Cruise: Villefranche, Monaco and my moral dilemma re: Johnny Depp

Hello, my faithful readers. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Okay, we're going back on the Disney Magic cruise ship. Are you ready? Of course you are.  Bear with me, it's long and full of photos and my moral dilemma will be explained later.

Day...something (you really lose track of the days, but this may have been day 10 or 11) brought us to the lovely village of Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. Again, it was another glorious day.   The boat docked and we had to take a tender into shore, which Indy thought was awesome.  The view was spectacular, as were the boats in the harbor.  This was my absolute favorite:

This is the town of Villefranche.  I could totally live here.

Looking back at the sailboats.  The Disney Magic is in the back.  I'm sure the mouse ears on the smoke stacks probably gave that away.

We climbed about a million stairs on our way to the train station as I really, really wanted to go to Monaco.  From the top of the first tier, we had an amazing view of the beach.  I should mention that this was a topless beach.  Indy leaned over to me and whispered "Mom, some of these women forgot their bra tops!"  I laughed and told him this was a beach where they didn't have to be worn.  He shrugged and it was no big deal.  Whew!

We got to Monaco via train in about 10  minutes.  The train station was fancy and the country itself was lovely.  And expensive.  Holy cow.  For those who may not know, Monte Carlo, where the casino is located, is a ward of Monaco, with Monaco being the actual country.  The whole country is about the size of a postage stamp (.76 sqmi), so I'm not sure why they have ward (sections), but it's their (little) country so, who am I?

We were there on a Sunday, so most of the stores, except the touristy places.  We walked past the Louis Vuitton store and in the window they had a croquet set in a LV case.  I couldn't get a good photo because of the glass, but you can see it.  It was €8000.  About $11000.  Yikes!

Just down the road was the Casino.  James Bond took the opportunity to do his best JB pose.  Silly.

We were all pretty warm, so we grabbed a table at the Cafe de Paris (it was in Casino Royale) and grab something to drink.  See the size of that Coke Indy's drinking?  It's 33cl, which is about 11oz.  They were €8 EACH.  That's about $32.  James Bond almost had a stroke.

The Casino didn't open until 2pm and you had to be "dressed" to go in, so obviously we didn't.  I still got a photo of the interior through an open door though.  Fancy.

Exterior from the back:

Side:

After that, I wanted to go see the palace, which is on top of this cliff. 

James Bond and Indy weren't all that thrilled and were pretty tired so they decided to head back to Villefranche and head to the beach.  I figured out the bus system, which was complicated since the Grand Prix had been run the week before and the buses were taking alternate routes until all the barricades were taken down.   Oh, before I went up to The Rock (as they call the palace), I passed a bridal shop with dresses that cost about a bazillion dollars.

Once I got as far as the buses go, which is about a 10 minute walk, I headed up the hill.  The streets were tiny and full of character.

The front of the palace and the main square.

 The view from the right side of the palace square:

The view from the left side of the palace square:

Nice views, eh?  I took the tour of the palace,I wasn't allowed to take photos though-boo.  Prince Albert narrates the tour on the headphone in the English, French and Italian versions and has a lovely, mellow voice.  BTW, it's pronounced muh-NAHH-coh, not MON-uh-coh, like we would say it.  The tour started on the balcony that overlooks courtyard where the royal wedding between Albert and Charlene was held last year.  When I watched the wedding, I was all "I SAW THAT!  I STOOD ON THAT BALCONY!"  I'm a bit of a dork like that though.  There were paintings of Princess Grace everywhere.   Good golly was she beautiful.  There was even a painting taller than me that shows Rainier and the 3 kids with Grace looking down on them from clouds.  It  was sweet, but also kind of creepy.

After the tour, I headed over to St. Nicholas Cathedral.

There are 26 Monegasque rulers buried in St. Nicholas.  Here are the graves of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier:

  I finally decided to head back to the bus stop and head back to Villefranche.  This is what was waiting at the bus stop.   Pretty!

So, here's the moral dilemma.  My beloved Johnny Depp, as you may know from this previous blog post, lives in Plan de la Tour, France, which is about a 45 minute train ride from Monaco.  I could easily have left James Bond and Indy at the beach and gone to see my beloved.  Oh, you know he would have let me in and been so thrilled that I had come to him.  What to do, what to do?????  The train lured me.  Johnny lured me.  Take the short trip back to Villefranche or make the hour long run to my beloved?  It would have been so simple!  In the end, of course, I took the train to Villefranche and bid my beloved adieu.  I know we'll be together eventually, so what was one more day?

