Trip to France, Spain & Monaco: April 1-15, 2009

Hey there all my friends!
Over Easter spring break this year I went to southern France, dipped down into Spain to Barcelona, and investigated Nice and Monaco. I'd never been to any of those places, and I wanted to check them out to see if they would make a good tour to take you on sometime. My husband Larry came with me to drive the rental car while I navigated.

The picture above was taken at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I waited forever to get on that plane! I like their glass-enclosed jetways. The picture below is Larry with our rental car, which got almost 50 MPG. It's a good thing, because gas there costs about $7 per gallon!

Like all blogs, the most recently posted is on top; so to read this trip in chronological order, scroll down to April 1. You may have to click on the date in the archives at the right of this screen to get back to it. Or you can just click on "Older Post" at the bottom of the screen.
FYI: You can read about all my other trips in the archives, too. Just click on a year over in the red, and see which trip comes up!

Day 14 Monaco and Nice, April 14, 2009

Hello all, last day in Europe! Hey, I just found the excla- mation point!

Today zas a wonderful sunny day! Temperature zas perfect and the sky was actually blue!

First thing, we followed the GPS to Monaco, only about 30 minutes away. How interesting! If Southern California did extreme population density high rises, and zas built on steep hills rising out of the ocean; zith 3 little harbors along the coast, and charged higher prices for everything, you;d have Monaco. It;s really beautiful and kind of like a princess country. 40,000 people live there, in less than one square mile. They live in luxury high rises, some old and some new, most built on land reclaimed from the sea;

The old tozn is built on top of "The Rock," and it has tiny streets and a castle where Prince Rainier lives. It also has a 7 story underground parking garage built into The Rock.

From the top of The Rock you can look down on either side to the extreme yachts in the harbors and across to the hills covered zith high rize luxury apartments. There are shady places filled zith flozers in beautiful gardens. I guess it's proof that if you have enough money; you can live in paradise, but the terrain is still very steep!

Dad finds it trying to drive around here. I am really glad I don't have to drive plus navigate! All the traffic is whizzing and ze never knoz zhere ze are going: The GPS says turn left, but there are 2 lefts very close together, and ze take the zrong one and then it says "Recalculating." Ze have had several narroz escapes.

This morning it finally happened. Someone hit the car last night; Ze zere in the enclosed hotel parking, where all the spaces are only about 7 feet wide. Every place zas taken: Zhen ze came out this morning, our left rear fender area had been mooshed a little and scratched. The car next to us was not the same one that had been there the night before, so they probably didn't do the damage. Ze zere kind of upset. Tried to rub it out, but no luck. Later today Dad just knocked the underside of the fiberglass fender, and most of the dent came out. Great!

Ze have to turn in the car tomorrow morning about 5 AM so there zon't be anyone there, just park the car and drop the key in the box. so ze zon't knoz for awhile if they consider it damaged. AARGH!

Got home from Monaco and were kind of wrung out tired, so took a short nap. Afterxards; I figured this is my last night in France; I want to see some more things. So I took Dad on a whirlwind Kerry-in-fast-scouting-tour-mode outing. Saw 3 sites in 3 hours. Dad was kind of gritting his teeth and trying to be pleasant, but I could still tell.

First stop at 5:00 Russian Orthodox church built by a Russian princess zho used to winter here in Nice before the 1917 revolution. Very ornate and beautiful

Next stop 6:00 Musee des Beaux Arts in an 1870's Italian style mansion. I mostly wanted to see the house, but got there and found some very nice art. The surprise highlight was "The Kiss," a very passionate sculpture done in white marble by Auguste Rodin. It looked like a lot more than a kiss was going to happen!

7:00 stop: a free perfume store, zhich has a tiny museum on perfume making. Lots of wonderful smells. The best part was a pigeon zho got in the store and got into the front display window and knocked over all the perfume bottles. This pigeon is on my good list. You can see him in the lower right corner of the picture. The perfume was delightful, but every expensive.

I wanted to stick my feet in the Mediterranean Sea, so we went across the traffic to the Promenade and dozn to the rock beach. I did it though the water was fairly cold; Lots of people were on the beach, but very few swam.

We went to the really gourmet place for a nice French dinner on our last night! Dad did not want to spend much, so we ate at McDonald's. We both had meals which were very good but did not taste anything like American MacDo. I tried my I-pod there again tonight, but still no luck; 2 guys across from us brought in their laptops and set up and got on the net; but my Ipod zould not do it. The little dial kept going round and round like it zas trying, but could not ever really connect to the MacDo netzork.

I have loved this trip and being zith Larry. He says the funniest things! Besides; Southern France is a loss zithout a car; and I can't drive and navigate too, so I reqlly necessaryneeded him. I don't think I will ever bring a trip here. It;s impossible zith public transportation, and a big van zould be impossible here also. Cities have horrible traffic and tiny medieval streets. Parking would have never happened for us; except for Dad's handicapped sticker.

