Monday, May 11, 2009
Monaco SuperCar Show
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let all the pictures do the talking. Monaco SuperCar show pictures posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dkspence76
Nice, Monaco and the Cote D'Azur
Our apologies to our loyal followers for the slow postings of our travel and Paris blog. April has been a busy month that started with an Easter weekend trip to southern England via the Eurostar for my uncle and aunt's 50th wedding anniversary. The following weekend we flew to Nice on the Mediterranean to spend 4 days in the area with my mum and Erik. Then my mum and Erik were in Paris for 10 days, two of Kim's cousins from Ontario: Laura and Amanda were also in Paris for 2 days during their 1 month European tour. Mack's fiancee Petra was here for an interview, Adam's sister Megan and her boyfriend Jason were here on holiday, and last but not least, my friend Luke from Queen's was here for a few days from Rotterdam, Holland so we spent some time together after 10 years!
Day One: Nice. After landing on a beautiful sunny morning, at the seaside airport, we walked through the town of Nice. The colour of the buildings is amazing, and Kim took some beautiful pictures. As with most towns in europe, the 'old' areas are the most interesting, but they tend to get runover by tourists. Damn tourists! In the afternoon we spent a bit of time driving the coastal roads and ended up in Monaco for a short time, as we planned to spend another day there later in the weekend. We stayed in a fantastic Chambre d'Hote (Bed and Breakfast) in the hills above Nice in the small village of Aspremont.
Day Two: We drove to one of "les plus beau villages". The small town of St Paul de Vence is a 'village percher' or perched village, since many of the old french towns where built on top and on the sides of mountain and hill tops. My mum and dad were here 40 years ago on their honeymoon. Unfortunately St Paul de Vence is very close to Nice so it is more touristy than it was 40 years ago, full of art shops and the like. So off we went on our quest to find the non-touristry parts of the Cote d'Azur. Next stop: Tourettes sur Loup - another perched village further away and not nearly as touristy. We had lunch in the town square and watched the locals play boulles (bocce). Next stop was the town of Grasse. Grasse is the perfume capital of the world with dozens of parfumeries and
flower farms. We went for a 'free' tour of the Fragonard parfumerie. I only say 'free' because it is free, but the last stop on the tour is the gift shop where you smell all sorts of perfumes. I did pretty well in our group of 10 or 12 by guessing correctly 3 of 5 samples we were given to guess the primary ingredient. Maybe I have a new calling! Did you know that it takes 1000kg (2200lbs) of Jasmin flowers to make a litre of Jasmin essence? Luckily they grow quickly. The other very interesting part of the tour was the room where the "nose" works. The "nose" is the person in charge of creating the next recipe. They have at least 7 years of schooling, and work in the room for 3 hours a day, and developed only 1-2 new formulas all year. I don't think I would have the patience for that. Other than that, making perfume is much like making whiskey or moonshine.
Day Three: Day three was the 3 meals in 3 countries day. Breakfast in Nice, France, lunch in Monaco and dinner in northern Itally. Why? Why the hell not? No more borders!
Luckily when we drove into Monaco on the first day, a large poster caught my eye. Something about a exotic car show. That night I googled it and found out that we had inadvertently decided to visit Monaco on the weekend of the Top Marques SuperCar Show. I bought a ticket online (50euros - but worth every centime). So off I went into SuperCar heaven and drained the battery on Kim's camera - luckily right at the end. The pictures are all posted in a separate album on our Picasa site. Meanwhile my mum, Erik and Kim went to the famous Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. We then met up and walked around Monaco a bit. Unfortunately other than the Casino, a few nice buildings and some exotic cars and yachts, it isn't really a great place to visit. The harbour is quite plain, with no attractive waterfront like in Nice or Cannes. But then again, if you want that, you can go to countless other seaside towns and villages. Monaco is just pure 'over the top'; the Vegas of Europe in some ways, just without all of the 'trash'. After Monaco we went to another perched village. This time is was St Agnes in between Monaco and the Italian border. St Agnes is the highest village with a direct line of sight to the ocean. It is perched over 800 metres above the Med. There are even castle ruins from the 15th century and it was even a Roman outpost. After St Agnes we drove 30 minutes to northern Italy and had a nice walk and dinner by the beach. What a day!
Day Four: Off to another small town, this time Biot - one of the glass making centres of France. We had a nice lunch in the town square, but no locals playing boulles this time. Then off to the seaside town of Antibes for a walk around and a cafe. The final stop before heading to the airport was teh famous town of Cannes - where the film festival is held every year. Plenty of good people watching along the beachside - including a lady in a fur coat in 20 degree weather, and another lady in a leopard print jacket, a huge diamond ring and carrying her 'clinging-to-life' rat dog with it's tongue hanging out. Ah yes, and a trip to a Mediterranean port wouldn't be complete without pictures of yachts.
