FRANCE, August 2019

Friday morning, apparently we were tired because we all slept in, which is rare! The Air BnB supplied coffee and tea for us, so we took it easy in the morning sharing the small balcony. The mornings warm "Tuscan" colors unveiled by the sunrise were awesome.








Our plan this day was to head to the mountain top medieval village of Eze. We stopped for breakfast on our way to the Gare de Nice-Ville train station. The tiny mom and pop Maison Mariass-1901 offered us a tasty omelet, crepes and wonderfully fresh squeezed orange juice served on the comfortable sidewalk tables under the shadows of the Basilique Notre Dame del l'assompion, perfect spot, wish I had a pic! We arrived at the station 30 minutes before the train, but the lines at the kiosk stations were painfully long. The instructions were in French and many people took 5 minutes to figure it out, 5 times many meant we would not be taking the next train. No biggie, out to the street and requested an Uber. Now we were disappointed about the train because we like trains, but when we hopped in the Uber "black" we were happy again! The driver, Kamel from Tunisia, started feeling our enthusiasm and joined in with his decent English, but he continually apologized when we had minor communication gaps, I'd laugh and google some poor response in French. We had such a good time with Kamel, he even showed us his family pics on his phone! Once out of Nice proper Kamel asks if we had time for some side stops, say what? of course we do!! He took us to several scenic stops on our way to Eze, giving us history and nice to knows like "Hey, that's the Lamborghini's owners property on the point!". A favorite stop was Fort de Mont Alban built by the Duke of Savoy in the 1550's, cool. The views at each stop Kamel made were incredible.

















Later we were dropped off at the base of Eze and said our goodbyes, I swear we should have hired Kamel for the entire day, he's not your typical Uber driver, great guy! TomB, I'll send you his contact info! Eze is exactly what we were looking for. Old narrow streets, steep cobble stone walkways, beautiful shops, cafes, art, art, art, Oh, and the views!
























Next stop, Monte Carlo, just a stone's throw away, but we took an Uber. Unfortunately it was a "standard" Uber ride with a driver who for some reason was not familiar with the area? Oh well, he dropped us off at the Opera house next to the Monte Carlo Casino. Our surroundings were beautiful, but boy the hills! We didn't spend much time here, but glad we went. We did happen upon the famous Monaco Grand Prix "Fairmont Hairpin", fun for this Skip Barber, Bill Scott graduate! Crazy turn for those thousand horsepower F1 cars!


















We humped it back to the Monaco train station, sweated like I've never sweated before!! The train smelled horrible with people packed in close after a long day out!! Uber you are my friend! We arrived in Nice and continued walking of course, stopped in Garibaldi Square, nice! Then straight to the apartment to get our bathing suits, Donna wanted to stack stones!
















In the evening we took a nice stroll along the beach and ate a late dinner. Dinner in Old Nice wasn't great this evening, atmosphere, food and wine ok, but the waitress/service was very subpar, NO pics for them! It was still a gorgeous night!!!











to be continued......