Saturday, April 23, 2005 Cote d'Azur

Sarah and Sandi tour the Cote d'Azur I picked Sarah up at the Nice airport on Saturday morning - we checked in at Un Ange Passe (our bed and breakfast) and that evening we had dinner at La Vie Est Belle in La Colle sur Loup: The next day we went to Tourette sur Loup and St. Paul de Vence. Here are some pictures of Sarah in the hill towns: We spent the next couple days in Nice - sightseeing and shopping! Here are some pictures of Sarah and Sandi in Nice - note the pebbles (!) on the beach. On Wednesday, we went to the Grande Canyon de Verdun (we thought) - but it turned out to be the Grand Canyon de Loup - it was pretty impressive - so the real Grande Canyon de Verdun must be spectacular! Here are some pics of Sarah at Florian - the maker of the best comfiture in Nice and at the gorge. No, those are not eggs in the soupe de poissons - they are croutons covered with aiolle (spelled wrong - but good - a nice garlicky sauce). On Thursday, we went to Antibes! It was exciting - the traffic, the parking (or lack thereof), the traffic, the unplanned trip to Cannes, the traffic, the narrow streets, the traffic! Wow! Antibes was very pretty and we saw for the first time in the Cote d'Azur, the snow covered Alps! Here are some pictures of Antibes! Yesterday, Sarah's last day in the Cote d'Azur, we went east towards Italy. After an exciting trial trip to the Nice Gare (rail station) to make sure we knew where it was (Sarah has to catch a 7:15 am train Saturday morning) which included some unplanned adventures in extremely narrow, traffic filled streets, we headed up the Moyen Corniche towards Monaco. The route might remind one of the California Coast along Big Sur - but with many more houses and I think, much steeper. We stopped in Eze - another hill-top village for lunch and to explore. We were really high up - and the views were spectacular! After lunch, we had cafe and chocolat chaud at Le Chevre d'Or - a hotel which is perched on the cliff. Rick Steves said it would be the best view with a 4 euro coffee ever! He was right - but actually, it was 9 euros (each) - but it was worth it! After lunch, we went up to the Grande Corniche and drove towards Monaco. I thought we were up high before, but this was really high - much higher than Big Sur - we were in the clouds and the views were magnificient - but unfortunately, there were very few places to pull over for pictures - we got this one by stopping in the middle of the road - and Sarah shot it out the window. If you look closely, the little mountain just to the right of center is Eze - where the pics above were taken. 10:20:19 AM