More Nice and Cannes

Breakfast in the tropical garden at our cozy hotel in Nice.

How many pain au chocolate can we possibly eat?

We arrive in Cannes to search for the perfect sandy beach today. 

Someone did not plan to get wet quite yet.

This might be heaven or very close.
 It is early in the season so there are no crowds and we get our pick of the front row chaises.
Behind us are the glamorous hotels of the rich and famous.
For a small fee they allow us to pretend we are a part of this world for an afternoon. So kind of them.

Naps in the sun are very much a part of the day.

It could be almost as cold as Lake Superior.
There were actually quite a few swimmers in the ocean off and on all afternoon.
But they cleared the beach when they saw these two beauties coming.

Our dinner tonight in Nice was divine but the dessert was a piece of art.

There is a huge color trend on the streets of France. Especially now that the weather has turned so warm there are all shades of orange everywhere, inside and outside. Not only our food tonight but even the booth we are seated at too!

The French Riviera

Michael discovered his next new car in Nice today!
He has not had a chance to test drive it yet.
We need to keep walking a lot to burn off all the delicious food we have enjoyed.  

Streets full of flowers and sunshine in Nice.
We have another gorgeous day for exploring this lovely French town on the sea.  

Fruits Confits at the amazing Marche aux Fleurs market in Nice.

Libby has just arrived and joined us on our trip today in Nice.
How much fun to see the sights with our own personal interpreter. 

Promenade des Anglais is the place to be on a sunny morning in Nice. 

The day is warm and sun filled but the wind is pushing the spray of the waves toward us.
Maybe we will wait to rent bikes on a calmer day after all.

Last day in Provence

We always check out the local candy stores. Here are some wonderful handmade marshmallows we found in Aix en Provence. Almost too pretty to eat. However....they were nummy.

It is all about window shopping and eating and wandering through the streets. We found these outfits while shopping in Aix also. Thought we would wear them home on the plane.  

On the beautiful Cours Mirabeau in Aix en Provence. The weather has been sublime.  No museums or churches for us right now...those are for days when it rains. Lots of walking and more delightful sidewalk cafes. We learned to pronounce the name of this town finally by saying "eeks" like when you see a mouse. 

Aix is a city of fountains

We stopped in Marseille on our way to Nice for a few hours and were delighted by the old harbor. The entire city has been totally renewed. It is the cultural capitol of France for 2013 so they are shining it up. Much effort and lots of money has been spent to clean up what had been a very grimy city

Boats galore as far as the eye can see. So pretty with the old architecture mixed with lovely new plazas.

Mais oui...another cafe au lait by the water.

new spaces in Marseilles make it a wonderful space for people watching

Little Towns in Provence

Amazing hill town of Roussillon where everything is 17 shades of ochre.

Yes, even here in these beautiful ancient cities like Les Baux de Provence the T shirt shops prevail!

Can you see the many shades of red from the hillside of Roussillon?

Maybe you would like to drive down these streets that are not hardly 6 feet wide? 

More beautiful Roussillon

and more red shades...can you tell this was one of our favorites?

this is our little red Golf. If it were any wider we would never make it through the streets. I have to pull in the mirror on my side just to make it through town unscratched

These are ruins of the Chateau Les Baux that today belongs to the Grimaldis from Monaco. Years ago the family that lived here would kidnap people for ransom and throw them off cliff if no ransom payed. 

Gordes is an amazing hillside town built of stone houses hanging over the edge of the cliffs. The Paris elite are all  here buying up the real estate for weekend homes. Incredible views.  

More Arles

We love this city and we are charmed by our quirky little hotel.   Our trip has been spectacular so far and we have only been here since Monday evening! Our flights were perfect and everyone has been extremely friendly and helpful. We have a rental car and spend much of our time totally lost but all is good. No one has seen as much of the countryside as we have by taking detours. Our lovely GPS lady in our car might be on drugs since she sends us down many unique roads. We have totally enjoyed it even when we cannot possibly know where we are!

We can never seem to find our way home at the end of the day. Yesterday a guy on the street saw us circling around and around and took pity on us and jumped on a bike to guide us all the way back to our hotel. So wonderful to be so lucky.

Avignon

Sorry for the orientation of this photo [which we thought we had corrected!]. The streets are so incredible in all of these little French towns. I want to turn down every interesting narrow avenue we come across just to see what is there.

So the bridge in the background is the famous Bridge of Avignon we used to sing about in French class. But oops....half of it is missing!

We are all about sidewalk cafes. Can't get enough of them.

So did you know there were 9 popes that did not live at the Vatican in Rome but built themselves a palace in Avignon in the Middle Ages and lived there instead. Some very poor French princess sold them the entire city because she needed the money.

Amphitheater in Arles

The thing we did not realize about Arles....every restaurant and cafe has  pictures and posters of bullfighters. You would think we were in Spain? But it is obviously a big deal here for the local summer scene. Did the Romans have any idea what their big old gladiator arena would turn into later in life? Toreadors!

The amphitheater was built in the late first century AD. It has been partially renovated and is in use. In the summer there is a regular schedule of bullfights.