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Wednesday, March 21, 2001

Today we visited Avignon, home of the Popes in the early 14th century. There was a bit of a political mess going on in Rome back then and the Popes bailed for while. I don't mean to be flip, but without going into great detail, that is sort of what happened. When the Popes arrived they built this absolutely gorgeous Papal Palace complex and enclosed the whole city within a wall that still stands and is hugely impressive with towers and crenellations and ramparts. The circumference of the papal city is quite large, larger than any intact walled city we have yet seen.

We got a map of the city from the tourist bureau and set out to find an Internet place, it had been a while since we checked in. That mission gave us a good opportunity to walk around the old city a bit and we saw lots of 300-400 year-old buildings but when we consulted our city map we were disappointed to find nothing marked on it except for the Papal Palace, an ancient bridge, and about 8-10 museums. Our travel book pointed out only the palace and bridge as the two highlights of the city as well.

And so that is what we saw of Avignon, the palace, the St. Benezet Bridge and the lovely 18th century gardens atop the Roche overlooking the Rhone. As I said, the palace is a beautiful structure but was stripped of all it's finery either when the Popes returned to Rome or during the French Revolution or something, because when we took the tour what we saw were massive, empty rooms. Very fine architecture no doubt, but a little difficult to imagine the sumptuousness in which the Popes lived.

The St. Benezet Bridge was built in the 1100's and was the first stone bridge to cross the Rhone. It was washed out in a flood in the 1700s and never repaired, having been replaced by Pont St. Esprit up river a bit. Less than half of the bridge still stands. The song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" is about St. Benezet. This is supposed to be a famous song worldwide but I have never heard of it and am feeling rather ignorant, does anyone else know it?

For years I have heard of Avignon: Former home of the Popes: Avignon, a city of beauty, art and culture: Avignon, devastated by a breakout of the Plague in the 1300s. This was a city with some fascinating history, I was really anxious to see this gem and it turns out this city was a disappointment to both of us.

I don't know if we are hitting too many cities too close together, or if the Visitors Information Bureau needs to rethink their information or what, but here was a good-sized city that was beautiful to see and no way for us to know what we were seeing. They were stuck on the Popes, and that was important to the history of the city, but what about the Plague and what were all those handsome buildings we kept stumbling across? In recent years Avignon has hosted a famous music festival, held each July and it seemed as though the Popes and music were the city's main boasts. I am sure there is more.

After our walk through the Palace, we had lunch at an outdoor café and slowly wandered through the city hoping for some clarifications. Dissatisfied, we made our way back to the bus station and caught the 4:30 bus back to Chateaurenaurd and our campground.

Thursday, March 22, 2001

We finally made it back to the Med!

We left Chateaurenard in the morning, making our way to les Baux an ancient fortified town situated at the top of a rocky spur in the Alpilles, a small range of limestone hills. Historically it was the feudal home of the Grimaldi family, currently the rulers of Monaco. Just beneath the ruined fortified town lies a living town dating from the 17th century. I do believe that town makes it living catering to the tourists who flock here in buses to climb all other the ruins. Quite like Mt. St. Michel, the streets were filled with little shops selling souvenirs. We were invited to accompany a tour group from Kansas City into the chateau, avoiding having to pay the entry fee. They were an odd group - very abrupt with us (except for the lady who invited us to join them) and I was tempted to ask if all Kansas City natives were rude. The views from the chateau are spectacular. The Provencal plains below contain olive orchards and vineyards and on a clear day you can almost see all the way to the Mediterranean.

Baux gave its name to bauxite, the mineral necessary for the production of aluminum, which was first discovered here in 1822. We saw abandoned quarries on the site itself with great square chunks carved out of the hillside.

After Baux we drove to Arles planning to camp outside it for the night but the city did not interest us despite the Roman ruins and Van Gogh associations for which it is famous. We decided to drive on towards our next destination, a campground in Cassis, just south of Marseilles.

We first saw the Mediterranean by Fos-s-Mer, a huge industrial port at the bottom of the Rhone delta. Bruce saw it first and got a kiss (we play "I-saw-it-first, I-won-the-kiss" a lot).

