Day three once again dawned bright and early. I had kept this day free to go into the Alps and mountain villages. Started off in St Paul en Vence for my morning coffee. This is the village right by my hotel and I had yet to make it there. The village itself was beautiful and quaint. Tucked into the mountainside and surrounded by hills, there's been little to no modern development to it and it shows.
Next stop was Cannes – only because on a whim, I decided to take that exit on the roundabout. I pretty much decided there and then that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go there before heading to the Verdon Gorge in case I ran out of time.
Driving inside Cannes sucked ass. Even worse than Monacco and that's saying a lot. But at least it was a straight shot to the beach where the lovely, expensive yatchs lolled in their moorings. I walked around until it was time for lunch, which was a lovely banana crepe on the beach (I could really get used to this kind of eating)!
As I was walking back to my car to leave, I was stopped by a lovely man named Montana. It seems this very intelligent guy lived in NYC for 15 years and decided he’d had enough, packed it all up and moved to the EU. He currently lives in Italy with his wife and two kids and also has a place in Cannes. Pays the bills by being a golf instructor but seems to have many other ventures around. This guy has got the right idea!! I’ve decided that one day I’m going to do the same. I should let work know. Jaap, if you’re reading this, consider yourself warned.
Okay, it was now 2pm and I really needed to hit the road. The tour book said to give the canyons a full day but since when do I ever heed tour guides? I made it to Grasse (perfume capital of the world) and promptly got lost. Since I also needed the loo, I stopped at the Fragranod perfumerie and then since I was there anyway, I took their 25 minute tour. Did you know it takes about 6000 kilos of roses to make 1 litre of essence of rose for perfumes?
Finally at 3pm I headed toward the Gorge. After a hair-raising couple of hours, I finally made it to the cooler viewpoints. WOW!!! As I stood on top of those canyons, I wondered what the hell someone with vertigo was doing up there anyway. Still, it was amazing and worth the trip. Though, I would do it via tour bus next time. The drive really wasn't that much fun on my own, especially later in the day. The road was pretty much four hours of this :(On my way home, I stopped by a little village where I guess is the touring start/stop point for the Gorge. I've never seen a 10 square mile of land so filled with bikers, hikers & granolas in my life. And I'm from the ISLAND! How mind-boggling is that?
10pm and it was home sweet home (after getting lost yet again) but the damned restaurant in the hotel was closed at 9:30!!! I thought that Europeans ate later than we did?!!? What gives? So I ate a bunch of food I had picked up at various patisseries and boulangeries along the way…how could I resist? Three things occurred to me that evening. First that I was leaving the next day (sniff, sniff) and second, I hadn’t seen anything of Nice and third I had not once put on my bikini! Still, I had at least another 14 hours before heading to the airport, plenty of time to check a few things off.
So, after a quick dip in the beautiful hotel pool I headed to bed for an early start. The next morning, I headed to Nice for yet another crepe (had to get them all in before I went back to rainy Vancouver) and a short meander around Old Nice and their famous flower market. Frankly, it's a smaller, outdoor version of Granville Island - I wouldn't go back. But they DID have great croissants :)
And that's it - my short sojourn into the French Riviera ended on a high note too. When I bought the car back with a petite scratch, the lovely people at Hertz said I didn't need to pay for it. Viva la France!!!
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