So that was it, our first 'real vacation', and since then it has been a world wind with lots of visitors and the start of apartment hunting. More on that later.
More pictures are posted in the 2009-04-Nice, Monaco and Cote d'Azur album: http://picasaweb.google.com/dkspence76
Day One: Nice. After landing on a beautiful sunny morning, at the seaside airport, we walked through the town of Nice. The colour of the buildings is amazing, and Kim took some beautiful pictures. As with most towns in europe, the 'old' areas are the most interesting, but they tend to get runover by tourists. Damn tourists! In the afternoon we spent a bit of time driving the coastal roads and ended up in Monaco for a short time, as we planned to spend another day there later in the weekend. We stayed in a fantastic Chambre d'Hote (Bed and Breakfast) in the hills above Nice in the small village of Aspremont.
Day Two: We drove to one of "les plus beau villages". The small town of St Paul de Vence is a 'village percher' or perched village, since many of the old french towns where built on top and on the sides of mountain and hill tops. My mum and dad were here 40 years ago on their honeymoon. Unfortunately St Paul de Vence is very close to Nice so it is more touristy than it was 40 years ago, full of art shops and the like. So off we went on our quest to find the non-touristry parts of the Cote d'Azur. Next stop: Tourettes sur Loup - another perched village further away and not nearly as touristy. We had lunch in the town square and watched the locals play boulles (bocce). Next stop was the town of Grasse. Grasse is the perfume capital of the world with dozens of parfumeries andflower farms. We went for a 'free' tour of the Fragonard parfumerie. I only say 'free' because it is free, but the last stop on the tour is the gift shop where you smell all sorts of perfumes. I did pretty well in our group of 10 or 12 by guessing correctly 3 of 5 samples we were given to guess the primary ingredient. Maybe I have a new calling! Did you know that it takes 1000kg (2200lbs) of Jasmin flowers to make a litre of Jasmin essence? Luckily they grow quickly. The other very interesting part of the tour was the room where the "nose" works. The "nose" is the person in charge of creating the next recipe. They have at least 7 years of schooling, and work in the room for 3 hours a day, and developed only 1-2 new formulas all year. I don't think I would have the patience for that. Other than that, making perfume is much like making whiskey or moonshine.
Day Three: Day three was the 3 meals in 3 countries day. Breakfast in Nice, France, lunch in Monaco and dinner in northern Itally. Why? Why the hell not? No more borders!Luckily when we drove into Monaco on the first day, a large poster caught my eye. Something about a exotic car show. That night I googled it and found out that we had inadvertently decided to visit Monaco on the weekend of the Top Marques SuperCar Show. I bought a ticket online (50euros - but worth every centime). So off I went into SuperCar heaven and drained the battery on Kim's camera - luckily right at the end. The pictures are all posted in a separate album on our Picasa site. Meanwhile my mum, Erik and Kim went to the famous Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. We then met up and walked around Monaco a bit. Unfortunately other than the Casino, a few nice buildings and some exotic cars and yachts, it isn't really a great place to visit. The harbour is quite plain, with no attractive waterfront like in Nice or Cannes. But then again, if you want that, you can go to countless other seaside towns and villages. Monaco is just pure 'over the top'; the Vegas of Europe in some ways, just without all of the 'trash'. After Monaco we went to another perched village. This time is was St Agnes in between Monaco and the Italian border. St Agnes is the highest village with a direct line of sight to the ocean. It is perched over 800 metres above the Med. There are even castle ruins from the 15th century and it was even a Roman outpost. After St Agnes we drove 30 minutes to northern Italy and had a nice walk and dinner by the beach. What a day!
Day Four: Off to another small town, this time Biot - one of the glass making centres of France. We had a nice lunch in the town square, but no locals playing boulles this time. Then off to the seaside town of Antibes for a walk around and a cafe. The final stop before heading to the airport was teh famous town of Cannes - where the film festival is held every year. Plenty of good people watching along the beachside - including a lady in a fur coat in 20 degree weather, and another lady in a leopard print jacket, a huge diamond ring and carrying her 'clinging-to-life' rat dog with it's tongue hanging out. Ah yes, and a trip to a Mediterranean port wouldn't be complete without pictures of yachts.
So that was it, our first 'real vacation', and since then it has been a world wind with lots of visitors and the start of apartment hunting. More on that later.
More pictures are posted in the 2009-04-Nice, Monaco and Cote d'Azur album: http://picasaweb.google.com/dkspence76
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