RIVIERA JOURNAL
November 5 through 13,
2003
The Tireless Thirty outside the Casino at Monte Carlo
Sunday, November 9, 2003
(The spooky lady in the upper left hand corner of the picture snuck in there)
The young man with the cool red beard in the blue jacket in the upper right hand corner
is Tom St. Clair, our fearless and creative Collette Tour Manager
PROLOGUE
Written upon return home – Friday,
November 14
Following
is an account of our tour of the French Riviera, a trip planned for almost a
year through Collette Vacations. I
selected this tour on the recommendation of Ron Fenska,
my Collette representative. He indicated
that it was a popular destination because of the fact that one hotel was used
for the duration of the entire trip, with short day trips to the various
locations along the Riviera.
This appealed to me, and I felt it would appeal to
many of my regular travelers who don’t particularly like to pack up and move on
every two or three days. It was
scheduled during off-season to get the best possible price, with the
realization that we wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the main appeal of
the Riviera, its beaches and sun.
Nevertheless, we were blessed with relatively mild weather for the time
of year, with only two days of rain and several partly cloudy days.
Our hotel,
the 4-star Cannes Palace Hotel, was located relatively close to the beach and
the town center of Cannes.
We had a wonderful tour director from Collette, a French Canadian by the
name of Thomas St. Clair, who was pleasant, knowledgeable and creative. The first thing we learned was that because
of our location, the day of arrival and other factors, the itinerary we
received in advance from Collette would be changed to give us the best days for
the best events on tour – but everything would be included, just in a different
order than anticipated. In retrospect,
Tom did a good job in rearranging things.
As is my
custom, upon arrival in my destination, I search out an Internet Café or some
other internet service.
Southern
France is
not as much into the internet as other countries, so I settled for the single
computer in the lobby of our hotel, which was available in 30 minute intervals
for a rather expensive cost of 9 euros per 30 minutes. You received a code to enter, and when the 30
minutes was up, the computer shut down.
The service was further complicated by the fact that three of the
letters on the keyboard: a, m and w and most of the
punctuation were found in different locations than an American keyboard. This really slowed me down. Nevertheless, I got four e-mails out during
the tour which serve as my Journal for this wonderful adventure into Provence and the French and Italian Rivieras. Here is
what I wrote (slightly
edited and corrected upon my return):
FIRST MESSAGE FROM THE RIVIERA
Covering Days 1 and 2 – Wednesday
and Thursday, November 5 & 6
Hi,
all. Arrived safely and on time. Weather
is unbelievably mild and sunny. We are staying in Cannes and yesterday
visited the hall where they have the film festival in May.
Today we go
to San
Remo in Italy. Internet access here is more
complicated than on previous visits. Only one computer
here in hotel and very expensive compared to former places. Also,
keyboard is different, so if the letters and punctuation are messed up, it is
because I failed to look at the keys.
Our plane
left Newark on time, despite the fact that fog delayed many flights.
We were lucky! Took 6 hours to get here, and we were met at airport by an Air
France rep who escorted us to our connecting flight to Nice. The French
are extremely welcoming because they miss American tourists who have been
noticeably absent due to boycotts and anti French sentiment. They are
happy to see us back and have said so. We are one of the first groups to
be on this tour in almost a year: Food is great;
Getting a good look at how the jet set lives and cannot figure out where
they get their money! Small apartments
in the neighborhood of our hotel go for almost 2 million dollars (as
condominiums). We have a nice group of 30 people: 17 in my group
plus 2 from Texas; several from the Chicago area, and the two from New York.
Having fun.
It is 8:30 a.m. on Friday as I write this. Still not used to the
keyboard, but will struggle on. More later.
Send email, as I can get it here. Bye for now from the beautiful French
Riviera. Joe and Penny Laufer
TWO DAYS INTO THE TRIP
Covering days 3 and 4 – Friday and
Saturday, November 7and 8
Today we
were in Grasse, the perfume capital of the
world. Penny couldn't resist contributing to the French economy, so we
now have a variety of French perfumes, soaps, creams and stuff. We then
went to a quaint walled city, St: Paul de Vence, a
medieval city filled with artists, narrow cobblestone streets and nice
restaurants. We loved it. Then on to Nice, where we had cocktails
in the famous Meridian Hotel, and dinner in quaint
Italian restaurant. We are now back in Cannes at 10 p.m.
Weather has
not been as nice as when we arrived, but will hopefully clear for
tomorrow's day in Monaco and Monte Carlo. Yesterday we spent a rainy
day in Ventimiglia and San Remo,
Italy. We experienced an Italian Flea Market in Ventimiglia,
and the Jet Set atmosphere of Italy's Riviera in San Remo.
Our group
of 30 has transformed into a family of 30, having lots of fun together,
motivated often by French wine and the blending of people who just like to have
a good time. As I said in my earlier message, the French have been very
welcoming. I still find this computer very frustrating because I have to
hunt and peck due to the strange keyboard. It would normally take 5
minutes to type this, but it has taken almost 25 minutes.
