Bonjour

Arrival in Nice France

Nice is right on the Mediterranean and close to the Italy border.  It has lots of Italian influence, yummy pizza and pasta were enjoyed here.  My sister let me borrow her back pack, and yes this is all my luggage.  It is THE way to travel.  I will do this from now on, especially with the kids.  Hands free- I loved it.

Our hotel was a boutique hotel this spiral staircase let up to our room.  

Our first night here- a little overcast- no one on the beach.  It was sunny the next day- swim tops were optional. Welcome to Europe. 

We were amazed at how the buildings looked exactly how you would expect them to look. Beyond that, I enjoyed the authenticity of it.  We have seen replicated french decor in the US, which when you see the real thing, pales in beauty.  

St. Paul de Vence- 

Hill city north of Nice.  We were so glad we spent part of our day here

 We loved it here!  it was very cute, with cobblestone roads.  These small tiny cars would navigate around these alleys.  Some were better drivers than others.

Cute courtyard

Here is a fountain in a little square in the city.  I saw some kids lapping up water from the basin with their hands and drinking it.  Yuck.

This was a cute antique shop in a basement of a really old building.  The French have a real sense of what antique really is.  

This was lunch.  It was so good. We discovered we could feed ourselves in a land we don't speak the language.  It was a big relief to me!

Monaco

This is a separate country ruled by a prince.  It is home of the Monte Carlo race.  We visited the day after it finished. They were taking down the course, which runs through the city.  The picture below shows the grandstand and some very expensive yachts.  Some were from England.  Most had 10 men crews working to ready the ships for departures.   

Beautiful buildings.  Monaco is the safest place to visit.  Police presence is everywhere. They say you can with thousands of dollars in the world famous Casino and walk to your car without any worry of theft.  

Proof we were both there.  (Most our pictures are just one of us or the other)

Fancy cars that were parked just outside the Monte Carlo Casino.  I think you have to pay 20 dollars to walk in the door, which we did not do, Ryan peeked in he said to me after we got home, If you want to see what it looks like, watch Madagascar 3.

Looking back down a street our last night in Nice.

Walking through the town center in the early morning to catch the train to Marseille.  Nobody really gets moving until 9 or 10.  We were out at 6. 

Lovely Pic out the train window. haha

We visited my parents who are serving a mission for our church in the south of France.  The whole inspiration for a trip to southern France was to see them.  Im so glad we had the chance to go to a place we would not have otherwise.  We visited many cities and my parents could run circles around us, we tried to keep up.  We started off in  Marseille.

Walking through town, we saw this meat market.  It was interesting to see pig hanging from the ceiling.  They also don't refrigerate their eggs.

We took a ferry out to Chateau D'if The setting for Alexander Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo book.  

This random woman had a conversation with my dad on the way out and insisted on me taking a picture with a French woman.  I still don't know why.

The water was really gorgeous at Chateau D'if

My parents with "thousand question" Ryan.  Its his nickname earned on this trip

Me an my mom.  

Inside courtyard of the Chateau, which served as a prison.

Silly American

First of many spiral staircases we climbed on this trip.

This was through a door that was totally pitch black.  I took a picture and saw a REALLY creepy staircase.

I love this pic of my parents.

Cant get over how beautiful it was that day.

Eating really yummy cherries from the market we bought earlier in the market at  Marseille.

This pastry was our favorites it was translated to million layers or floors.  It was thin sheets of yummy pastry with creamy goodness between the layers. mmmmmm

Beautiful Church called Notre Dame de la Garde.  It is on the highest part of the city. It has names and pictures of ship on the inside of all those protect by the parishioners prayers. Its history of spiritual and military significance is intermingled.  It actually has damage on the outside wall from WWII 

View from the high point in Marseille

Dad explaining one of the mayors job is to find housing for the homeless.  The buildings are very easy to pick out, large gray boxes of several units inside to house people.

Sprawling view of city. 

Statue of Mary and Jesus.  We called it the Catholic Moroni.

