Our Final Days in France

I've been quiet on the blogging front the past few days. Mostly I got frustrated with iPhone/Wordpress app writing and, to be honest, we haven't been up to all that much. So I figured I'd spend the last few days lazing on the beach, finally starting to reading my book, and just plain relaxing.

We went to Antibes one day, which I'll write about when I get back. Here's a few pics for now.

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We're heading out the door now and are off to Nice to catch a flight to Paris.

Villefranche treated me to one final, beautiful sunrise.

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I'm really going to miss our little square. It has been a big treat to eat breakfast and look out onto everything from a surprise festival, to the town dog (more about him later), to the sweet peace we had today.

The next time I post, I will probably be back home.

Au revoir for now!

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France Days 12 and 13: Monaco and St. Paul de Vence

We've had a couple of extremely busy but wonderful days, so I'm behind on my updates. I'll have to do big posts on these daytrips when I get back. I just can't do them justice on my phone. But I can share a couple of pictures from each place.

On the 1st, we went to Monaco. After being stuck in the train station for an hour because of crazy, unexpected rain, we caught a taxi to the oceanographic museum.

I loved the museum. I took a million pictures in the aquarium and even some video.

We also took a tour of the palace and walked down to see the fancy stuff going on Monte Carlo.

The highlight of the day happened as we were having a drink at the Cafe de Paris. Apparently it's the people-watching spot near the casino and Hotel de Paris.

So we're having a drink and watching the people when, alll of a sudden, a police escort pulls around the circle and Prince Albert steps out of his Lexus. He was maybe 40 feet to our right.

He walked into a special event tent and our waitress said "it's the Prince! He's going to have a drink."

Later, my dad even got a smile and a wave from him when he left. He also got a great picture.

It was a huge surprise!

Here are a couple of videos and pictures.

Yesterday, we went to St. Paul de Vence, an medieval hilltop village. It's known mostly for the myriad art galleries and shops that line the old, narrow streets.

We were lucky to be there at the end of the high season. It was busy but not "I feel like I'm in a herd of cattle" busy. Which was good, because I don't do well in herds.

We strolled and shopped. There was lots of major pretend spending on art and some real spending on more reasonable things.

I took about 8 billion pictures of doors and streets and windows and little surprise bits and pieces hidden throughout the town.

We had amazing lunch around a famous old tree called La Tilleul. Their grilled duck breast was perfect!

Before we came back to Villefranche, we spent over an hour at a cafe near the pétanque field. A group of town characters entertained us the whole time with their great personalities as we drank.

It's currently ranked first in the "favorite day so far" competition.

France Day 11: A Surprise Festival

Just as we were about to leave the house, a festival appeared in our square. As far as I can tell, it was part of the St. Michel festival that ran from the 28th to the 30th. I'll have to do more sleuthing about it when we get home but here are some videos we took.

They have to be links until I can get home and embed them.

The band coming up the steps

The sword dance

The harvest dance