Day 57 - Arles - Avignon - Chateauneuf de Pape, France

During the morning we walked around Arles. The first stop was the Church of St. Trophime, which houses tombs, relics, and art from as early as the 4th century AD. The Last Judgement on the doors is considered on of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture.

Like many other cities in France, Arles was a part of the Roman empire, and thus there are many Roman ruins that still remain. We saw a theatre built in 1st century BC that is still used for concerts today. A few blocks from this is a 1st century BC Roman Arena, similar to the coliseum in Rome, but much smaller. Today it is used for bullfights.

In the afternoon, we drove up to Chateauneuf de Pape, with a short stop in Avignon along the way. Avignon was home to the popes in the 14th and 15th centuries, during which they built walls around the city along with a huge palace, the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes).

We didn't have time to pay the admission fee and tour the inside of the palace, but instead ate lunch in the square outside the palace, then headed onward.

Back when the popes called Avignon their home, they produced their wine in the nearby town of Chateauneuf de Pape (translated as "New Castle of the Pope"). Today, the town has established a considerable reputation with wine enthusiasts, and is arguably the most famous appelation in the Cotes du Rhone.

We made it up to Chateauneuf de Pape in time for some tastings before the wineries closed (the picture below is at Maison Bouachon).

We also visited a Museum of Wine. The wine harvest had just begun (the grapes are harvested in early Sept). . . so there was a slight bit of "traffic" with trucks full of grapes and tractors rolling through town.

Additional thoughts/notes:
- (Kim) - Ever since before we went on the trip, Brian has been practicing how to correctly say (in a French accent) Chateauneuf-de-Pape. It is his favorite French word to say, and he had gotten pretty good at saying it. He had been saying it all morning in anticipation of our visit, but a funny thing happened when we got there - he completely chickened out. At the wineries we stopped at, he just avoided saying the word. "What grape varieties are in, um, . . . this wine?" "What other wineries should we visit in, um, . . . this town?" Hilarious. So much for all that practice.

Day 56 - Aix - Les Baux - Arles, France

(Kim) In the morning, we visited the Church of Saint Saviour, a very old Romanesque church and wandered through the morning market. Aix was home to post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne, (there are little markers in the sidewalks showing you where he walked frequently in the city), so we decided to stop by the Musee Granet to see some of his works. They were putting on a special exhibit, Picasso and Cezanne, about how Picasso was heavily influenced by Cezanne. The exhibit was really interesting, and great works from both artists were featured.

We left Aix in the early afternoon, and headed for Arles. On our way, we stopped at the hilltop village of Les Baux. After some shopping and café sitting, we ventured to the top of the village where the remains of the medieval castle and fortress stood. There was an admission fee, and we were contemplating whether it was worth it to go in, when Brian learned that they were just about to launch the largest Trebuchet (huge, medieval catapult) in France. Well that sealed the deal. Before I knew it, he had bought the tickets and was racing toward the Trebuchet with giddy excitement. They were taking volunteers to help launch the Trebuchet, but Brian unfortunately had to sit out because they were giving the orders in French.


After the launching, we roamed the castle grounds, taking in the sweeping views of Provence below.



In the evening, we arrived at our hotel in Arles and quickly ventured into the town for dinner.

We ended up at the Café La Nuit, where both Gauguin and Van Gogh used to drink, and which was supposedly the inspiration for Van Gogh’s famous painting Terrace de café le Soir.

Additional notes:
- (Brian) We’ve found that in restaurants in both Italy and France, it is vital to know how to ask for your bill in the local language. In these countries, servers consider it rude to bring the check without being asked (so as not to “rush” you). This is good in some ways, but on the other hand, we have sometimes spent half and hour or so after we have finished eating trying to get someone (anyone) to bring us the check. There seems to be a language disconnect even with English-speaking servers. You can ask for the bill, the check, and even make the “give-me-the-check” motion with your hands, but none of it works (even though the server nods their head in seeming understanding). The magic words are il Conto (Italian) or l’addition (French). The instant you utter these words to a server, a visible transformation occurs, and it suddenly becomes the server's life’s mission to get you the check.

Day 55 - St. Paul de Vence - Aix-en-Provence, France

On our way to Aix, we made a stop in an artsy medieval hill-top village, St Paul de Vence.

The small pedestrian streets of St Paul de Vence are lined with gallery after gallery of modern art. I found a piece in one gallery that I really liked (below, but the picture has lots of glare. It is a copper sculpture of a man playing a piano), until I found out the price. . . only 33,000 Euros! Oh well.

We enjoyed the afternoon strolling the village and eating crepes (we ate in front of this sculpture - a horse made of horse shoes).

We next drove to Aix-en-Provence to stop for the night. We didn’t have a decent map of the city, but thankfully, we miraculously drove right by our hotel. We drank some wine and played some gin rummy on the hotel's rooftop terrace before going out for dinner.

Aix is the largest city in Provence, and is home to 30,000 international university students, which means it is very diverse. In fact, when we went out for dinner, we had trouble finding a French restaurant (at least a reasonably priced one). After an hour of wandering around, we finally settled for Spanish tapas, which ended up being a nice change of pace.

Day 54 - Menton, France

We left Monte Carlo for Menton this morning, which is about 15 mins away and very close to the border of France and Italy. We had planned to make a pit stop in the coastal town of Villefranche-Sur-Mer on the way, but after 20 minutes or so of looking for a parking space (unsuccessfully), we decided just to skip it and proceed to Menton.

