April 24 - Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

NEWS FLASH! I CAN UPLOAD PHOTOS AGAIN!  I DON'T KNOW WHAT CHANGED, BUT HOORAY!

We weren’t supposed to be here today; we were scheduled to go to La Ciotat, France which is not too far from Marseille.  However, gale force winds were expected and evidently the anchorage there isn’t sheltered so tendering is problematic.  Villefranche-sur-Mer is on the French Riviera between Nice and Monaco and a beautiful deep-water sheltered bay.  So here we are.

I realize I skipped a day because yesterday when we anchored off Cannes I decided it was time for a sea day.  My excuses were that it was a long tender ride and I’d been there several times before.  It’s a great place from which to go inland to St. Paul de Vence (which I love) or to Grasse (the mother ship for perfume), but I wasn’t up for a long bus ride.  So voilà, sea day and nothing to write about.

That's Cannes from my veranda. Hard to tell from this distance.

The ship’s staff scrambled to come up with some shore excursions and one sounded like just my thing – a panoramic drive along the Riviera from Nice to Monte Carlo.  My group gathered and tendered ashore to the picturesque town.  These places on the French and Italian Rivieras are so beautiful it practically takes your breath away.

We arrived ashore and our guide was waiting with bad news – the bus was delayed  by traffic (evidently a frequent occurrence on the roads along the coast) and we would have a 45-minute wait.  Even worse was the news that the bus couldn’t come down to pick us up; we had to walk up the hill to a fort above the town to board when it did arrive.  If you’ve been to this part of the world you know that there’s little flat land so the walk up hills is pretty steep.  My knees said ouch at the news.  It was too early for shops to be open in the interim  so I just wandered around a little then set out to make the trek to the bus parking lot. I survived!

These four photos are all of Villefranche-sur-Mer

There are three Corniches (roads) which go along the Riviera from Nice to the Italian border.  Our bus set out on the Basse Corniche, the lower one.  There is very little flat land in this part of the coast.  It’s characterized by rocky hills and sheltered coves with villages and houses perched along the hillsides.  This is the area of France called Provence and in my opinion one of the most beautiful.  As we rode along our guide Cassie (actually a Frenchwoman from Provence!) told us a little about the history.  The Greeks arrived here about 500 BC.  They were followed a couple of hundred years later by the Romans.  For a few hundred years the Pax Romana ensued until the fall of the western Roman empire.  In the medieval time and middle ages the area along the coast fell under the rule of France or various Italian city states depending on who won the latest conflict.  It wasn’t really thought to be worth much because not much could be done with such steep land.  About the only thing that grew well were olive trees and some citrus.  By the 19th century though some wealthy people from more northern parts of Europe began to come to spend the winter months in the more appealing climate.  Where previously there were only fishing villages, now the hillsides began to be dotted with villas where the wealthy could escape snow and ice. Those people liked some entertainment and casinos began to open where they could while away the time gambling.

The Corniche road has mainly views like this of the coast when one isn't driving through a village.

In a village you pass buildings like this one with the wrought iron balconies and wooden shutters

Both nobles and royals built large villas.  One of the grandest was built by King Leopold II of Belgium.  He built a large villa on Cap Ferrat, one of the peninsulas along the coast, and he amassed large tracts of land around it.  Cassie said that not so very long ago a portion of the property came up for sale and the asking price was 446€, that’s close to $510 million! An interesting piece of information about casinos is that originally only men were allowed to enter and bet.  In the early 20th century a member of the Rothschild family, Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild bought land and built a villa on Cap-Ferrat.  Her villa and its beautiful gardens are sometimes open to the public, but what I was getting to is that she loved to gamble and she was definitely a high-stakes gambler.  Italy and France which owned parts of the land on the Riviera at the time had laws prohibiting women from gambling.  Monaco, which was an independent principality, could make its own rules so they decided to allow women into their casino to gamble.  They knew a good thing in terms of money-making.

We drove  along the Corniche through Monte Carlo which is getting ready for the Grand Prix of Formula One cars.  There were crews busy putting up chain link fencing along the streets and placing bleachers along the sidewalks.  Along the route the drivers will take all the streets are freshly paved with asphalt so that there are no potholes.  After passing through Monte Carlo we drove up the hillside a little to get to the middle Corniche to make our way back to Villefranche.  At one point before we turned back from the window of the bus I could see three peninsulas, one Italian, one Monacan, and one French.

A roundabout in Monte Carlo

Some of the many, many apartments on the hillside in Monte Carlo. I didn't get many photos riding in the bus

More Monte Carlo

On our way back we stopped at the medieval village of Eze.  I’ve been there a few times years ago when I was younger and more fit.  In fact, one of Al’s favorite walking sticks was an olive wood one we bought somewhere in Eze.  The village is perched atop a rocky hill on the French coast.  It’s all old stone buildings with a winding walk with stairs interspersed all the way to the top where there are two ultra-luxury hotels. No cars are allowed on the roads up; they aren’t wide enough.  We stopped for an hour at the foot of the hill.  Unfortunately I didn’t even try to go up because I remember how steep it is and my knees won’t let me anymore.  I stayed below and shopped in the little open-air crafts market below and had a drink at a café.

These are Eze perched up above.  I shall just have to live with my memories because this is as close as I'll get to it now.

You can barely see the buildings at the top as we drove away.

The road at the base of the hill

I thought these flowers were pretty and would brighten up the page

There are lots of perfumeries around here and this is an old vat from one.

Upon leaving Eze we drove west and came to a beautiful viewpoint from which we could see Nice lying below.  Above us out of sight beyond some trees Cassie told us was Sir Elton John’s villa.  This is definitely the home of the very rich and famous.  Then it was time to return to Villefranche and the Ovation.  Once again the bus dropped us at the top of the hill by the fort overlooking the bay and we had to walk down to the waterfront.  For anyone who doesn’t know it let me tell you that walking down a steep incline or steps can be more uncomfortable than going up.  I made it and in fact when I checked my steps in the evening I’d gone over 10,000 steps and about 10 flights of stairs.  Not bad for an old lady!

Nice from the overlook we stopped at

Just one of the many lovely villas we saw along the way

Tonight was the last night for many of the passengers.  We drift overnight to Monte Carlo where they will disembark and we get a bunch of new cruisers.  I’m sad to see some of my new friends go, but I know I’ll see some of them again. Anyway, I’ll still be here.  So bonne nuit for now.