Before visiting the French Riviera, I felt like I had a pretty clear picture of what it would be like. Kazillion dollar yachts, excessive displays of wealth, plastic surgury, and quaint towns with beautiful long sandy beaches, along turquoise waters. All but the later is true. Our four days in the French Riviera was tons of fun, educational and a cultural experience.
Homebase for our long weekend was Cannes, where we enjoyed some great dinners, après dinner walks in the méditerranéen and the obligatory walk on the Festival red carpet. Since the weather was not quite ready for sunbathing, we filled our days with visiting some of the other towns along the Cote D'Azur.
The girls work the red carpet outside the Palais des Festival in Cannes.
Definitely one of the most fascinating parts of our trip was our day spent in Monaco. The second smallest country in the world (next to the Vatican), this country is basically dedicated to keeping a small handful of rich people, richer. The draw of the rich? Monaco's lack of personal income tax. Citizenship here is the most sought after in the world and the citizenship application process can only begin, when the applicant has 2 million Euros and owns an apartment in the principality. Mass obvious displays of wealth, I have seen, but never in such concentration. Two hundred thousand dollar+ cars were the norm here. Royles, Bentleys and Ferrari’s seemed like every other car.
The country is clean, with lovely buildings and is apparently very safe (the entire country is monitored by cameras). With less than two square miles of territory and 33 000 inhabitants, it felt like every square millimetre was maximized to optimal load. This coupled with its mostly exclusive population, made it feel like some sort of theme park.
Monaco was in the thick of getting ready for the Monaco Grand Prix. The bleachers were set up, banners were flying and many of the streets were bordered by temporary heavy metal fencing. Very cool to see how a city gets ready for an event like this!
Outside the Monte Carlo Casino. Rupert tried his luck with 5Euros... you know the outcome.
Our last day of our long weekend was a bit more down to earth. We started off with breakfast and an antiques market in the modest coastal town of Villefranche, then off to Nice.
The relatively large city was bustling and full of life and much more urban than I had expected. We walked through the old town to the Sunday market and sampled some Socca, a chickpea crepe, then set off to walk the miles of pebble beach which borders the city. The beach itself is peppered with restaurant patios all along the way, one of which pulled us in, about a mile in. After a salad nicois and a couple of beers, the rest of our intinerary was trashed and we spent the remainder of the day relaxing and watching the girls look for the smoothest stone on the beach.
Our beauties on the beach in Nice
We did experience some of the beauty of the coast while driving the winding roads of "the Corniches" (best known as the site of Princess Grace's car crash). But much like the disappointed tourist who comes to Niagra Falls, expecting find the great wonder deep in the beautiful Canadian Wilderness, I was a bit surprised in the geographic aspects of the towns of the Riviera.
It was fun to people watch. See the sites. The history. And the hospitality and service of the southerners was a delightful change to our current hometown :).
