France - Part 1

We chose a tour of southern France to take in the turquoise shades of the Côte d'Azur, the pastel palette of Provence and glittering, romantic Paris. Our travel agent helped us plan the trip with Tauck for two special occasions. Our 20th wedding anniversary (February 14), and my upcoming 60th birthday in August. I have been to London, Scotland and Italy and wanted to experience France so we booked it. We flew from NYC to Nice and were shuttled to trendy Cannes where the Cannes Film Festival was going on. We stayed at the JW Marriott and enjoyed a celebrity sighting on the elevator. Sly :-)

Our trip consisted of the French Riviera, the French countryside and Paris. Upon arrival in Cannes, we hadn't slept in over 24 hours and were hungry so we spoke to the concierge and he recommended a place to have lunch within walking distance from our hotel. It was a winner, and we felt very welcome in France. We ate outdoors, and made instant buddies with others eating near us. 

You may have seen "the Carlton" on TV and in the movies, and we considered having tea but ran out of time.  It is lovely. 

Our second evening in Cannes, we had dinner with our tour group. We started out with cocktails on the beach. We instantly became buddies with the tour group, and there was a total of 35 of us. We were from various parts of the United States, and Joe and I were the only ones from New York.

 We could not resist having a Gelato while strolling past the lovely boutiques in Canne. I had a crepe for dinner...Oh la la, they were so good.  

Here I am the next morning getting ready to head to Old Town before cruising to Nice. We had lovely finger foods on the cruise, but the water got very choppy towards the end. 

When we were in Cannes, we watched a young lady make crepes and I chose savory ham and cheese. This would be much easier for me.....thanks Monique how to turn a torilla into a French crepe :-)

This photo was taken in Old Town, looking down over Cannes. 

Lovely harbor.

Arrived in Nice, and went to the Chagall Museum. 

Spent a couple hours walking around Nice after visiting the Chagall Museum, and found  a place to have pizza. We were both craving pizza. Boarded the bus after lunch and headed back to Cannes for our final overnight before heading to Aix-en-Provence in the morning. We went from being surrounded by water to being surrounded by olive trees and lavender fields. 

We were able to see firsthand what inspired van Gogh in St-Rémy and Cézanne at Mont Ste-Victoire. 

We did a little shopping for lavender products. 

 We enjoyed wine tasting before checking into our lovely hotel in Saint Remy de Provence where we stayed for two nights.  I wish we had a longer stay at this hotel since they had a spa that we didn't have time to use. 

Day 4 of our tour was a sunny, windy day. Although they have 300 days of sunshine, it is usually windy. Great for pollination. We visited lovely Arles (narrow streets, medieval stonework), and the ancient Pont du Gard (2,000 year old Roman aqueduct).  Above you will see the bridge of Avignon ......"the bridge to nowhere" is one of the most famous monuments in the world, and the famous song that helped a lot since it is sung by children of all countries. We had mimosas viewing the Saint Benezet bridge on the way to Pope's Palace. 

Avignon

Here we are at the Langlois Drawbridge in Arles that Van Gogh painted. 

If you are still here, you are at the end. LOL 

Now we are off to Paris, but more about that later in a separate post.   

 We had an exclusive after-hours visit to the Louvre Museum and a private visit to the Louvre. You will read about that in my next blog post. 

xoxo

Deb