We approached Marseilles, passing Etang de Berre, what seems on the map to be a small sea enclosed by two peninsulas emptying into the Med through a narrow strait. We are both fairly tired of cities right now and hope to avoid them for a few days, so Marseille did not appeal us even though we thought on a different day we might feel differently. We drove a coastal route through the city following the sea passing several marinas as well as some of downtown. Actually the city looked like it had interesting things to offer the tourist, but it still didn't tempt us. We drove right around the Vieux Port (old port) and saw many flat-gorgeous yachts.

While we were still in Spain we read an article about an around-the-world yacht race that was beginning in the spring. If memory serves me correctly, it would start somewhere in Spain, go to Barcelona, then Marseille then backtrack through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and be off and running. I remember it because I couldn't understand the logic of the loopy route. As we passed the Vieux Port we were treated to the sight of some of the boats in the race. The ones that drew our attention were the massive catamarans; one sponsored by Telecom (phone company) another by Club Med. These boats (ships? vessels? yachts?) were big enough to seat 10-12 people across the back (for photo ops, I'm sure - "Have your photo taken on the SS Club Med! Only 75FF!) and still leave room for more. Not your average Hobie-cat! Since they were in port they were attracting all sorts of attention with the ensuing souvenir hawkers in tow.

Finally we passed through Marseilles and crossed another limestone hill region with beautiful views (out our rear-view window) of Marseilles spreading itself along the Med. After a few kilometers we found our campground at Cassis, a small port town.

As we drive further south we are finding the weather to be warmer daily. It isn't yet hot but our coats are stuffed somewhere in the back of Queenie and we aren't looking for them. Bruce was in shorts yesterday and I could have been; our sandals are out and tennies packed away. Tomorrow, Friday, we will camp on the French Riviera near St. Tropez and see if there are any Famous People we recognize and barring that, any beautiful bronzed, sun-bathing, naked bodies to ogle!!!

Saturday, March 24, 2001

We are on the French Riviera - that famous fantasyland portrayed to us statesiders by Entertainment Tonight in flashes of beautiful and most especially, famous people attending various festivals! I always imagined the Riviera as a continuous beach with tanned, slim, young, (topless,) beautiful people worshipping the sun. The reality is as good but in a different way.

One must question what got all those tanned, beautiful, (topless) sun worshippers to the coast in the first place- the sea was not a resort area until about 200 years ago. Whoever came up with the idea, and it may have been the English (King George IV was big on sea bathing in Brighton), they found the French/Med coastline to be a beauty. Quite probably that discovery is what led to the whole "French Riviera" phenomenon.

Our approach, from the west, was along a low ridge of limestone hills dropping right down into the sea, leaving room for small sandy coves peaking between windswept trees. (I wonder if the Med has any coastline that isn't gorgeous?) The N98 coastal road is exactly that, right on the coast. Beautiful new and old homes were nestled in the hillsides and along the shoreline. We keep being amazed by homes built right on the shore just as if they were on a lake rather than a sea. Is there no tide in the Med? Such sights lead us to believe not. Our first sighting of the Riviera was of a rather large bay with a finger of land hooked around it. That finger is where St. Tropez sits. As we drove into town the first thing we saw painted on the road was: No Camping in St. Tropez. Well, we figured as much, our books were very unhelpful on that subject and we were only on a scouting mission anyway. We wanted to determine if we could ride our bikes from our campground to St. Tropez or if we should take the offered ferry from St. Maxime.

