Travels with John 2005

We had traveled to Monaco and the Nice area the year before with our friend Sandy and her niece, Jessica.  There was so much that we missed that we decided to return.  I had not been there since I lived in France in 1971.  This has to be one of the most wonderful places on earth.  If it were not for my love of Italian culture and my heritage, this would be my ideal retirement home.

Parisians have such a lousy reputation, and though I have never had a bad experience there, I find the people in the south to be warm and friendly.  Just the colors alone, in the houses, linens and the sky, gardens and earth will make you fall in love with it. 

 

 

One of my favorite pictures of John taken on the citadel above the French city of Nice.  Sorry, John, I like the darker hair.

 

 

This is from the town of Eze on the French Riviera, not far from Nice and Monaco.  John was particularly happy because the house in the background was Jack Balsan and Consuelo Vanderbilt's house.

 

Me in the botanical garden at the top of the castle hill of Eze.

 

The view from EZE toward Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

 

Looking down into Monaco from the Grand Corniche.  If you see the peninsula at the back right, we were trapped on it the previous year, when a rock fall came down across the road.  Traffic was stopped for quite a while.

 

Above and below at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, near Nice

 

 

 

We were in Saint Tropez in the evening, so there were not many good pictures, but this is a good souvenir anyway.

 

We were too preoccupied with flea markets, the bizarre public restroom and Van Gogh sites to get many good pictures of Arles, not even the arena.  We also ran out of space on the memory card and batteries here.  This was our first trip with a new digital camera, and we were not used to it yet.  We got more movies this time.

 

The city of Grasse high on a hill in Provence is the home of Fragonard Perfumes.  This was the beginning for John, of a long standing love of their scents.  He especially likes their Grain De Soleil scent.   He later decided that he liked Roma as well, from Rome of course, but it quickly became unavailable in most places.

 

I could not resist this photo, sorry John, I think he was unsure of the grilled goat cheese and egg on a salad.  It was good.  The Provencal people have such lovely simple foods. 

 

I guess this was a bigger hit with him.

 

The restaurant in Grasse.

 

The view from Grasse out over the Provencal countryside.  The Mimosas were in bloom(bottom) and the scent hung in the air everywhere.

 

This is where the Cannes film festival awards occurs.  More important than the lovely city.

 

The Carleton Hotel in Cannes.  This was the hotel made famous...as if it wasn't already... in the Hitchcock movie: "To Catch a Thief".

 

Sorry about the blur, but we had few pictures of Antibes.

 

We took Guido on all of our trips after John befriended him.  Here they are in Nice.

 

John at one of the former gates of Avignon.

 

The Rhone River from the Ramparts of the Papal Palace in Avignon.

 

The Papal Palace at Avignon

 

Bill and John in front of the Pont Du Gard.

 

The Pont Du Gard is a vast and well preserved Roman Aqueduct over the Gard River near Nimes, France.  Each of the stones on the bases of the arches behind John's head are around four feet tall.  There is no mortar holding it together.

 

Our days are always so full when we travel.  We invariably end up taking fuzzy pictures at night.  Here John is in front of the Roman Arena at Nimes.

We had a pizza baked by a man from my grandmother's island, just up the street from here.

 

In front of the Arena in Nimes.

 

The Roman Temple  built in 16BC, known as the Maison Carre(Long Square House.. who knows why.) in Nimes.  It is nearly perfectly preserved as it was used as a church and municipal building for centuries, and kept in good repair.