Hitting the Sights

This weekend was a whirlwind of tourism. After having made our decision to return to the US in early summer, we’ve turned up the heat to see and experience everything we can in the next few months. We had this weekend free, so we knew we had to take advantage of it – we’d do the Cote D’azure on Saturday, and head to Avignon on Sunday. It would be an action-packed historical extravaganza!

We ditched the iPods and Minecraft (tears were shed and proclamations were made about how unfair this was) and piled into the car early-ish Saturday morning. We sped down the driveway, winding around the hairpin turns, past the rabid barking dog, and down the one-way roads of doom to our first cultural stop. The Boulangerie.

Ann leapt out of the car, ran into the store and purchased our morning breakfast – two chausson aux-pommes, four pain-au-chocolat, two croissants, and a baguette. We like to travel light. We made our way to the auto-route and screamed our way to our first stop, Cannes.

Ah, Cannes – located on the azure blue mediterranean sea. It’s a sparkling jewel, studded with movie stars, cinemas and old ladies with too many face-lifts walking their toy poodles on the boardwalk. We knew the girls would be excited to go, since there was a chance they might see some of their favorite movie stars – Hiccup, Kora, the Skipper, Ricco, Private, Kawalski, King Julien, Mort and Katy Perry.

We parked down by the beach and emerged into the sun. Beautiful tanned amazonian movie stars in short-shorts and rollerblades cruised past us. Dashing men with chiseled chests stood on the beach and saved children from shark attacks. Old Cadillacs sped through town, gangsters hanging out of the windows firing madly at the police cars which chased them. It was like stepping into the center of the cinema universe.

 

 

  

Except that it wasn’t. It’s the dead-season right now – so it was… well, dead. The streets were pretty empty. There was an antique market that was limping along with the occasional tourist, and the boardwalk stroll took us past luxury shops which were closed for their annual 2-month long winter coffee break. Truth be said, Cannes isn’t really all that – at least not now. But I do imagine it’s quite different during the film festival.

There’s an old church perched on a hill with windy streets leading up to it. They’re fun to walk up, but it’s mostly a residential area. The older part of Cannes has an active market where locals get their produce, meats and fish. There are long streets near the boardwalk stuffed with the same tourist-trap shops you see all over provence.

 

We cruised around the antique market a bit, and headed past the monster-casino to the boardwalk. One one side of us was a row of hotels and luxury shops (mostly closed), and on the other was the beach. You would imagine the beach to be a beautiful place, but most of the hotels across the street had staked out large portions of the beach and built (now-closed) cafe’s on it. Due to global warming (and maybe winter-storms?) huge sandbags had been brought in and piled in front of the cafe’s to prevent them from being flooded by the rising sea. Even if you could dine in the cafe, you’d probably experience PTSD as the effect would be somewhat like living in a foxhole. I doubt you could even see the water from your table.

The luxury stores were out of control. All the big brands you have come to love (and avoid) were there. Cartier, Gucci, Armani, etc. There was even a UK-based cell phone company who sold luxury cell phones for 11,000 Euros. Apparently they get the same crappy cell service and wi-fi we get on our 400 Euro phone.

The girls were good sports and walked with us. It was fun to be there, but since we were unable to find any of their favorite movie stars (Gandalf was nowhere to be seen), we decided it was time to head down the coast to explore some of the other amazing sights.

We drove down the coast and headed up to Juan Les Pins. Our stomachs were growling, so we pulled over at a local boulangerie, hopped out and bought some sandwiches and drinks. We drove through the town (it was beautiful, but there was no parking to be found), and stopped outside the city limits by the ocean where we had lunch. The mediterranean was gorgeous – blue, azure waves, pebble beaches, sunshine.

Our next stop was Cagnes-sur-Haut – a small village/castle located up on a hill. It was a gorgeous little town, with twisting medieval streets. We pulled into town and found the local parking – which seemed odd. We pulled up to the entrance and a pair of glass doors slid open. We drove in and found ourselves in a tiny little room. Tracks were on the floor for our tires. The attendants beckoned us to climb out of the car and exit the room him. Shortly after another door opened in the room and a robotic arm came out, slid under the car, lifted it up and carried it out. Screens on the walls around us showed the robotic arm lower it deep into a silo eleven stories deep.  The arm gently deposited the car into an open spot and withdrew. The attendant handed us a ticket. The girls were freaking out – they loved it.

We headed out of the parking and up the streets of the village. The views were beautiful. From the map we expected the area to be rather empty of buildings, but it seemed like houses were everywhere. Despite this, the sweeping views of the homes below and the mediterranean in the distance were gorgeous. We climbed further into the village, through the narrow twisty streets and emerged in a courtyard.

(note: Josie’s photo-bomb arm)

   

I had seen a post on facebook about fun with panoramic photos and decided to give the technique a try. I had the girls stand at one end of the courtyard and started to take a panoramic photo. As soon as they were out of the camera’s view, they ran around me and positioned themselves further along. We repeated this a few times and voila! A single photo with the girls 2-3 times. They loved it! See if you can find them below:

We wandered the town a little more and emerged into a courtyard outside the castle walls. Cafe’s spilled into the plaza and a playground was nestled just out of sight below. The girls headed over and started playing while we found a cafe and warmed up to a warm espresso.

On the way out of town we stumbled across a restaurant named “Josie-Jo”, which of course it the nickname of our wonderful photo-bomb prone child. We couldn’t resist getting a shot of her there. 🙂

Our final stop was St. Paul-de-Vences. This small medieval village is listed as one of the most picturesque villages of France, and it’s not hard to see why. Driving up to it is stunning. It appears ahead of you, perched up on a cliff and surrounded by ramparts.

Unlike Beau de Provence, it’s in excellent condition. It’s filled with twisty little streets and courtyards. It almost feels like you’re visiting a small neighborhood of Minas-Tirith from lord of the rings (minus the orcs). Tiny cobble-stone streets lead up into the village and are lined with art galleries, shops and restaurants. Everything looks ancient, but it’s all beautiful.

 

The village is really romantic and gorgeous. We were there at the end of the day in the low season, which meant that almost no one was in the streets. It was great to really be able to walk the village and admire it’s beauty. It was another great example of how proximity builds community. Small courtyard, lavoires, a church. Everything is condensed. This was of course for protection more than anything, but it makes you wonder whether the people who lived there felt a camaraderie, or just ended up hating each other because they lived in such close proximity.

The architecture was interesting. We came across this one little alleyway, which looks like someone just shoved it in there by mistake. It was shoulder-width and hardly wide enough for me to pass through. A tourist made a comment about it not being a great road for Americans.

We travelled through the village, stopped at the church (which looks like every other church we’ve been in), and headed out to the ramparts from where we could watch the locals put on a show of playing boules and Josie insisted that she take pictures of us kissing. It was a fun afternoon, but one which left the girls exhausted. The reality is that once you’ve seen one medieval village, well … you know the rest. 🙂