The next port we hit was Villefranche, France to discover Nice, Grasse and St-Paul... all considered parts of the "French Riveria".
Villefranche has a natural harbor (which is tide-free..no tides) thus no waves instead calm clear waters but deep waters and a rocky beach). The Bay of Villefranche is one of the deepest natural harbors of any port in the Mediterranean Sea. It has a quaint fishing village where residents come daily to purchase 5 kilos of fresh fish for 10euros.
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| The Bay of Villefranche |
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| Rocky shores |
We toured the coastline of Nice passing the Promenade des Angals, a long stretch of beachfront property where locals come and enjoy the weather and sunshine.
We walked in downtown Cannes (pronounced 'kan'), the famous city that hosts the Cannes Film Festival. We were unfortunately unable to walk the steps of the 'red carpet' since the area was closed for remodel.
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| The famous steps to the Cannes Film Festival where all the celebrities walk on |
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| Cannes' version of our Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Cannes is famous for its luxury shopping, restaurant and hotels. Many of the elite in Europe come vacation here.
At the time we were there, the Tour de France was starting ... unfortunately we didn't get to see any of it..but we were told they were 'close'. :)
One of our highlights was strolling through a farmer's market...
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| colorful fruits and vegetables |
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| tiny watermelon? |
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| heaps of olives |
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| La fromage... choices of CHEESE! |
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| mounds of macarons... |
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| and you can't forget the breads... bountiful bunch of baguettes! |
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| Our favorite bakery in France |
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| chocolatey goodness |
We lunched at a nice restaurant off the strip called Le Caveau 30 and were showered with wine and food.
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| This is a popular traditional French salad.. mixed greens with tuna, egg with a creamy vinaigrette type dressing. They eat this for breakfast, lunch and /or dinner! It's that popular and well loved! |
There is no drinking age limit in Europe.. at least that's what we were told! But the girls did not try any of the wine.. my 15 year old and 18 year old godkids did :)
After lunch, you could not forget the coffee.. or espresso, that's what 'we' call it but not them.. they call it 'coffee'. If you want coffee like in America you would need to order a 'coffee americano'!
I am not into alcohol nor coffee so I abstained. Have to pick and choose my calories you know!
We also were able to explore the medieval village of Saint-Paul de Vence. It is a commune and is one of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera. It's well known for it's contemporary and modern art museums and galleries.
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| Saint Paul de Vence |
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| a quaint walkway |
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| fresh mineralized water.. it was delicious water... I refilled my water bottle with this cool water |
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| mountain top graveyard |
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| a quaint gallery |
The last (and best to me) stop was a perfume factory in Grasse. Grasse is considered the perfume capital of the world! Flowers grow abundantly in Grasse: lavender, jasmine, rose, and mimosa to name a few. There are only 40 people in the world that have the 'noses' to know how to make perfume. Grasse is the hub of the perfume and fragrance industry and is where the world's largest perfumeries have operated for centuries.
Fragonard was the factory that we visited and it was a great educational experience. Fragonard have been producing perfumes since 1926. The uniqueness of Fragonard perfumes is that they bottle their perfumes in aluminum. Why aluminum? Well perfume changes as it ages and gets exposed to air and temperature. (Thus don't store your perfumes in your bathroom.. the scent will dissipate quicker). In aluminum, the perfume scent will stay the same for 7 years.
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| the laboratory |
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| making the scented soaps |
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| checking out the scents |
There are four scent families: naturals, flowers, fruits, and spices. We smelled samples of each and I must say, for non-perfume person, I just loved the natural scent of Etoile. It was very light, fresh with hints of lemon, green apple, ginger and jasmine. The flower scent 'Belle de Nuit' was also very lovely. I was not a fan of the fruit scent 'Belle Cherie' nor the Spice scent 'Diamant'.
Perfumes are also sold by concentration of perfume oils: from cheapest to the most expensive
-Eau de cologne have 5% of the perfume oils (thus of which do not last very long on the skin)
-Eau de toilette have 10% of perfume oils
-Eau de perfume has 25% of the perfume oils
A tip: where do you put the perfume? neck, inside of your wrists, back of your knees or just spray and walk into your fragrance. If you can't smell it on you, then it's strong enough.
Au Revior France...
NEXT UP: A Taste of Florence
We toured the coastline of Nice passing the Promenade des Angals, a long stretch of beachfront property where locals come and enjoy the weather and sunshine.
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