Monte Carlo, Monaco

Next up was Monte Carlo. Monaco is it's own principality bordered by France on three sides. It could fit inside Central Park, and it's 5,000 citizens would only fill a small fraction of the seats in Yankee stadium. 

Monaco is one of the only places in the world that does not have money problems! Over 90% of the residents of Monaco are millionaires. Every year, the Formula UNE race car race takes place on the winding roads that go right through the city! You can see the skid marks where they take (or miss) turns. Those are your fun facts for the day.

We woke up early to go on a tour, and the first stop was the Cathedral in the Old City. It was pretty, but we were not as impressed after seeing the churches of Barcelona! The Cathedral in Monaco is a little over 1000 years old, so it is fairly new as far as churches go.

Princess Grace is buried inside, and so are a bunch of royal Grimaldis.

flowers on Princess Grace's tomb

inside of the church

We walked past Princess Caroline's house (the oldest daughter of Grace) who was recently 'seperated' from the Prince of Hanover.

she wasn't home

checking out the views on our walk

We continued on to the Royal Palace where we got to go inside the Prince's quarters and take a tour of the inside. They still use the Palace regularly, and it is full of so many antique pieces of furniture and artwork.

one armed guard..

the royal palace of Monaco

changing of the guards

view from outside of the palace

playing with their cannonballs

I was full of facts for the day since I studied up the night before. Legend has it that the Grimaldi's entered the castle of Monaco in the 1200s dressed as monks seeking refuge. When they were let in the castle, they threw off their cloaks and drew their swords to take control. Sneaky little people. Our guide from Grimaud in Provence also told us that the Grimaldis were originally thieves before they became a great family. Not a trustworthy bunch.

monk with sword statue - which is also featured on the Grimaldi coat of arms

ooooooh

view of the palace

We walked by the beautiful building which holds the Musee Oceanographique, an important research institute once headed by Jaques Cousteau. There is an aquarium in the basement!

via

this was the art exhibit outside the museum, biggest baby ever

Next, it was on to Monte Carlo! Ready to gamble our life away in the casino!

the Grand Casino! jacket and tie required 

Hotel de Paris

Joe was obsessed with the cars. Ferrari's were like Hondas. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

We sat down at the Cafe de Paris on the square beside the Casino and had black american coffee. eek. I freaked out and copied Joe's order. Probably best to always order cappuccino.

7 euro coffee

posing in the park in front of the casino

There was a yacht parked in the port that belonged to a saudi arabian prince called the Lady Moura. It was the biggest one there (and there were LOTs of big ones), and it probably cost more than 1000 houses. When it was launched in 1990 it was the ninth largest private luxury yacht in the world.

insert me for scale

We went back to the Windsurf and laid out on the deck overlooking Monaco. There was a little sailing school that went by us:

We had some more wine and watched the sunset as we sailed away!

Goodbye Monaco!

Cannes, France

We left San Tropez at 4 pm and arrived in Cannes around 7 pm. We were only staying for the evening and the Windsurf was heading to our next destination at midnight.

Sunset on the French Riviera

via

Cannes was super glitzy, and we walked down the Promenade de la Croisette - a waterfront avenue with palm trees and all kinds of fancy stores. Most of the stores were closed because it was so late, and some of them took their diamonds and Rolexes inside for the night. I thought Joe was going to buy me a Hermes scarf as a middle-of-the-honeymoon gift, but he started laughing really hard when he saw how many euros they were.

Cannes City Hall

We saw the place where the Cannes Film Festival is held every year:

Not a great picture, sorry!

we hung out in a fancy hotel

There were so many fancy cars it was ridiculous, and Joe wanted to take a pic but was scared to use a flash...

I don't know what kind of cars these are

 walking along the Promenade

in front of the Carleton Palace

hanging out on the beachfront

San Tropez, France

The first night aboard the Windsurf yacht was a pretty rough one. The boat was rocking so hard all night and we were both feeling preetty ill.... the waves were crashing against the boat and covering our windows! We watched movies pretty much all night. We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into..

Here is the view from our cabin windows before it got dark and rough:

We were excited to get up the next morning and sleep in the sun on the deck when the waters had calmed down. We arrived in San Tropez in late afternoon and took a little boat in to shore. 

There was a lot to see so we walked around the port and the town and saw the Cathedral and a lot of cool shops. 

Here we are in the square where people play bocci ball

this pigeon was drinking out of the fountain and we (I) thought it was hilarious

Joe got hungry and we found somewhere to eat where we could understand the menu (not at all fluent in french) and sat down.

The Citadel Restaurant

We met some American vacationers who loved to chat and took our picture

Joe's mussels

I felt like I was in this painting:

Cafe Terrace at Night

We walked back to the Port to sit at a bar and watch the people on their fancy yachts. There were so many of them lined up, it was insane. We also watched the people pull up to the club next to us decked out in cocktail attire which is obviously the norm around those parts... we were super tired and headed back to the Windsurf.

The next day we woke up early to take a tour of the inland villages of Provence. A bus drove us to Grimaud, a village that was once owned by the Grimaldi family, for whom it was named. We got to explore the ruins of a medieval castle, which I loved! Here is our guide explaining the history:

our little french guide! I will name him Pierre.

the castle

view from a hole in the castle walls of the city below

Looking over the villages

climbing up to the castle

The 12th-century Romanesque Saint-Michel church, a parochial church with a square clock tower.

they were starting their service as we left and the bells were ringing

I had a DiVinci Code moment when I realized that tons of the shutters and doors in the village were painted a shade of blue and I became obsessed with it. I asked the guide if there was any meaning and he acted confused like he had never noticed it (definitely a cover-up.)

I will spare you all of the pictures I took of it, but trust me - there were a TON

The graveyard in Grimaud, not a bad place to be buried..

Next we drove to Gassin, another charming little village with a special treat for Joe, a map! Our guide explained a lot about local wine making, and said to only buy wines labeled AOC. He also told us about cork trees (which only grew in this certain area) and harvesting them, which greatly intrigued Joe. Apparently there is not as great of a demand for cork stoppers in wine anymore, so the cork is also being used for insulating homes, and making baskets.

he loved it

ahem..

Joe trying to fit through a walkway

buying local wine in a cave-store

Our last village was Ramatuelle, probably my favorite of all. It had a little market going on (it was Sunday morning) and we strolled around the little streets and discovered all kinds of cool hidden surprises.

The bus dropped us back off in San Tropez and we went to eat on the square. It happened to be free-museum day, so we went into L'Annonciade museum of San Tropez to see sculptures, impressionist and pointillism paintings. 

We got some tiramisu flavored gelato and headed back to the Windsurf to get ready for our next destination!