When we gave the receptionist at the Menton hotel our names for check-in, she looked at us with a frown and mumbled a few phrases in French. She went to the back to get someone who spoke English, and we were thinking, “uh-oh”. Another woman came out, and informed us that our room had been flooded the previous night, and that the hotel was completely booked. The good part was that they went ahead and booked us in another hotel. It turned out to be a major upgrade. We went from a hotel a few blocks from the ocean to a room right on the main strip with a nice ocean view!

At night with our windows open, I commented to Kim that the sound of the waves crashing was louder in our room than it had been on the beach (must’ve been some weird acoustical effect, being that we were up on the 6th floor).

For lunch, Kim finally got to try boullaibase, a regional seafood specialty. Then we strolled around Menton and the main pedestrian street.


After exploring Menton, we got in some beach time. Like Nice, Menton has a smooth-rocky beach. Unlike Nice, Kim was brave enough to jump in the ocean this time.

For dinner, we choose to eat at one of the outdoor ocean-side cafes and drink some more Rosé.

Additional notes/thoughts:
- If we come back to the French Riviera, we would gladly stay in Menton again. The town is great and much less expensive and more casual than the other French Riviera cities, but is still just a short drive from any of the big name French/Italian Riviera cities.

Day 53 - Eze, France - Monaco

Today we departed Nice for a night in Monaco (thank you free hotel points!). We took the scenic route to Monaco along the coast, and made a stop in Eze on the way.

Eze is a small town that sits high on the cliffs of the French Riviera. The town itself reminded me of some of the hill-towns we had seen in Tuscany: stone buildings, small passageways, and surrounded by walls. But unlike the other hill-towns, the small shops here were pretty unique and a little more upscale (in my opinion). We paid extra to visit the gardens/ruins at the top of Eze, which had great views of the Mediterranean and neighboring towns. Once up there, we decided it would be a good place to do our picnic, so we found some stone benches and ate while taking in the view.

Monaco was only a 15 minute drive from Eze. As Kim was checking in to our hotel, I went to park the car in the hotel garage. I noticed that the first few spots were occupied by Ferraris. I managed to find a spot a little ways down situated nicely between a Porsche two spots on one side and a Lamborghini two spots to the other.

When I saw Kim later, I informed her we don’t have to worry about anyone stealing our Opel Corsa! Check out the view from our balcony:

In the early evening, we walked around old town (Monaco-Ville), which probably has the best views of Monte Carlo and its huge yachts. We also strolled past the big palace where the Grimaldi family (and thus the prince) lives. We sat down for an early dinner, then took the bus to Monte Carlo (sure, we could’ve also walked, but the bus was right there, and we were full).



If Monte Carlo is known for one thing, it’s the casino. There are a few different rooms (or buildings) for different stakes of playing. The nicer, high-roller rooms charge a cover, and you better be dressed up. We opted to visit the low-stakes, commoner rooms. I was up 100 Euros in blackjack fairly quickly, and told Kim that since we were up a little we should just have fun with it playing other games. We occupied ourselves playing slots and roulette for a while after that. I think we ended up slightly down by the end of the night, which is fine in my book (it was a payment for fun).

Once we left, little did we know that there was just as much action outside the casino as inside. There were crowds of people watching the obscene number of fancy cars driving past the front of the casino. It seemed like an endless line of Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, etc. driving through, and people getting out of them and walking into the casino like movie stars.

Day 52 - Nice, France

This morning we got up early (by our standards) to stroll through the Cours Saleya, a large square that holds Nice’s flower and produce markets. Using my rudimentary French, we succeeded in buying a variety of goods for a picnic later: two baguettes, pesto, olives, goat cheese, tomato and eggplant spread, a tomato, and two golden plums.


Because we had gotten up fairly early, we found ourselves with some extra time. We decided to break down and do some laundry since there was a Laundromat close to our hotel. This was only the second time on the trip that we had done laundry in a washing machine rather than the sink, and boy were we excited to have clean clothes.

After laundry, we ate our picnic in the Jardin Albert Ier. Our eyes were a little big at the market this morning, so we decided to save some of it for tomorrow. We wandered around Vieux Nice (old town) and tried socca, a local specialty that is kind of like a crepe, but made with chickpea flour.

We were excited to go to the beach in the afternoon, but to my chagrin, I was reminded that Nice has a smooth-rock beach (as does most of the French Riviera). Brian made it into the water, but I opted to sit in the sun to save my feet from the treacherous walk in and out.


That evening we went back to the Cours Saleya, which at night is filled with cafes serving the morning’s catch. We had a dinner of fresh oysters and fish, some more rosé, and chocolate mousse.

Day 51 - Nice, France

After arriving at the Venice airport early this morning via water bus, our flight to Nice was delayed and finally cancelled. At first, we thought we’d be “stuck” in Venice another night. However, they finally got us booked on a flight with a different airline. This flight was not direct, so we’d be getting in much later. . . the full day in Nice was now becoming just a night (altering our plans).

Since we got in so late, we decided to ditch getting a rental car (we had planned to drive to other cities the following day). We ate dinner at a very good place right by our hotel. We started the meal with a rosé, which is a popular wine of the region (Cote d’ Azur). We realized it was our first non-Italian meal in 3 weeks (the French food was a nice change . . . I made sure to get some French fries)!

Following dinner we walked along the Promenade de Anglais, then called it a day (we were beat from the 12 hours of travel).