Monaco, Nice Cannes
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2005
1
14
Trip End
Jun 20, 2005
Cannes, France
Saturday, May 14, 2005
It was quite an early start for this trip. It was organized through school and we had to be at the bus station at 5 in the morning. Yikes. I made it though. The bus ride was about 6 hours and our first stop would be in Monaco. We took a break at a rest stop and I found olive flavored chips there, olive chips! I had to get them of course, and they turned out to be pretty good. The bus ride was ok. I tried to sleep a bit, but it really is not the most comfortable environment you could be in. Oh well. The whole ride it was raining too, so it didn't seem like the day would go well.
When we finally got there the sun was peeking out of the clouds and it was fairly warm. We saw the Mediterranean which was blue and beautiful. Monaco is full of huge cliffs and you can get picturesque views full of flowers, palm trees and the water. We were there the week before the Formula 1 race, so there were a ton of things set up for it. I began walking around with my friend Melissa from Texas. We walked around a few small winding streets and came out to where the palace was. I have to say it wasn't that big. Visitors weren't allowed in, so we continued on. Monaco is also super hilly, so it was a tough walk. We started off randomly, but then the clouds came back so we had to make a decision about where to go. We decided the casino and as we were walking there it began raining. Blah. So we made it to the Monte Carlo Casino. To get into the really fancy gambling area you had to pay 10 euros, but right off of the entrance there is a little room with slot machines, so we went gambling. I didn't win one single time, but Melissa ended up winning a few times, but eventually gambled it all away. It was fun nonetheless. It was still raining when we were done so we found a shopping center that was way over our price range and hung out there for a little bit. We had a long time to go and it was still pouring so we decided to see a movie. To get to the theater we had to walk through these gardens and they were so beautiful. I wish it would have been nice so we could have enjoyed walking, but it was not meant to be. When we got to the theater, we had missed the show by about 15 mins. They rain had began to let up so we went walking again. We got some snacks from a grocery store and found a garden with beautiful views to rest in. We went to a few tourist shops and got a citron pressé at a café and meandered for our remaining time there.
The bus left at 5:30 for Nice, where we would be staying for the night. We drove along the coast and saw all these towns and the Mediterranean the whole way there. The guy who runs the activities, Philippe, got on the little loudspeaker on the bus and would mention about how every town was just so nice and so beautiful. The French are always bragging about how wonderful their country is. It is amusing. We got to Nice and settled into our hotel, which was called The Premiere Class Hotel. What a joke. The rooms were as barebones as could be, no carpet, no closet, no tacky painting on the wall, no dresser. There was one bunk bed and underneath were 2 tiny twin beds. You couldn't open the window, which looked out to the airport. Also the bathroom, now that was funny. It was all plastic and bubblegum pink, everything. The shower was so tiny and when you were in there water got everywhere in the bathroom. I was sharing the room with a girl from Colombia and a girl from Holland. We were all cracking up at the room. Oh also, between the foot of the bed and the wall you couldn't fit through walking straight, you had to go sideways. It was only for one night though, so we were all ok. After that the bus took us into downtown Nice for about 2 and a half hours. The bus drivers couldn't work past midnight I guess and we were about a 45 minute walk from the center of town. There were palm trees everywhere in Nice and a lot of beaches. Instead of sand there were rocks, so flip flops are a must. I ended up only really seeing a restaurant in Nice though, with Melissa and some other girls. The restaurant was nice though. We sat on the patio outside and there were palm trees and tropical plants everywhere. Nice seemed like a really big city and I would like to go back there one day definitely. You could have stayed in town and walked back, but Melissa and I both didn't want to do the walk so we caught the bus back and said goodnight.
The next morning I braved the tiny shower and we had breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of three different types of bread, cereal, coffee, and watery orange juice. I filled up to make it through the day. It took about an hour to get to Cannes and the weather was great there. Sunny and warm, but with a cool breeze. There were a ton of people at the beach. These white tents were set up everywhere for the festival. They had a craft market going on, which I walked through with Melissa. Then we made our way to the tourist office and saw the big building where all the movies are shown and the red carpet, which isn't as big as it looks in the pictures. It was really cool though. We asked at the office if we could do anything with the festival, but she told us the only thing regular people can see is the movie on the beach, you had be accredited to do anything else. They were playing the new Star Wars on the beach that night, but we were leaving too early to see it. We kept our eyes open for famous people all day, but didn't see any, somewhat of a disappointment, but what can you expect.
Right by Cannes is an island you can take a little boat to and on it is the museum of the Man in the Iron Mask and some other little museums, so we decided to check that out. The boat ride there was really nice. The water was just so blue and there would be patches of dark and light blue from where the ships went through. There was a huge cruise boat docked there, The Queen Mary II. Plus there were tons of yachts and sailboats and everything and you could see the whole city of Cannes from the boat. When we got to the island and finally found the museum the French got us. It was lunch time, so they were closing right as we got there. We had spent 10 euros to get over the island and didn't want to leave right away so we saw that there was a lake on the island walked over to it. We found a coast on the island that was so nice. When we were in Cannes you could barley hear the waves because there was so much traffic, but on the island it was so nice and peaceful. Some people were picnicking and sunbathing and we walked around a bunch on the island and it was just gorgeous. There was barley anything on it and we both didn't understand it. We talked about what a huge resort they could put here and how much money they could make off of this island, typical Americans I guess. We walked around so much we didn't ever make it to the museum, but we weren't disappointed. It was just so nice and clam there.
We headed back to Cannes and decided to have lunch. We sat at an outside café and people-watched. We both had a different type of bruschetta and it was so good. After that we walked around a bit and then saw a crowd of people gathering around the area where we saw the red carpet. An orchestra was set up and they were playing music from Star Wars. That was the movie coming out that day. We decided to wait around a bit before we had to take the bus to see if we could find anyone famous. They were setting up the red carpet and vacuuming it and everything and the crowd around us kept getting bigger and bigger. The security guards started clearing everybody off the street. The orchestra cleared out and came back a little later all dressed up in suits. Policeman came down and began marching around on the red carpet. Then the Darth Vader breathing kicked in really loud and there was smoke billowing off the steps. Melissa and I were getting pretty excited. Then the orchestra began playing again and guys dressed up as storm troopers came out and started marching around the red carpet and then they lined it and people began coming. We could barley see, but they had a huge screen set up. People were coming through in crowds, so they were obviously a bunch of nobodies. It was still exciting though. We waited as long as we could, but we had to leave before anyone we knew came through. We kept wishing we could have stayed that night, but what can you do? We fought the crowd and made our way back to the bus. One funny thing, to get into the theater that night you had to have an invitation and you had to be dressed up nice so you could go down the red carpet. Before the crowd started building up, there were about 5 girls dressed up nice holding up signs about how they wanted an invite to Star Wars. I guess some people would have extra tickets, but as we were leaving all the girls were still there, looking upset. It was kind of amusing. We got back to the bus and finally made it back to Annecy at about 2 in the morning.
So that was my trip. I had a good time despite the weather, and I would love to go back to Nice and Cannes again. I guess that will have to be the next time I come to France since I am on my last week here. I'll see you all soon!