Catching dinner outside in a walled city Aigues Mortes (I think) complete with

Dinner entertainment.  This band was playing the Gibsy Kings, a funny surprise to hear in France.  This waitress had no inhibitions and danced the night away. 

  Sea snails,  yup Ryan ordered it (of course not knowing what it was).... and he ate it....all of it.  I'll take the baguette and call it good.

I had one.  I can easily say it was the grossest thing I have ever eaten.  Its all about the texture for me.  

Tour around the walled city at night.

Dad picked up a guitar to play in Arles

Dad showing us locations of Van Gogh's inspirations for some of his paintings.  This painting was Cafe Terrace  at night. The Cafe at the time of his painting was the same color as the surrounding buildings, the hue from the gas lit lamps cast a yellow tint, they have since painted it to match the painting.

Ryan's impersonation of Van Gogh

This is the garden in the hospital that housed Van Gogh,  they had just planted the flowers and it was really gorgeous.  We were very lucky to have wonderful weather.

Here are some pictures of some really cool buildings 

This is a Roman colosseum ruin in Arles.  They are actively restoring it to its original form, and it houses bull fighting occasionally and other public events.  It is obvious what is new and what is really old.

This is Le Beux.   Its a cute little town with an old fortress/castle ruins at the top of the hill.  It had a rich history.  I think Ryan and I both agree, this was our favorite spot.  

This is a medieval catapult you can climb on.  We were amazed at how interactive everything was.  We kept saying if we were in America, they would have this roped off and you couldn't even touch it.

Silly Americans

This is a really old staircase.

We really enjoyed the pictorial aids- This would have been a scary place to be tossed from.

The village view from the top of Le Beux

This area was the inspiration for 

Dantes inferno, it felt like it that day.  It was HOT

Throughout France you'd see these old castles or fortresses at the tops of the hills.  We made it to the top of this one.

They just don't make 'em like they used to.

My favorite alley, it can be found in the city Avignon.  It is right next to the palace of the popes   -Buildings are growing out of the rock.

Dessert is never too far away.

Palace of the popes.  Due to political unrest in Italy the pope moved to Avignon France.  This is the "humble" abode. 

Many religeous doors had figures surrounding them depicting the judgment of souls by the holy saints.  The figures ascending up are the good guys.  

Lunch is never too far away either.  This is one of our favorite foods.  Kebabs as they called them.  Its just yummy.

This is a Roman Aqueduct.  The lower portion is a bridge built more recently to allow foot traffic to cross the river.  The top portion is the aqueduct to carry water from a river to a city far far away.  Sounds like a lot of work to me.  Two things the Romans had: ingenuity and slave labor.  

Mormon Missionary commandeering a utility vehicle for official business.

I love these pictures in their coloring, it looks like the olive tree isn't real.   Dad was happy to find things older than him!  I believe this olive tree was a thousand years old. 

Most well preserved Roman theater.  The Romans knew how to build and had many techniques to aid acoustics, not a bad seat in the house.  They still use this venue for opera or even rock performances.  

This is one cool field trip for these kids

This was our last night and was my favorite moment with my parents.  We caught a performance of Vivaldi's four seasons in a small church in Avignon.  I had seen advertisements of a quartet traveling through all our city stops since our arrival.   We finally were in the town they were performing in on our last evening.  We went in this strange back door that led to a beautiful old chapel.  20 minutes before recital time, these people walked in a little disheveled they set up stands and were walking around setting up.  We sat on the front row.  When they walked in ready to go, I was wondering okay hope this is good.  It was AMAZING.  They were wonderful.  It is hard to describe in words the feeling of the night with the really old church, listening to  amazing music reverberating off the stone walls.  Musicians playing with precision, yet it was very intimate and you could enjoy their relationships with each other.  We just had a fantastic time and was one of our many highlights, that cannot be duplicated, in any other place.  Im so thankful for my parents who were very gracious hosts and showed us things we could have never seen on our own.   More to post later on the second half of our trip....Paris!