South of France

July 7, 2024 | Mike Mikus | Europe

Corsica

Bonjour! Ahhh… Our first day in France, was bien, merci.

Anyway, it was the 4th of July. Instead of fireworks, we visited the small town of Ajaccio, (pronounced “uh · jak · see · ow) on the island of Corsica, France. Ajaccio is the ancestral home of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821).

In addition to being a French political leader, Napoleon is “regarded as one of history’s greatest military leaders”. For those that are interested, there is an outstanding 2023 Document-drama, Napoleon, currently available for free on AppleTV.

After a leisurely morning walk, exploring the historical city and a fabulous farmers market, we enjoyed a nice lunch.

Afterwards, explored the island via the popular PETIT TRAIN D’AJACCIO, a little train-looking truck that pulls several open-air train cars through town at a low speed, then out along the beachside byways, stopping along the way, allowing us to explorer several attractions. (It turns out we took several of these trains over the next several days. Kind of fun and efficient way to site see on the French Riviera.)

I have to say, some really nice beaches here. I can see why the south of France gets high ratings among frequent travelers to these parts.

Heading home, we were strategizing how to spend our July 4 evening away from the onboard Americanized celebrations. Fortunately, I had a card up my sleeve. You see, earlier in the day, while browsing the farmers market, I had purchased some local fresh products. These included Brie, olives, Prosciutto, a baguette and grapes. Paired with a cold Prosecco on our balcony, overlooking the beauty that is The Port of Ajaccio, our evening picnic was a great distraction from the tradition fireworks.

Cannes/Monaco/Monte Carlo

The following day, we tendered into Cannes, France. Cannes (pronounced “Kan”) on the luxurious French Riviera. Founded as a fishing village in 150 BC, it has grown to become known for its prestigious luxury hotels and restaurants.

However, it is best known for it annual film festival, which launched the careers of many great actors and directors over the years. Needless to say, if a film is even selected to be included in the Cannes Film Festival, it will likely be a huge hit when it is sold to distributors for release at US theaters.

While our brief city tour was fascinating, our destination for the day was up the road, where we spent the day in Monaco and Monte Carlo, the playground of the rich and famous.

Monaco is the second smallest country in the world. Oddly enough, even though the entire country is less than 2 square miles, it has 38,000 residents, making it the most densely populated city in the world. Also, it is one of the richest.

Ooh La La! What a fancy place. The folks here are so rich, I overheard a diner ask the waiter “My apologies. Your Poupon is Grey. Do you have any Gold Poupon?” (Just kidding.)

Much of the wealth can be attributed to its “District” known as Monte Carlo, home to the world’s highest-end casinos. It also explains why the city is called “the world‘s most secure city”. (It has a 60/1 ration of citizens to police officers.)

While some may know Monaco from the multiple James Bond movies that were filmed here over the years, others know it from the annual Monaco Grand Prix, the slowest, but most difficult track in Formula One racing.

The track is actually the city streets. Pretty much all of the city streets. To turn these streets into “Circuit de Monaco”, barriers are placed along the streets to protect the buildings and spectators.

The end result is a 2 mile long racetrack with ~20 turns. The 1-2 hour race takes 6 weeks to set up, and 4 week to break down. This has been a racing tradition for 95 years!

The day was fun, and we enjoyed the many sights.

Nice

The following day, we arrived in, Nice (pronounced “Nees”). This beautiful city of 350,000 is so stunning, many great artists throughout history, including Picasso and Van Gogh, called it home at one time or another.

In addition to being known for its annual “Worlds biggest Carnival” festival, this nice little town also garnered the world’s attention in the 70’s when it was the location of the bank robbery of the century. You see, a local fella stumbled across a set of blueprints showing ancient tunnels that run underneath the city. He noticed that the local banks vault was built atop one of the tunnels, and, well you can probably guess the rest…

While all indications were that we would dock in the actual town of Nice, instead we docked in Villefranche-sur-Mer, also known as Old Nice. We had been here once before, and it was lovely. We especially liked the Lasagna and Risotto. (Note that a couple of my photos are from a previous visit…)

Our final South of France destination was Provence, best known for its lavender fields. While we just happened to be there during the peak season, and it had always been on my bucket list to visit the lavender fields, it was not to be. Just too far from where we were docked. Maybe next time.
🙁