along the Cote D'Azur. We arrived at a parking lot in Nice and walked through the fresh open

market filled with flowers and fruit fruit and vegetables and local hand made merchandise from Provence. Nice is France's 5th largest city of 344,000 people. It was a beautiful afternoon with blue skies and warm weather. We bought some gifts and then walked down the 7 km long and famous Promenade des Anglais. The water was perfectly azure and there were thousands of people who lined the street, with live performances and sports activities. We saw the all the great hotels lining the Promenade and the most famous palatial Hotel Negresco. Later, we went down to the sea and walked in the warm aquamarine water. The photos were outstanding. NOTE: 24 days later (July 14/16) on the exact spot where we walked along the Promenade, an Islamic terrorist crashed his truck into crowds of people)

We then walked along narrow streets and saw at least 50 restaurants, boulangeries and patisseries. We found a nice boulangerie to eat and

enjoyed fruit juice, cheese/tomato/lettuce pannine and tomato cheese salad. We walked back to the car and drove to Menton through crazy motorcycle drivers and windy streets. At one point a motorcycle with his passenger was trying to get between our car (inches apart) and a huge lorry on a two lane street. We arrived at the hotel at 5:00pm and watched Northern Ireland VS, Germany Euro 2016 football match on television.

MENTON, FRANCE
On Wednesday June 22, we woke at 8:00am, had a traditional breakfast buffet of croissant, fruit, yogurt, cereal and two cafe au laits. at the hotel and sat out on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea front. Awesome views! After, we walked along the Promenade to the old city of Menton "City of Lemons" where we visited a lemon shop in the boutique shopping street where they made lemon soaps, lemon shampoos, and purchased two freshly squeezed lemonades-les citronades. We then continued our journey through frescoed buildings, ancient narrow and colourful streets, old churches and historic plazas to the beautiful vistas overlooking the old part of Menton.

Here, we stood on the famous Le Bastion (1636), walked around the Le Basilique St. Michel Archangel, and Le Monastere de L'Annonciade. This medieval town was founded by pirates and is the

warmest place in France. I could stay in this place forever!

The weather was beautiful and warm (28 degrees). We finally wandered around Les Marché des Halles, picked up some gifts, walked back to the hotel, dressed in our swimwear and sat on the lovely stone covered seaside in a little corner just across from the hotel. We planted a little umbrella we bought at the market, swam in the warm aquamarine water. After 2 hours at the beach we returned to the hotel, enjoyed a glass of wine in the hotel's courtyard where I read the New York Times. Later we returned to our favorite Promenade restaurant at 6:00pm where I had a cheese burger and Pat had risotto with vegetables +2 glasses of wine, tea and coffee. At

7:30pm we walked back to the hotel, watched some TV (British news) and we were both in bed by 11:00pm.

CANNES, FRANCE
Well, the next day Thursday June 23 was British Referendum Day (Brexit) in the United Kingdom, and the vote was to withdraw from the European Union, a historic date in British history. We saw it all on television. We woke at 8:15am, had breakfast buffet on the terrace and then headed out to Cagnes-Sur-Mer and the Renoir Museum. But first, we wanted to drive to Cannes, an hour's drive west of Menton. However we didn't find Cannes as nice as Nice. We parked the car and walked along the Promenade and saw all the famous festival events. It was packed with visitors, wealthy and the media, as there was a large social media trade show happening. We saw the famous Cannes Film Festival Office in a large Trade and Convention Centre and then walked along the long sandy beach with many topless women. Pat paid 50 centimes to go to the outside self-cleaning toilet.

CAGNES-SUR-MER, FRANCE
As we journeyed back to Menton along the coast, we took our drive to a lovely little town of 47,000 called Cagnes-sur-Mer at a place called Les Collettes. There, we visited the famous Impressionist master painter Auguste Renoir's (1841-1919) old villa, now a famous museum. It was a wonderful walk around his magnificent property with a superb panorama view all the way to Cap d'Antibes. Renoir spent his last 12 years living here, completing his sculptures and painting his very last art works. We visited his studio, and the rooms were filled with his 14 paintings, photographs, personal items and original furnishings. His outside gardens were filled with an old olive and lemon grove. It was certainly a memorable day out.

MENTON, FRANCE
As we travelled back to Menton, we got lost and ended up taking the autoroute for a while. Because of this delay we missed seeing the Perfumerie at a beautiful old town called Eze, just 20 minutes outside of Menton. It would have to be something to come back to another time. We finally arrived at out Hotel at 6:20pm where we rested and got ready for supper at a Promenade restaurant in Menton. Pat had a chicken burger and I had a lasagna/salad and chocolate parfait, with two cappuccinos. Later, we walked back to the hotel, saw a nice sunset and we were in bed by 11:00pm.

The next morning Friday June 24 we heard on television about the result of the Brexit vote. 52% in favour of leaving the European Union. PM David Cameron spoke at 8:20pm and by 11:00am he had stepped down as Prime Minister of the UK. We had breakfast again at the Vanilla Cafe in the very hot sun (30 degrees)at 10:00am. This time we enjoyed Coifuture d"Abricot/Pain au chocolat/Creme croissant and two cappuccinos. After, we walked to La Marché (market) and purchased Camembert cheese, a baguette, two small bottles of white wine, green grapes and then walked back to our hotel in the very hot day with beautiful blue skies.

VENTIMIGLIA, ITALY
At 1:00pm we took a 25 minute car drive from Menton to Italy at a town called Ventimiglia, right on the Italian riviera. We passed through a suburb called Latte, and the found parking right near the beach. There, we put up put up our umbrella and we ate our baguette, cheese and wine and grapes. While I only had shorts and a shirt on, I decided to take a swim in the very warm and salty Mediterranean. After lounging in the sun for an hour we drove back at 3:30pm through the coastal towns and arrived back at the hotel in Menton France at 4:00pm.

MENTON, FRANCE
We relaxed at the hotel and decided to go to the beach one last time. It was very busy that late afternoon and we swam and sunbathed for 30 minutes. Later we had a 7:00pm dinner at the hotel's restaurant, the

"Petit Prince" where we had salad, veal in a tomato sauce, gnocchi, and two glasses of white/red wine. For dessert we enjoyed apple crumble with ice cream and a raspberry tart with cream. We ended this superb meal at 9:00pm with a cappuccino and an americano. That night we readied ourselves for the return trip home.

On Saturday June 25 we drove to Nice, boarded the Air Canada flight to Montreal and then flew to Vancouver and finally on to Penticton.

What a fabulous vacation we had. Every moment was a thrill and we will return to Europe very soon. We hope you enjoyed our trip with us in these pages. Au revoir! A bientot! I'd love to know what you think. Tell us about it.