Wednesday, September 16, A Drive to Cannes

Rob was feeling a little better today, but still not 100%, still a little dizzy, but we still plan to do some touring today.  We picked up where we left off yesterday and made our way back to the freeway and followed the directions to Cannes.  You can't come to Nice without seeing Cannes, right?  Cannes is not a small town, and required some maneuvering.  We did find a parking garage with not much trouble, which had a fair amount of spaces available, but all of the spaces were a tight squeeze.  We exited the garaged into what seems to be a dead end alley -- hope we can find our way back here!  Without a map or knowing which way to go, we turn right at the end of the alley and find ourselves at the morning farmers' market.  The vegetables and fruits look really good, plus there were olive oils, cheeses, and even some meats, very charming.  We can see which direction is towards the water, so  we walked in that direction.  There seems to be construction at the port, but we were able to walk around until we find the Palais des Festival (check name).  Here is the location of where the Cannes Film Festival is held annually.  We saw the red carpeted entrance where the stars walk, and Rob posed for a picture.  There are handprints surrounding the front of the building from many film stars, similar to the footprints by the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  Rob took a lot of pictues.  Here is one I took of the handprint of Meryl Streep:

We continued strolling along the paved walkway that paralled the beach.  In Cannes, they have a sandy beach (unlike Nice), but there is no public access for free.  Each section of the beach is controlled by a proprietor who will have a restaurant and beach chairs/umbrellas that you can pay to use.  Today is a partially overcast day, and it is still morning, so there are not a lot of sunbathers out on the chairs.  The walk along the beach is the La Croisette, and it is all expensive designer shops and hotels on the other side of the street.  To be honest, Cannes is really not that impressive architecturally. The hotels that line the beach in Nice are more charming.  In Cannes, some of the buildings are a little run down, but others are kind of really bad 70's era construction:  metal and glass.  The J. W. Marriott is perhaps the best (or rather worst) example of this.  The most attractive hotel on the "strip" is the Carlton, which we photographed and went inside to use the bathroom, too!  Here it is:

After this, we made our way to the pedestrian shopping area a few blocks off the beach and enjoyed a stroll.  The shopping here is very good, if that is what you are into.  We passed a sandwich shop and decided to buy some tuna salad wraps for lunch.  This was our glamorous lunch in Cannes!

Since we had pretty much seen all the sights there are to see, we returned to the parking garage to drive out of town -- the exit ramps in the garage were so tight, it was a miracle I did not sideswipe the car!

Our plan was then to explore some of the smaller towns between Cannes and Nice.  We set the GPS for the Cap d'Antibes, home to beautiful seaside mansions -- what you think of when you think of the French Riviera!  We drove down the little peninsula through the town of Juan les Pins -- not glamorous, but rather more like the poor part of Boca Raton in south Florida!  When we got to the cape ("Cap"), you can surmise that it is nice, but all you see are high fences or 15 foot hedges.  We failed to see one mansion, but I suppose that is how the rich people like it!.  So we continued on to the town of Antibes, just another town I have to be honest.  It is a little disappointing to be driving along what looks to be a coastal road on the map, but you only rarely get a glimpse of the water.  Oh well, on to our next destination:  Biot.

Biot is not on the coast, but is a hilltop town that is known for its glassblowing.  We found our way there with little trouble and also found a parking space (parking was tight).  We walked to the city center, and it is really charming.  A sculptor has created some really great sculptures of shapely women that are various positions of repose with multicolored paint.  They are whimsical and fun.  Rob took a lot of pictures.  We strolled around and checked out the shops that featured glass, but most of the glass work seemed unimpressive to us.  We walked to the church and also took some photos.  Here is mine with Rob in the foreground:

As we walked back through the main shopping street, we did pop into one glass shop, where you could see the glass blower at work in the window.  His wife was the attendant, and she was nice to talk to.  We purchased a glass fish and a snail that her husband had made.

From here we had three other destinations in mind:  hill towns called Haut Cagnes, St-Paul de Vence, and Vence.  Haut Cagnes was not in the GPS, so it seemed unlikely that we would find it (although we did see signs later that afternoon).  Neither was St-Paul de Vence in the GPS, so we set our destination as Vence, figuring that if we found Vence, we could find St-Paul de Vence, since they are adjacent.  Our first hurdle was to get through a giant traffic jam in some unnamed town on the coast.  Here we could see the water, but next to the water were train tracks and strip malls -- why?  Anyway, we get through the traffic, and find our way to Vence.  We pulled into the parking garage there, which is so impossibly tight that we immediately pull out -- I just can't deal with these tight spaces anymore!  We drive through the town center, and it doesn't look particularly interesting, so we called it a day -- just can't drive anymore.  It was about 3pm, so we set the GPS for the Avis office in Nice to return the car -- we will stick with trains and planes from here on out.  One minor hiccup in returning the car (Garmine took us one block too far), but no catastrophes, thank goodness -- and no damage to the car after all these days and miles of driving!

Dinner tonight will be something special -- we are returning to the seafood restaurant called Boccaccio where we ate on our first night.  One of their specialities is paella, and we wanted to return and try it.  They have a few varieties, but we order the seafood paella with shrimp, clams, mussels, calamari and fish.  It is delicious, the best paella we have ever eaten.  The portion was enormous, so we did our best to eat all of the seafood, but we had to leave a lot of rice behind.  It is served for two in a giant pan, then plated by the waiter.  Here are some pictures:

The pan after Rob and I had been served:

What a great meal and a restaurant we would highly recommend!  Now back to hotel to turn in.