We passed a marina filled with pleasure boats interspersed with the occasional working boat then found ourselves driving through the actual village of St. Tropez. And village it is. Somehow, through all the fame and fortune it seems to have hung on to it's character; that of a fishing village. Of course it is a little wealthier than it was when it was only a fishing village but still, it seems to have a purpose. We parked in the marina parking lot, along with about twenty other campers (where they day trippers or wild campers?) and walked the St. Tropez marina. As we admired beautiful yachts, we were enthralled by the quiet and peacefulness we felt there. We could look across the bay filled with sailing boats, and see St. Maxime as well as small villages continuously dotting the coastline. St. Tropez seemed like a sleepy little jewel of a fishing village (whose residents were slim, tanned, fashionably dressed owners of beautiful, expensive yachts) waiting for the day's catch to be brought in. (Why is it that all beach towns seem to sport beautiful inhabitants?) For the sake of objectivity, I must admit that we are here in the off-season and that may make a serious difference in the activity of the village. If so, I think we hit the Riviera at the right time.

Determining that it might be a bit of a ride to go on our bikes, we set Queenie on the road around the bay to find our campground. We passed several campgrounds that were closed, confirming what our camping book stated and overshot the site ending up in St. Maxime. Turning around and consulting the directions to the campground once again we eventually found the site only to discover that once again, the information in our book was wrong and the campground was closed. So...the next campground purportedly open was just outside of St. Aygulf and upon reaching it we were delighted to find it open. The problem that presented was, we were that much further from St. Tropez, well past the bay and St. Maxime and its ferry. Do we return to St. Tropez, park in the marina and walk/ride the town or continue towards Cannes? Further east, Antibes, another famous place is supposed to have an open campground. If so, we could base there and take the train to visit Cannes, Nice and Monaco.

We opted to continue towards Cannes and having done so I wish we hadn't. We finally found a part of the Med that wasn't very pretty, Cannes. Before we reached Cannes we continued to be delighted by the gorgeous coastline with wonderful little bays filled with small boats and sandy beaches. One particularly lovely one was the bay at Agay, just north of St. Raphael. Clear, azure blue sea with a lovely village at the shore and the bay filled with small boats. So it was a real surprise to round a point and see...Benidorm...or a reasonable facsimile in our first sighting of Cannes. Finally we saw the long sweep of beach, but jillions of high-rises destroyed any sense of quaintness there may once have been.

What I know about Cannes could fill a thimble - that being, each year it hosts the oh-so famous Cannes Film Festival. Each May we hear about the winners of the festival and see on TV, famous persons making dramatic entrances to the city. I had always imagined an area of small "art film theaters" to be the setting for the festival with judges and audiences flowing back and forth between the theaters taking in the offered films. Well it ain't like that.

Let me digress a bit...we had found the campground in Biot, near Antibes and happily settled in for the remainder of the day. The next day, Sunday, we took another train ride, from Biot train station into Cannes. It was a very convenient 20-minute ride, saving mental wear and tear on having to cope with traffic and finding parking spots. Train stations and the neighborhoods they inhabit seem by nature dull and shabby and we quickly left this one for the sea. Cannes has a promenade/boulevard lined with chestnut trees (or some such) that runs the length of the seafront. Each end has a marina with the largest and most beautiful private yachts we have ever had the opportunity to see. A couple of 80 ft ships we saw were dinghies compared to some of these craft.

Tied to the dock where a group of six ships and I would bet that they were 200 ft long. White seems to be the color of preference by yacht builders but the largest one of these six was a very light blue and four stories high! It was from South Africa and must be owned by a member of the deBeers diamond family (joking). You gotta be rich to own one of these babies! Things that money can buy don't often impress me, but I was impressed! I envied the owner because I wanted that ship. If I had it I wouldn't know how to run it but that was beside the point, I wanted it! It must have had 15,000 sq. ft of living room in those four floors and I swear I am not exaggerating! It was a magnificent vessel. The others weren't shabby either. Most of the larger boats seemed to have a crew cleaning glass, polishing woodwork, sanding floors and whatever it takes to keep them in immaculate shape. (on second thought perhaps I don't want the boat, unless of course, I could afford the cleaning crew! And while we are dreaming, make them very appealing to the eye, please!)

We passed two wooden sailing ships - one a three mast beauty, that again was close to 200 feet long. The on-deck cabins looked to be luxury personified and I thought of my uncle and aunt, sailors both, who would have loved to see it. The second boat had a gangplank that read the "John McNeill, 1885" and looked to be an older ship, though lovingly tended. We were captivated with them all.

