Au la la-The French Riveria

Day 8 and 9 were spent hobnobing with the rich and famous on the beaches of the  French Riveria. We drove over 600 km from  Barcelona to Cannes, near Nice today. As it took most of the day, after check in and quick drive by and shoot (remember  this is when we as tourists try and get that perfect shot with your camera lense as we drive through the city whilst the tour director points out the sights).We are  now particularly proficient at photographing  trees, french telegraph poles, cars,trucks, buses etc.Without managing  to capture  the monument  we intended.

Day 8 ended with a lovely dinner at a restuarant on the French Riveria and then a walk on the beach. It only gets dark here around 10pm which is magical. 

Dinner ended up lasting around 3 hours where Brandon practiced a bit more french but ended up switching back to English after the very proper french waiter spoke so rapidly that he didn't have a chance. We had far too much excellent wine - it was great.

The couple next to us at the  resturant had their malamute husky with them. He pulled  cute  faces at the  waiter and receive  many treats from the staff. Made me realize how much I missed our fur babies today. Also the fact that  mostly I photographed peoples pets today may have been a clue too. At all the service station  stops and at St Pauls  the following  day  we spotted cats ☺. So all the 'le meows' received lots of attention.

The name Cannes  means  the place of reeds. It's  famous for its  Cannes film festival. Only 3 times in the history of the festival have women  been the recipient of the  golden palm award. Cannes was first  established circa 200BC but nothing remains of this  time. It was mostly developed  in the 19th and 20th century  as the English  would come here for a holiday to get away from the miserable UK winter weather. The area between Cannes and the border of  Spain is  famous  for its  wild flowers, wild horses, wineries and flamengos (didn't  see any😛-only the wineries ).

The following  morning  after turning our bedroom into a Chinese laundrymat, we spent the morning swimming in the chilly Mediterranean Sea and lying on the beach.  To Brandon's  horror the only women tanning topless was probably  in her 80's (hard to tell due to  her years of her skin being sun baked) not  one of the girls in the gorgeous  bikkinis took off their top -😆unlucky.

St Paul is a small town up in the hillside about an hours drive from Nice . This  town is a MUST see! Make sure you have added this destination to your bucket list (and it needs tobe on the top of the list too). It is a very old stone built village  with cobblestones and narrow ally ways. The little  streets are lined with with art galleries, clothing stores and coffee  shops. The town is know for its art culture. It's  very picturesque with ivy, bogenvillas and other plants climbing along the walls of the houses and shops  village.

Here after we took a drive through the  hilltops of Nice to view the magestic views and be awstruck by mansions owned by Tina Turner and Elton  John.

Interesting fact- Nostredamus was born in the  south of France and the family changed their name to Nostredamus meaning 'our  lady' when they  converted to catholosim from jewdaism. He prophesied that King Henry the  second king of France would die bleeding  from his eye. He was later injured in ajousting  match and as his visor was not pulled down, he was injured in the  face, bled from his eye and died  the next day.

Cheers,

Nicolette.