We left Florence as we always did - EARLY! I was particulary excited about this part of the trip as I was finally going to be in France and test my very elementary french skills! Being July and HOT, I was also looking forward to some beach time!
Our first stop this morning was in Pisa - famous for it's leaning tower. This was a pure tourist area and we took the standard photos and were soon on our way once again. As we made our way along the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre)we caught our first glimpses of the Mediterranean and it's beautiful blue waters. We made a lunch stop at our last Autogrill highway stop in Italy and soon passed into France. We were ahead of schedule so instead of going directly to the hotel along the highway, Daren and Dave treated us to a spectacular clifftop drive through Monaco where we would be coming back to later tonite for dinner. The views of this paradise were spectacular.
Just prior to our arrival at the hotel in Nice Daren told us about a small laundry service a few blocks away from the hotel where Mme Jeanette would do your laundry by the pound (kilo!). Needless to say that most of us needed some clean clothes at this point and we were glad to pay! After settling into our hotel and cleaning up a bit we donned our finest clothes and headed off to Monaco for Dinner and an evening in the Grand Casino.
Our brief tour of Monaco included the Pink Palace of the Grimaldi Family as well as Princess Stephanie's apartment. Near the palace was a spectacular overlook where we saw the entire harbor area of Monaco. There was a luxury sailing cruise ship in port as well as Prince Ranier's Yacht. This was easilly on of the most beautiful places that I have ever been.
Several of us had a nice dinner near the palace and then we were transported to the casino. This was not like any other casino that I have ever been in. My trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas could never prepare me for the elegance in this casino. Being on a shoestring budget I did not do any gambling, but it was fun to watch the rich at play!
On our way back to the hotel Dave took us for a spin on part of the route that serves as the Monaco Grand Prix Car Race! It was easy to imaging the speeding race cars cruising through the streets at high speed, but our coach was a bit sluggish! Speaking of sluggish - on the trip to the hotel one of my worse fears came true - I was hit with the Contiki Cough! My body's resistance finally was gone and I got a nasty cold! Several of the Contiki-ites were going out to the Pub Thor this evening, but I made a date with my bottle of Ny-Quill, a few bottles of Orange Juice and my bed.
I woke up the following day and was feeling much better. I was still not 100%, but today's activities were not strenuous - we were going to the beach! Jamie, Katy, Molly, Tony and I made our way to Cannes by train as we wanted to check out a sandy beach and Nice has rock beaches. The trip to Cannes was easy and we went immediately to the beach. The water was crystal clear, very warm and salty! I was surprised at the saltiness, but it didn't keep me out of the water! After several hours on the beach we decided to tour around Cannes a bit and we did some shopping befor heading back to the hotel for dinner.
This evenings activities centered once again around the Pub Thor. This was a cool pub in Nice with a live band. We spent many hours in this place and the photo of Jamie below shows it! This was our last night on the Riviera and we lived it up in grand style! My memory is a bit foggy, but I think that we hit a pizza place on the way home that nite and practically eat them out of house and home! The next day would find us in Lyon after a lunch stop in Avignon and the realization that this trip was soon to end would hit me like a ton of bricks.....
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