Looking out into the Med we could see two smallish islands. Remember the movie (or if you are a reader, Alexander Dumas' book) "The Man in the Iron Mask"? One of these islands contains the prison that he was held in.

Turning our back to the marina we looked toward the town to see the row of old, extremely elegant hotels lining the promenade. The 1800s were the first push in Cannes' popularity with the arrival of British "rich and famous" and consequently beautiful Victorian hotels were built to house the guests.

Facing one of the marinas was the Palais du Festivals and something was going on there, although what the signs said, we couldn't interpret. We could read that it boasted free entry, so we freely entered. It turned out to be an exposition of games. All types of games. covering the latest video games through board games of more types than we imagined to exist. We found old familiars; Tri-Ominoes, Junga, Connect Four, Rummicube, Checkers, Chess, D&D fantasy games, Playskool for wee ones, but there were many board games we didn't recognize. All games were set up for use by visitors and naturally the video games were the most popular, with shooting and driving the most common (most of the participants were boys too.)

The Palais du Festivals was actually a large convention center with the capability of partitioning off rooms as needed. It is here that the Film Festival is held, no artsy theaters at all, just a convention center with created movie theaters. How disappointing.

Sunday was a market day and we followed the bags laden with goodies to their source, a large indoor market with all sorts of foodstuffs for sale. We bought avocadoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and red onion to enhance our dinner salad, then set off to walk a bit of the city.

Remember my comment about neighborhoods by trains? It seemed that once you couldn't see the sea, the city turned into train neighborhoods, shabby and dull. The guidebooks say Cannes is good for a whole day's visit, we wrapped it up in three to four hours. Highlights: the marinas, the 19th century hotel fronts and the games exposition. I wish we had stayed another day to really explore St. Tropez, looking even more like a jewel in comparison to Cannes. Oh well.

We returned home around 2:30 and because the day was glorious, sat out in the sun for a while. First time I have had my bathing suit on since Spain, 2000!! By the way, the beaches of the Riviera are a little empty at this time, so we cannot give a report on the authenticity of tanned, beautiful, topless sun worshippers - sorry!

Bruce took off to find a Petanque (the real name for Boules) court to practice and hopefully find some players. I chose not to go. Around 5:30 he returned devastated. One of his Obut brand matching balls had fallen out of its case somewhere along his 3+km ride to the courts. We both took to the road in search but came up empty handed. We found his measurer just outside the campground leading us to believe the ball was not far from the campground but were unable to find it. Bruce was crushed. Serendipity raised its hand once more; the Obut factory was about 10km away from the campground and we determined to go there Monday to inquire for a replacement.

Monday, March 26, 2001

Still weary of cities, we decided to pass on Nice and visit Monaco from the Italian side rather than the French. This was decided Monday morning, after we hand washed some clothes. They needed to dry before we could leave though and that tied up our morning. We would leave Biot by way of the Obut factory and then continue the several hour drive to San Remo, our chosen destination. Plans escalated when we remembered the French penchant for two-hour lunches and how that could really mess with our travel schedule so we left in a panic at 11:13. Luck was with us, we didn't get lost and the Obut factory had a ball the same weight as Bruce needed. The transaction was completed by 11:57, Bruce was appeased and we were on our way without messing with their lunch hour!

We no sooner got out of sight of Cannes than the beautiful French coastline reappeared. We saw more marinas with huge yachts and beautiful homes dotting the hillside. As we passed through Nice, we thought how nice, and felt we might be missing something here by not stopping. In a word, Nice looked elegant. Perhaps we will visit on the sequel trip.

We got to drive right through Monaco and saw the prettiest country yet. No matter that it is only one square mile in size and completely urbanized, the city had the most beautiful and stylish architecture. We drove past the casino and were thrilled at its beauty. We will be coming back to explore the city tomorrow. We saw our first Ferrari, having decided to count them from Monaco through Italy.