Paris, Day 2: Flea Market , Boat Ride, Eiffel Tower (sort of) and snails

Our first night in Paris was HEAVEN for me. Why? Was the bed at the hotel comfortable? Hell no, BUT I got to sleep the entire night.  I love Han Solo to pieces, but this getting up at night to eat business is getting old.  I was thrilled to get to sleep a full night.  In fact, Indy and I went to bed at 8:30pm and didn't get up until 9:30am.  See?  HEAVEN.  I have to say though, I will never stay at an Ibis again.  I've stayed at a few, and while they are modern and clean and inexpensive, their beds suck.  The bed consists of a 15" thick box spring covered by a 2" foam mattress.  So. Not. Comfortable.  I guess I'm going to have to move up to the next level in the Accor hotel chains (Mercure).  They cost more, but they have better beds and at the end of the day (pun fully intended) a good night's sleep is worth its weight in gold.
So, once Indy and I got going, we hopped on the Metro and headed for the Marche aux puces (flea market) at Porte de Cligancourt.  At first Indy wasn't too keen on going, but once we got there, the atmosphere got to him and he really enjoyed himself.  Before you get to the actual flea market, you have to walk through a virtual tent city of vendors selling everything from souvenirs to socks and underwear to purses, pants, shoes, leather jackets, jeans, dresses and fruits and vegetables.  It's very lively.  There are also the "knock off" guys.  You know, they sell "Gucci" sunglasses and hats and belts and Louis Vuitton wallets and whatever other designer you can think of to knock off.  They are also illegal and Indy and I got a good giggle watching them scramble every time a police car drove down the street.  We're weird like that though.
We finally wove our way through the crowds and vendors and knock off guys and made it into one section of the flea market and the atmosphere was much more relaxed and far quieter.  We saw some beautiful stuff, but wow was it way over priced.  Some of the transferware plates (seriously, the exact same pieces, buy the same manufacturer-I looked) were selling for €20-60 EACH.  I've never paid more than €5 per piece.  Maybe I should set up a stall?  We had a great time looking at all the stuff though and digging through the boxes of random items (where you find the real bargains).  After about an hour or so, our hands were filthy so we headed to the bathroom to wash them off and met some very confused Americans who had never experienced the kind of bathrooms common in many places in Europe.    Basically it's just a hole in the floor with a bar on the wall on either side to hold onto.  Nice, huh?  Also, you have to walk past the men's "bathroom" (a trough) to get to the stalls.    I've seen this many times before, but they were flat out flabbergasted.  Good times.

This little wine/cheese/meat kiosk is in the Metro:

One of the flea market alley ways:

I loved all the vines on this shop:

Need some garden statuary?

Or maybe silver?

When I decided we'd seen enough, we headed back through the tent city (and crazy rain) and towards the Metro and on to the Eiffel Tower.
By the time we emerged from the Metro, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining.  Yay!  We were both hungry and had some lunch at one of the little kiosks along the Seine.  It wasn't fancy, but it was good and we ate with the Eiffel Tower looming over us.  The clouds were moving rapidly and rain threatened, but we didn't care.  I had promised Indy a boat ride, so we bought our tickets and off we went.  He loved it.  The only other time I had done this was about 12 years ago with James Bond.  We did a night cruise and all the buildings and monuments were lit up.  It was lovely.  This ride was during the day though and very different from the night cruise.  We had seats inside, but Indy didn't want to be inside the glass.  He wanted to be out on deck.  We had to stand the entire hour, but so what?

The boat docked just as it started to rain, so we ran for the cover of the bridge and hung out there with the other tourists and fed leftover bread to the pigeons. The pigeons in Paris are well fed.  The rain only lasted a short time so we headed over o the Tower and I saw my one big mistake: not ordering tickets online. Three of the pillars were open, but the line to buy tickets at each one was 2 hours long! Ouch! Indy decided he didn't really need to go up. I asked him if he was sure and he looked at me and said "Mom, I've been up the Arc de Triomphe. I've seen Paris. I don't need to stand in line for 2 hours to see it again."  Okay, then.
We walked along the mall behind the Tower, past the hundreds of guys selling souvenirs (illegally) when the bottom dropped out of the sky.  Holy cow!  The wind picked up and the rain started coming at us sideways.  There was nowhere to escape and no cover to be had.  I had an umbrella, but it did little good against the sideways rain.  We (and all the other tourists) huddled up against the trees that line the mall (don't worry, it wasn't lightening) to shield ourselves from the rain.  The police came by and  the souvenir guys all made a mad dash across the rain soaked grass with two laughing policemen running behind them.  I think they enjoy the chase because they could easily have caught a few of them, but were content to chase them through the rain.  Ten minutes later, we were soaked from the waist down, but the rain stopped.  We decided to head toward the Rodin gardens, but half way there, it occurred to me that they might be closing soon (it was early evening).  I stopped to check my museum pass and saw that they were closing in 15 minutes.  We were about a 15minute walk away.  I told Indy we wouldn't make it, and asked if he wanted to stop for dinner instead.  He absolutely did, but only if he could get snails.  The first few Brasseries we passed did not have escargot on the menu (that's the good thing about Europe, the restaurants all post their menus outside), but finally we came to one that did and got a table.  Indy wanted the 12 escargot started, but it was €26 (about $35), so I told him he could only have 6.  I'm such a bad mom.  He ordered the escargot and the kids chicken platter, which was 1/4 of a chicken and potatoes, plus chocolate mousse for desert.  He ate it all with glee.  I ordered the tomato-mozzarella salad.  Oh, and his Coke was €7 (about $10).  Ouch.

