Southern France

We caught and early train for Nice on Tuesday morning.  The train was very comfortable and I slept a lot of the way.  The train took us down to Marseilles and then along the coast to Nice.  We got to our hotel and checked in and went out for lunch, the little place we ate was good but not great except for the cauliflower gratin that Scott had which was AMAZING!! We met Matt and Laurie in Nice and it was so great to see them.  We caught up and headed over to Cannes for the night.  We were in Cannes the night before the film festival so there were all these tents set up, etc.  We were really hoping for a star spotting but saw no one.   Here we are in front of the stairs where you always see the stars interviewed.

We walked to the end of the harbor and found this tiny pedestrian street.  It was so great.  It was really steep and windy and there were tons of cute restaurants and little shops up and down it.  We found a cute little restaurant and had dinner.   The food was good, not great but the atmosphere and company couldn't be beat!

Here is a picture of a part of the street, I couldn't capture its charm, but atleast I can kind-of remember what it looked like.

The next day Scott and Matt scheduled a tour for us.  We went quickly to grab something for breakfast.  We found a little grocery and got some fruit and yogurt along with some other snacks.  I got this fig yogurt that was soo good.  We also hit a bakery and a boulangerie for snacks for the road.  We got lots of yummy stuff.  I got a small onion pizza (someone that Scott works with had told him these were good here) the onions were caramelized and delicious.  I also got a apple tart (the pastry was AMAZING – the tart was sooo delicious), some plain crepes (they were smaller than the ones you buy on the street in Paris and didn’t have any toppings), pain au chocolate, a baguette and some other treats.  

We drove about 45 mins outside Nice through Grasse, the perfume capital.  It was very cute but we didn’t get out.  Scott loved it and kept saying maybe we should renew our vows in Grasse.  Then we wound our way up the hill further to Gourdon, this tiny Medival Village.  There are only like 115 people who still live in the village.  It was the quaintest little place.  They had these cute candy stores and linen stores and carved wood things, etc.   It was so fun walking down the little alleyways and finding cute little shops.  Everything was stone and had the cutest doors and shutters.  I got Addie a couple of pillow shams for her bed at a couple of the little linen stores.

Here is Gourdon at a view point on the way up.

Everything looked like this stone and cobblestone, etc.  So great.  My camera died during the trip so I don't have pictures of all the towns but we also walked around St. Paul de Vence and  Tourrettes sur loup.  Everytime we turned a corner it just got more beautiful.  There were some cool stores but it was mostly fun just walking around looking at the cobblestone (every village would have different patterns) and the beautiful doors and shutters.

After our tour Scott and I hoped on the train over to Monaco, it's only about 20 mins. from Nice.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  It's built up the hill so lots of the streets were steep and windy.  Scott and I walked all over.  

Here is a picture of the Harbor.  The boats, I mean yachts, were out of control, like none I've seen before.

Inside Monaco-Ville, part of the old town close to the Prince's Palace.

We were in Monaco the night before the Grand Prix.  Scott is standing in front of some of the stands.  The race goes through the city streets so we got to walk some of the course.