I may have gotten a little carried away with extra pictures on this one, but we did so many cool things, I felt like I couldn’t leave any of them out.
Anyway…even with a 3 hour layover, my willpower was enough to withstand buying anything in duty free in the Vienna airport before catching my connecting flight to Nice. I landed a few minutes early and took the bus to Cannes, where I met my friends Catherine, Micki and Micki’s Aunt Janet at a café for a glass of rose near the bus station. We made a quick stop in Cannes to let Janet take a cute picture on the red carpet and get a glimpse at the Le Croisette,
the expansive beachfront in Cannes, before heading to the villa in Seillans, a small hill-top village near Provence. Catherine’s mother Shirley had retired there 20+ years ago and their entire family was there to visit her for a few weeks. My friend Alisa and her husband had rented a nearby villa and Cat, Micki and Alisa were kind enough to invite me to join for a week of tennis and enjoying the Cote d’Azur. In total, I think there were 10 of us between the 2 houses, 4 of us tennis players. That first night we had tickets to see a local big band doing a tribute to Glen Miller in a small Roman amphitheater in another cute hilltop village a few kilometers away called Fayence. The music was great, but I was exhausted and fell asleep at the concert. I guess all the late nights in Corfu and Bulgaria finally caught up with me.
A lazy day at the villa was just what the doctor ordered as I was still tired and needed some time to make some travel plans, sit in the pool, play some tennis, and just relax. The villa was beautiful, with lavender growing around the pool area, and a fantastic view over to Seillans.
The next day, Alisa, Tom and I set out early to drive the coastal road from Nice, stopping in Cap d’Ferrat at the Ephruzzi Villa and gardens of Beatrice Rothschild and the Greek villa of Kerylos. Beatrice had separated from her banker husband in 1904 and when her father died in 1905, she inherited a large fortune and decided to commission the building of this villa and the surrounding gardens on THE prime spot on Cap d’Ferrat. This was the real pink palace!
Luckily I wipe the memory card every night to upload pics, so I only lost the rafting photos. And, luckily we talked everyone into driving further into the Gorge to a few lookout points so I could try to capture some shots with my good camera. It definitely is not the same shooting from above as it is when you’re right on the water. Once again, lesson learned for not trusting anyone anywhere. The Gorge was beautiful.
On day 6, Alisa, Tom and I decided to go check out Vence, another hilltop town that was home to a chapel that Henri Matisse helped design and contributed several art works to. We arrived around noon and noticed the sign said the chapel was closed between 11:30-2pm. Bummer. So we decided to go to nearby Saint Paul du Vence, a charming, quaint and very touristy walled town. It reminded me of Dubrovnik a little bit, except of course without the water surrounding it. And it wasn’t quite as big, so would make it more like Budva. Every little street and alleyway was filled with cute little shops or art galleries or cafes. The French are very good at making everything seem cute and quaint (and French!)…from the flowers in the doorways, to the fonts used on their signage, to the bright colored shutters. I loved it…there is a reason it’s so touristy as I’m sure everyone else does to!
The alarm went off way too early on Friday morning as Tom, Micki and I had to leave at 7am to meet our guide for the Via Ferrata about 2 hours from the villa. I knew the day involved some climbing and that we needed to wear a harness, but had no idea what was in store for me. Apparently there are several “via ferrata’s” in the Alps, with the first used by the Italian army in WWII to climb over/through the Dolomites. Basically, someone has put steel ladders and foot-pegs as well as high wires and zip lines in to create a permanent course up, over or across certain rock faces. The one we did was called Les Demoiselles Du Castagnet. We hiked for about 15 minutes until we reached the first face, where we used our harness to clamp in every 10-15 feet while we climbed 180 meters pretty much straight up.
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