Trois Jour

Bonjou! It is the end of day three here on the belle Cote d’Azur (beautiful blue coast).

We began the day around 8:30am with room service. The waiter served us our breakfast on our balcony. We dined while at anchor in the Mediterranean in the fishing harbor of Villefranche, France.

At 9:30, we went to the 14th deck for the beginner French lesson. We were the ONLY two people there with the instructor. She was from England, so at the end of our lesson we asked her what we should see in London on Saturday night. It was quite nice to be the only people at the lesson, because we could ask questions and she helped us with our attempts at pronouncing some of the French words.

We tendered ashore at 11am, which gave us almost 2 hours before our trip through Nice to St. Paul-de-Vence. It was so dreamy, more than I imagined it would be. We walked around, again on very old, narrow cobblestone roads and took many pictures. There were so many bistros and cafes, but we chose to have lunch at La Pomm Verte. The dinnerware had green apples on them and I know vert is green, so maybe pomm is apple. We sat at a small bistro table for two on the sidewalk under a white umbrella. We ordered ‘Tomate, Poulet, and Gruyere Panini & Crepe Nutella. It was delicious.

We noticed how different the vegetation and colors were. There are pine trees here, but not like the full pine trees at home. Olive trees are everywhere, citrus trees, and these ‘Dr. Seuss’ trees that look like the end of his book, Go Dog Go, where the dogs are having a party on top of a tree. Roses are in full bloom and the lavender is about to burst open.

It was such a picturesque moment being at this seaside café with Rob and then a group of four sat next to us. I’m guessing they were from Alabama or Georgia because of their thick southern accents. It slightly spoiled the moment. Instead of listening for French conversations or the waves splashing the shore, we heard, “If I wanna go to that topless beach, I gotta get a boob job first.”, and “I love the beer here.” It made for an interesting lunch.

We boarded our tour bus and were guided by the nicest French lady named Magali. I can’t even begin to tell you all the history and information she shared with us. The bus ride through very narrow and twisted roads took over an hour. We passed one of Elton John’s homes, a Russian Orthodox Cathedral with golden onion domes on top (which looked really out of place here), and the Onnasis yacht, the Christina. The Cannes Film Festival is going on, so this town of usually 40,000 people is now accommodating over 120,000.

St. Paul-de-Vence was breathtaking. (No wonder Carole loves this Provincial area of France. I could almost hear her laughing as I soaked all this in.) It’s perched high on a mountain top, and we are at the foot of the French Alps, so it’s quite the mountain top. We walked around there for over an hour and took many more photos. We made some purchases, including some art in a little shop, from the artist herself. She was quite helpful and seemed flattered when we complimented her watercolors. All our purchases were tallied without barcodes or cash registers. They calculated our total on a piece of paper and while we paid them in Euros (no credit cards here); they wrapped everything in paper, then put them in our shopping bags. I suppose they took such care giving us the different items because they were the creators of the work.

We ended our tour at 5pm, boarded our ship and cleaned up for one of our formal nights of dining. Rob wore his new suit with a smart yellow tie and I wore one of my birthday dresses. It was a French menu and we enjoyed Lobster Bisque, Beef, Sea Bass, Cherries Jubilee and Soufflé for dessert. It was all very delicious. After dinner we walked around some then went to the theater to see the production, Music in Motion. It was a nice show with great dancing and singing.

Tomorrow we dock in Citivecchia, Italy and ride the shuttle bus 1 ½ hours to Rome! Now’s my chance to use some of the Italian words that Sara and Dawson have been helping me with.

I know it’s getting old hearing how dreamy this trip is, but it’s so true. I’ve not seen a more beautiful, fascinating place on earth. There’s no sandy beach anywhere, it’s all rocks and pebbles. It’s as though the earth here just shoots straight out of the water. It reminds me of Palm Sunday, when the Pharisees tell Jesus to tell the crowd to be quiet and Jesus replies, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40). It appears that the mountains under the sea can’t contain themselves and they are bursting with songs of praise to their Creator. God seems to be showing off for us this week.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good.” - Psalm 34:8