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This blog is about our brief visit to Nice France and the surrounding area.

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April 8 - Leaving the Crystal Serenity for Nice, France. Day trip to Cannes and Antibes

We woke to a very nice sunny day and were out of the ship by mid-morning for a ride into Nice, France.  Nice is only about a half an hour away from Monaco.  Our hotel is the Hotel Ellington, nicely located near the main shopping street and not far from the waterfront.  We went out for a light lunch near the hotel and then went back to the hotel to wait for our afternoon tour.

We are signed up for a small group tour but it turned out we were the only ones signed up…so private tour it is.  We headed up the Cote d’Azul for our first stop…the resort town of Cannes.  Cannes is mostly known for its major film festival and we did see the new venue, which currently has a pink “carpet”.

Most of our visit was to the major promenade along the beach with the luxury hotels and luxury stores.  

Who knew that Rolex made big clocks?

Cannes has a naturally pebble beach but it has been transformed to a sandy beach by the addition of tons of sand.  It looks like they must get some reasonable surf as many parts of the beach had sand built up such that the sections were surrounded by little sand walls.

It looks lovely and there are a lot of small restaurants/café’s right on the beach. And there were a lot of people just hanging out on the promenade enjoying the sunshine.

They were having a TV festival and some of the tents were still up over the sidewalks...

and some of the trees were lit with little crystal type lights.

We took a coastal drive to our next stop in Antibes.  

The visit focused on the old town that is enclosed by 16^th century ramparts.  The old town area is pretty small but quaint.  

There is a Picasso Museum here...

another old church...

and a little beach.

We did stop at the best ice cream place in town.  We got there between major lines.  The ice cream was phenomenal.

Golfe-Juan, adjacent to Antibes, is famous for being the place where Napoleon arrived back in France after escaping from Elba.  From here he marched to Paris and eventually to Waterloo where he underwent his last great defeat.

We also drove along the Cap d’Antibes.  The area is forested and home to huge grand villas.  Someone has a lot of money here as well.

We were back by 6:00 and shortly headed out to a nearby small coffee shop for dinner.  We split a large baguette sandwich.

April 9 – Nice, France on our own

We are on our own today.  After breakfast we headed out to Avenue Jean Médecin where all of the luxury goods shops are located.  This led to the Place Massena.

We then found the Fontaine Miroire d’Eau…a plaza with magical fountains.  And the "pool" was like a mirror when the fountains weren't running. 

After taking lots of pictures we passed the Fontaine du Soleil…

on our way to the waterfront promenade.  The bay sweeps in a long, gentle arch from the castle hill all the way down to a peninsula where the airport is located.  The color of the water is incredible.

Then it was back into the streets to the old town of Nice.  Old Nice is full of narrow streets and old architecture...making it very fun to explore.  It is truly an old, medieval town with narrow, windy streets, 

interesting shops and markets,

plazas

and interesting buildings.

We did find the old flower market with lots of flower stalls and various other goods for sale.  Didn’t buy anything but was certainly tempted to buy the sachets and soaps.

After a lot of wandering we headed back to the waterfront and off to the stairs that led us to the top of Castle Hill for more great views.  

An entrepreneurial individual was out to make a few easy bucks (Euros).  It didn't look like many people were leaving any tips.

Only a small amount of castle ruins remain as the castle was torn down a few hundred years back. The castle was torn down by Louis VIX in the 1600's so there wasn't much there but the views. 
 
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On the way down we found the Jewish Cemetery where we wandered around a bit.

Then it was down to the old town for some lunch before heading back to the hotel for a nap and work.  We decided to eat a light dinner in the hotel bar…quiche for Mary and a sandwich for Paul.