We sill be home tomorrow night. I can never get used to the letters being in the zrong place, and the punctuation too!

Day 13 Bull Games, Marseilles, Nice; April 13, 2009

Ze zere up and out this morning way early to see the bull games in our little tiny village of Fontvielle. There was a little market set up in front of the rodeo grounds (they call it the arena) so we wandered around for an hour before ze could get in, so ze bought a few groceries and a baguette at the boulangerie.

While ze zere zaiting, I saw a very nice horse tied up outside the arena: He was the only one; and no one seemed to be tending him. He was built really heavy, like doubleweight bones; and he had a kind look. A little girl of about six was talking to him, and he was very interested in her and seemed to be talking back. Later during the games, that horse was the star of the show§ He was wrapped up in heavy padding and wore a red bag on his head so he could not see anything. His rider had armor on his right knee and a big long stick zith a point on it to poke the bull: When the bulls came running into the arena; they always charged the horse. The horse never flinched. The bulls tried to gore him every time, but he was solid as a rock. His rider would drive the bulls over to the bullfighter.

Did I tell you, the reason I wanted to go to the Bull Games and not to a regular bullfight; was in bull games they have a scoring system for the bulls but they don't kill them like in a Spanish bullfight.

Anyway; a toreador would shake a pink or red cape at the bull and call to him, trying to get the bull to charge the cape. The bulls here come from the wild marshes of the Camargue area south of Arles. They are small, because the bigger ones they sell to Spain for regular Corridas bullfights. Too bad§ There was Spanish toreador music playing and it was pretty fun. One toreador wore fancy clothes and they all had very tight pants and boots: They must keep the left hand on their hip, and zith the right they wave the cape at the bull qnd hold a sword to extend the cape out further. Every time they call or snap the cape at him, he charges.

After the regular toreador got done zith each bull, a kid zho zas just learning to be a toreador zould get his chance in the ring. I zas pretty impressed zith the first kid.. He had sandy hair and zore jeans and an old grey shirt. He looked to be about 14, and he did pretty zell. A couple of times he got into trouble zith the bull, and 4 real toreadors jumped out to distract the bull and help him out. After the next bull and toreador, the whole audience zas surprised to se the toreador in training zas a girl§ She looked about 15 and just wore jeans and a zhite shirt. I thought she did better than the boy§

As we drove out of tozn, I saw a sign for Daudet's windmill so ze had to stop zhile I took pix. He was an author zho lived in the windmill 100 years ago and zrote a famous book called Letters from a Windmill.

We wanted to go to Marseilles to see the Harbor and take a boat ride out to the Island Chateau D'If. That's an actual place that zas a prison for ages and several fictitious characters were put there like the count of Monte Cristo and the Man in the Iron Mask; Traffic zqs terrible and the streets confusing, parking nonexistent, but ze tried mightily. Alas, today is Monday in France; and Chateau D'If is closed; though the boat rides zere still going, but ze did not go.

The harbor, old one and new one is full of relly nice boats.

I bought the zorld's best cream puffs from a little pastry shop and the lady said she'd watch our car zhich zas parked on a yellow curb in a very narrow street; It didn't get towed, so se win again§

Coming out of tozn zws a pain zith all traffic speeding down narrow curving streets into a tunnel and ze had to change lanes and some guy shouted and gestured at us when Dad waved at him.

Tonight and tomorrow ze are in Nice, which is a really rich area, crammed zith high rises and the beach on one side. Tonight ze zent dozn to the Promenade des Anglaises and walked along the Boardzalk by the beach. It zqs a lively place; zith skateboarders and roller blade kids and lots of old people walking and families zith strollers and a bicycle path. Dad's handicapped thing he hangs in the car windoz has really come in handy, especially tonight. There was no parking for miles; except for handicapped parking right on the Promenade. We win§

We had a lovely zalk on the boardwalk and watched the sunset on the water. then ze went to dinner at a place ze thought zould be cheaper. Everything is very expensive in this tozn: Our waiter asked if ze zanted dessert. Dad thought it was included, but it zqsnt so it cost us an extran 13€ for dessert (almost 20 dollars extrra) and then the guy poured something alcoholic all over the creme brulee because he wanted to flame it, but it zould not light§ Anyzqy it zqs q lovely dinner qnd Dqdd zqnted something calm after such harrowing driving conditions all day§

Day 12 Pont du Gard. Nimes and Church, April 12, 2009

Today zqs Easter Sunday and Larry gave me nice present by getting me to church in Avignon an hour early by mistake§ so we got to go to Sunday school as zell as sacrament meeting; Larry zas hoping for missionaries tobe there to translate for us; and he lucked out; Two nice young gys, one from Huntsville; Ut and the other from Newport Beach sat right behind us in both meetings and translated in our ears; Very cool§