And finally we were in Italy. New territory and as usual we are feeling the vertigo that arriving at a new country induces in us. San Remo, about 20 km from the border is our stopping point, in a campground overrun by Germans. Not a single Dutchman can we find in the campgrounds. A first!!!! The campground is right on the shore of the Med, I can look out Queenie and see the sea. Tomorrow we will find the train and return to Monaco.

Tuesday, March 28, 2001

The San Remo train station is about a 2.5km walk into town from the campground. We got up early (for us) to catch the 9:34 am train to Monaco. Walking through town we saw some lovely elegant hotels, a seaside promenade that stretched for blocks, paved in red, black and white tiles, and a Russian Orthodox onion domed church. (The Russians used to come!! The Russians used to come!!)

We caught our train without a hitch but needed to change trains at Vintimiglia, a task that provided us with some anxiety. That proved to be less difficult than we anticipated, and a precious little Italian lady joined us on board. We chatted together, using three languages, Italian, French, English and lots of hand motions until she departed at Menton, the stop before Monaco.

Getting off at Monaco we were treated to a sumptuous, marble designed train station, our first indication of the wealth on display in the principality. Talk about shooting holes in the dull, shabby train neighborhood theory! Leaving the station, we entered the city near the marina where we once again, got to see huge beautiful yachts in the harbor.

Turning away from the harbor we were treated to the sight of magnificent apartment buildings and hotels facing the waterfront. As I said before, Monaco, which is only one square mile in size, is totally urbanized which means almost every square foot of land has been built upon. But boy, has it been done with style! We headed uphill towards the Monte Carlo Casino and passed shop after shop of designer name businesses all housed in the bottom floor of elegant buildings. This place reeks of money! Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Ferrari (up to three now) BMW and other luxury cars outnumbered the more ordinary brands. At the casino Mercedes Benz was setting up a classic car display, but as nice as the classic Mercedes were, we had already seen them in Munich - been there, done that!

The casino on the other hand was incredible! What a showpiece! The outside design was opulent and had uniformed doormen at the entrance. Before the casino was a square with fountains and well-tended gardens. No wonder this place is known worldwide! Surrounding the square were world-class hotels complimenting the style of the casino. Menus were posted outside presenting the day's meals, no prices included - if you dare to enter this domain, you must be able to afford it!

The casino didn't open 'til noon so we went off in search of affordable food, settling on a café with a bookie room in the rear(!) and had fromage sandwiches with a Leffe beer chaser. People walked in and out, placing their bets (on who-knows-what) as we ate and counted motorbikes passing by (close to 100 in half an hour).

It was after noon so we returned to the casino. There is an entry fee into the inner gaming rooms and had it been later in the day we would have paid it for the pleasure of watching the high-rollers, but since it was only 12:30 the place was still pretty empty. We did get to visit the foyer with two grand staircases on each side, marble columns and ornate gold accents all around. A smaller, less ornate room housed my eternal favorites, slot machines, and I can happily report I left the world-famous Monte Carlo Casino a winner! By 33 FF, about $5 US!

It was time to go to le Rocher, the promintory that the castle sits on and the site of the original city of Monaco. We walked down a hill, past the harbor (stopping to unsuccessfully post this) and up a quite steep path to reach the summit. We entered the palace square and were greeted by a statue of the original Grimaldi family member, who was awarded the principality in 1213 (or so). The palace square contains the palace (brilliant, huh?) which takes up a lot of space. There is a changing of the guard daily at 11:55, which if we had been thinking we could have seen. During the summer you can do a tour of certain rooms in the Palace, but that doesn't start 'til June so we were out of luck. We did see loads of Italian students on field trip however. We walked through old town towards the cathedral where Princess Grace in buried and came across tour group after tour group, all anxious to take photos of her grave. Then we walked the perimeter of the promintory on our way down the hill. This little country is immaculate. All buildings are clean with no soot marks and properly kept up. No dog doo-doo (a first), the roads are in good repair, gardens are pristine. It is amazing what money can!

Eventually we had enough and returned to the train for our hour-long ride home.

Tomorrow we'll visit San Remo.

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