Next
message will probably be on Monday. Hope all is well where you are:
Thanks for your e-mails.
Joe and
Penny:
THIRD MESSAGE FROM THE RIVIERA
Covering days 5 and 6, Sunday and
Monday, November 9 and 10
The weather
has improved dramatically over the past 2 days with lots of sun and temps in
high 60s.Yesterday we spent the morning at the Rothchild
estate on Cap Ferat - a great stop with fantastic
gardens and outstanding art. Then on to Monaco and Monte Carlo - no gambling, just
sightseeing. We were hoping to see the Royal Family but they were out in
their yacht. Saw where they were married and where Grace is buried.
Today Penny and I broke away from the group (they went inland to Aix en Provence) and we took a train to Nice to do
some personal sightseeing. Lots of sun and a great
relaxing day. The group has now returned and we are socializing in
the hotel bar. I meant to include reference to a great place we visited on
Friday - a hilltop fortress town dating back to medieval days called EZE.
Prince Ranier goes there for dinner at his favorite
restaurant. The town reminds me of Assisi, Italy. Penny bought a
nice piece of jewelry she will gladly show you upon her return:. Tomorrow we go to Antibes and St. Tropez for some scenic and
historic touring. The group is having way too much fun, to the chagrin of
hotel operators, bar tenders and waiters. Penny and I met two fun couples
from England on our train ride to Nice and we
exchanged cards in anticipation of a future get-together in either England or the USA! They're going to check out
"lauferworld" on the internet. That's
it for today. Will tell you more next time.
Fingers crossed for continued great weather. Joe and Penny:
PS we have some great pictures to share - especially panoramic shots of this
beautiful scenery --including snow capped Alps within view of the warm Mediterranean --just beautiful:
J&P
ARMISTICE DAY ON THE RIVIERA – LAST EMAIL
Covering Day 7, Tuesday, November 11
Today was
one of those special days I like while traveling - surprises and
ceremonies. Because it is Armistice (Veteran's/Remembrance) Day, much of France is on "Holiday". We went to Antibes, a picturesque city along the
coast, where we visited the Picasso museum - a real treat, even if Picasso's
works don't appeal to you. At the end of our visit we heard the strains
of a band, and rushed to the town center for the parade and ceremonies
celebrating Armistice day. Someone who didn't
particularly like the French said they were honoring the dead of all the wars
they LOST - which is actually all of them. Anyway, the ceremony was
colorful and very impressive in front of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) …one of
those wonderful, unplanned events that gave us an insight into French life.
After a
lunch on the street in an outdoor cafe (nice weather again) we boarded the bus
for San Tropez, the southernmost point on our tour - a jet set town made famous
by Bridget Bardot and many other famous stars:
We took a boat trip in the Bay of San Tropez and had the homes of the stars
pointed out to us - some recently used by Jack Nicholson and that Clooney guy,
(note: when typing this, I couldn’t
remember “George” as his first name – and couldn’t risk running out of my time
on the computer to find out!) Another "gift" of Armistice
Day was the lack of traffic which allowed us to return to Cannes by a road which hugged the coast
(normally crowded with traffic, but not today). This was one of those
roads you see in Hollywood jet set movies, along unguarded, cliff-hanging roads overlooking the Mediterranean -- much scarier, however, in a bus.
Tonight we
are eating out in Cannes. Tomorrow -- hard to believe
-- is our last day here. We spend tthe day touring Nice, including the Marc Chagall Museum and then a farewell dinner at a
famous restaurant high on a cliff overlooking the sea in Eze,
between Nice and Monaco. On Thursday morning we have
to leave our hotel at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport on time for
our departure:
It's been a
great trip and we are sorry to see it end so quickly.
This is
probably my last e-mail from France. Thanks for listening!
See you all soon. Joe
and Penny.
EPILOGUE
Covering Days 8 and 9, Wednesday
& Thursday, November 12 and 13
Well, our
day in Nice went well, although it was overcast all day. We visited the Russian Cathedral (Russian
Royalty had a lot to do with the wealth and popularity of Nice), the Chagall Museum, a Franciscan Monastery and a Candy
Factory. That farewell dinner in Eze was very nice, and the night view from high atop the
mountain where the restaurant was located was breathtaking, as was the
cliff-hanging bus trip to get there.
We were
awakened at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday for our 4:30 a.m. departure for the airport in
Nice. The plane for Paris left about 30 minutes late, but
arrived in time for our connection. The
people of Air France were once again very helpful to see
that we got to the right place with very little difficulty. The cross-Atlantic flight was uneventful
until our landing at Newark in the midst of extremely high
winds. We were met by our carrier and
whisked to Vincentown, arriving there at about 2:00 p.m.
Four members of our party took advantage of the Paris extension and won’t return until
Sunday.
The
consensus of everyone on the trip was that it was everything we anticipated and
more. We hope to keep in touch with the
new friends we met from other parts of the country, and maybe even travel with
them sometime in the future.
It is good
to be home, and we are happy to report that the French aren’t all that bad,
after all.
Vive la France!