Enjoying that expensive Coke:

Look how excited he is over the escargot:

Our very friendly server:

My dinner (sheer heaven):

After dinner, we went back to the hotel happy and full and exhausted and I got another full night of sleep.  Even if the bed was uncomfortable.



Next:  Versailles!

Paris: Half the excitement is getting there

On June 17th Indy and I hopped a fast train to Paris. In a mere 3 hours and 20 minutes we would be strolling the streets and munching on authentic croissants (they really do taste better in France, trust me). Or so we thought. We made our connection with no problems and things were zipping along fine (except that our seats were rear facing and despite taking 2 Dramamine, I was feeling queasy) until we got to Kaiserslautern (K-Town). We stopped at the station and didn't move. For a long time.  The conductor finally came over the intercom and said something in German.  I thought I understood him, but then realized I had to be wrong.  He couldn't have said that, could he???  A passing train worker walked by and I stopped him to ask what was going on.  He confirmed what I thought I heard:  the train in front of us hit a PERSON on the track.  Shut the front door! 
We finally arrived in Paris 2.5 hours late, but since the Louvre is open late on Friday's and that was our plan for the evening, we didn't mind.  We checked into the hotel and off to the Louvre we went (this was Indy's idea BTW).  The next few hours were spent looking at painting, sculptures, and antiquities.

If you've seen The DaVinci Code, you'll recognize this:

After walking through the Medieval Louvre, the first place we headed was of course the Egyptian exhibit:

Like his father, who got in trouble at the Louvre about 12 years ago for touching a piece of art, Indy couldn't resist the lure of this ancient piece.  To be honest though, Indy didn't actually touch it (he just pretended).  James Bond, did touch and in about 5 seconds a guard swooped out of nowhere and told him not to touch the art.

Being a silly monkey:

And a Pharaoh:

Finally, finally, after passing thousands of objects and dozens and dozens of sarcophagi, during which time Indy sang the Indian Jones theme song, louder and louder, we made it to the one thing he was most excited about:  The mummy! He's seen it before, but was still crazy excited:

Once I was able to drag him from the mummy (seriously, I had to grab his shirt and pull him away), we headed for the Roman and Greek sculpture.  It was his idea to pose like the statue:

After about 800 miles and 30,000 stairs (if you've been to the Louvre, you know I'm not exaggerating that much), we ended up at what is arguably the most famous work of art houses at the Louvre: The Mona Lisa.  It's almost impossible to get anywhere near her.  Being small and intrepid though, Indy wove his way toward the front.

Since we spent a full week studying DaVinci  last month, we also went to see the 5 other DaVinci paintings that are there and discussed how he used shadows, light and blurred edges to create depth, where other painters of the same era often had little or no depth in their paintings.  Indy was particularly fascinated by his painting of John the Baptist:

We sat on one of the big round sofas for a few minutes to rest and then went over to one of my favorite sections, the large scale art.  I'm fascinated by these HUGE canvases.  One I particularly like is the painting of Napoleon crowning himself.  I had Indy stand in front of it so you could see how massive this thing really is:

Can you imagine how much time it took to paint that????  And, not only that, but the artist painted a second one the same size that now hangs in Versailles.  He made one change to the second painting though.  I'll show you that when I post about our day at Versailles.

Sadly, my hands down, absolute favorite exhibit was closed for renovation.  Nooooo!  What is it, you might wonder?  The crown jewels of course!  The had a few on display in front of the section with a big sign telling us that the full exhibit would reopen in early 2012.  I think I would look fabulous in either of these:

By 8pm, we were done.  D-O-N-E, done.   We were hungry, but also exhausted and I didn't feel like going out on the street to find a restaurant.  There is a high end (and pricey) international food court in the underground maze of shops connected to the Louvre, so we opted to eat there.  The variety of foods is amazing.  There is Middle Eastern, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish and American.  All the restaurants offer sumptuous national dishes.  What is America represented by?  McDonalds.  D'Oh!  I decided to have Ratatouille (yum!) and Indy wanted squid salad????  He got incredibly excited when he saw it.  Since it was  €9 for a small plate, I questioned his choice.  He put his hands on his hips and said "Mom, it's France.  We have to eat squids and snails!"  Okay.  He ordered it (and a slice of brick oven pizza from the Italian place) and we sat down to eat.  It felt so good to sit!  I couldn't let him dive in to his squid salad though before getting a photo of if:

He ate every bite of if!  Crazy little boy!

I hope you enjoyed our first day in Paris.  I've got more to come!