Thursday, July 19, 2012

France Trip (Pre-Paris)

I just got back from an incredible trip to France! (July 10-18) Not sure where to begin. . . . I guess a good place to start is the fact that my plane out of St. George was delayed so by the time I caught the flight form Salt Lake to Paris it was far behind me! It ended up taking 4 days to find me (on my last day in Nice).

After arriving in Paris (on Wednesday), I was taken on a wild goose chase from one end of the city to another in my flip flops! We were in a hurry to meet up with some of Shelbee's friends from school at the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle. Shelb's friend Emily from Canada was also there with us.





On Thursday morning we headed to the Orly airport to catch a flight (1.5 hrs.) down to Nice and the French Riviera. Man was it nice down there! Big hills and mountains right on the coast. Beautiful!

Coastline View


View from Castle Hill to the East

A cute old lady playing her violin in the street

Believe it or not, this Lamborghini was parked outside of McDonalds!!!

On Friday we ventured out on the train and went all the way into Italy to a little city called Ventimiglia to go check out the famous Friday Market. We found some good bargains and some good food!





I loved that this guy had pink crocs on!

Typical fruit Market

Meat & Cheese vendor

Coconut Ice Cream . . . delicious!!!

From Ventimiglia we headed back toward Nice but stopped at a small beach town called Villefranche-sur-Mer. I think it's one of the only places that had sand for a beach area instead of rocks. Pretty!



I think I had this pizza 2 or 3 times for dinner. It was that good!

Saturday was our day designated to go to Monaco and the village of Eze. That day was also Bastille Day in France (their Independence Day). The Principality of Monaco was insane! Talk about Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous! Every other car was a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or something else that costs $100,000 +!!! We walked over to the Monte Carlo Casino, through some of the gardens, and then down to the boardwalk. We took a tour though the casino. It was super fancy. We were not allowed to take pictures but if you know me, I managed to take a few anyway. :0)



Fancy cars parked outside of the casino. 


Monte Carlo Casino



Down on the boardwalk they had a lot of things going on. Shelbee and I treated ourselves to a fish foot massage for 10 euros. They supposedly eat the dead skin off your feet. It definitely tickled. Never experienced anything like it before!





From there we headed up to the Oceanographic Museum and the Prince's Residence. We had lunch at the Museum and I enjoyed a fabulous Peach Melba!!!






From Monaco we took the train back to Eze. From the train station we took a bus clear up to the mountain top (1,041 feet above sea level) to see this little old medieval village. It was by far my favorite place that we visited on the trip! The area surrounding Eze was first populated around 2000 BC as a commune. The oldest building in the village is Chapelle de la Sainte Croix and dates back to 1306! The village now has little shops in it for the tourists as well as a full service hotel. Who would have thought!??




The Chapel


This was inside Chateau Eza. We had to order a $20 juice in order to go see the view! :0) It was worth it!



We made it back to Nice just in time to grab a bite to eat and catch the fireworks for Bastille Day.



More to come on Paris . . . . . . .

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