Villefranche & Nice & Monaco

Dear Villefranche,

Why are you so cute?

For this little town on the French Riviera to remain unbelievably quaint, we take tender boats from the ship over.  Our enormous vessel cannot get close to the dock.  Lots of little ocean front restaurants and shopping.  Mom again blended in with all of the 20 somethings.  We had a game plan today though with the short time we had at port, to take a train into Nice just 20 minutes away.

The promenade in Nice was so very nice :)  It was actually called Rue D'Etats Unis.  (the United States).  Rocky beach but still packed with beach-goers.  Nice is a pretty decent sized city.  Very urban, nothing amazing but the old town section is great.  Lots of little shops and a great market with honey, fruit, flowers, meats, cheeses very close to the beach front.  Market closes early and I didn't get a chance to get over there until my second visit.  But when I did I managed to purchase and eat a huge container of figs.  I can't bitch enough about the crappy fruit on the ship.  So I go crazy when I get to markets.

Old town has such picturesque brightly colored buildings with weathered shutters and vines growing up them.  Lots of shopping, soaps, salts, crazy gelato flavors.  Never seen such odd gelato flavors.  It puts baskin robbins to shame.  There's at least 40 bizarre flavors in eat gelateria.  I considered the cactus flavor but opted not to be so brave and went with orange.  So much to soak in in such a short time.

On our return trip to this port I got on a shore excursion that took us back into Nice for the morning and then over to Monaco for the afternoon!  Great tour!   I saw signs for an exotic botanical garden as we drove in and my tour guide directed me on the local bus how to get there because we had 2 hours of free time.  Such a great idea.  This garden was a terraced cactus garden with amazing views of the city and the ocean.  For 7E a great deal and right up my alley.  I took plenty of pictures of crazy succulents for my artistic inspiration.  And did indeed make a glass cactus later.  But I apparently can't find the photo of it or didn't take one.  Note to self...make another cactus.