The zard was friendly and a fes people spoke English; so ze did fiine: the branch has their own little tzo story building; just chapel and foyer plus restrooms on the ground floor PLUS a cool rouladen like a garage door in the foyer (right in the center of the picture) that rolls up to reveal the baptismal font: I though that was a very efficient use of space/ classrooms and offices upstairs:

After church ze zent looking for Pont du Gard, highest Roman aqueduct left standing spans a gorge and took 4 million gallons of zater a day don to the town of Nimes, 50 miles away: dropped one inch every 300 feetin I think. It wwas repaired by Napoleons' troops and you can see their graffitti if you look closely. Heres pix, just click

http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=pont+du+gard&FORM=BIRE#

I zish my pix zould turn out like those but they zont because it zas grey skies and driwwly AGAIN§

Leaving Pont du Gard there zas a little fextival and ze stopped to hear this choir perform which I loved to death. They had a really mature tone and sang gypsy music and eastern European music. I talked to them after. It cost us 5€ to park but at least ze didn't get sucked into buying a ticket to the museum and film too. Best 5€ we have spent this zhole trip§

On the zay home ze decided to detour to Nimes, which also was a Roman tozn at the time of Christ. there is another arena there. That's a colloseeum just like the one in Arles, half the size of the one in Rome; I did not knoz that they built 400 arenas all over the Roman empire because the people loved the spectacles. Did you kno that?

I will be so glad to get back to a decent computer that I donùt have to pound the keys.

Anyzay; this Colosseum just gives you an audioguide and lets you go for it; It zqs positively Unsafe; unsafe; unsafe; but really fun§ I saw a kid running along the very top ledge; no one came to tell him to get down before he kills himself or arrest him or anything§ There zere not many guardrails. You could easily fall everyplace; but they donùt care; because in France if you fall it is your ozn fault§ You could go anyzhere you zanted; but every step up is about 30 inches high and my legs are just DYING from climbing up and down and Dad's knee is not much better; Ze decided ze zere not in very good shape and did not bounce from one level to the next like Aaron zould§ You see Larry coming up the stairs, but I couldn't because it was totally dark and it only lit up with the camera flash!

Ze also found a Greek temple called Maison Carre which is like the Parthenon sitting right in the middle of tozn heres the pix http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=Maison+Carre+nimes&FORM=BIRE# Now they use it to show tourists videos about the Romans in Provence.

Guess zhat§ Ze found there zill be a bull games tomorroz at 10;30 A m right here in our little village of Fontvielle§ I cant believe it I looked everyzhere on the net before ze came and i asked at the desk and I asked all over Arles and then here it is on a block from our hotel§ I zent into a restaurant qnd there zere only old men stqndiing round drinking; This red eyed guy looked at me like I was an idiot, but he came out and pointed next door to the place zhere it zill be tomorroz§

Dqy 11 Still Raining Arles and Avignon; April 11, 2009

Enough is enough already§ For the 11 days ze have been gone; ze have had 1plus 1/2 days of sunshine§ A good day is zhen itis misting lightly enough you dont need an umbrella§ You cn forget about lovely pix with blue sky and sunny Provence§ I thoughtonly Seattle had this much rain.

This is the crawy coputer at the hotel again. The French keyboard I amgetting used to, but the punctuationI still cnnot find and you hae to pound letters really hardto get them to enter: worse zitht the space bar. The good nezs is by now I have mostly leqrned zhere the A qnd the M are; but not all the time; so you poor folks zill ust have to guess zhat I mean§

Today ze zent into Arlesto try without map to find the Roman arena, the Saturday market, and get tix for the bull games, Great success1 but only partial. Problems. GPS was mad at us plus traffic zas horrendous for a small tozn, just crawy; sorry; I am tired of trying to fix my typos. It zas raining; of course. Nozhere to park; 6 foot metal barrricades up all along the streetand lots of police. Ze finally parked next to a barricade, on the street side; A man parked in front of us immediately and he ame to talkt tot Larry; in French only, of course. He seemed friendly and keptgesturing zith both hands like making feelers for a giant insect above his head; I was busy talking to another man and a little girl; trying to get them to tell me zhat zas the matter; but they kept saying *Only a moment' and ran off, so I turned to the older guy to figure out zhat zas going on. All of a sudden I heard 'taureau' which is toro in spanish and I realied he was trying to make like a bull§ When I repeated 'Taureaux' hea said Oui, a midi§ Oh my heck! At noon the bulls were going to come running down that very street, that is zhy the barricades zere up and he did not think ze should leae our car parked there§ That is also zhythe other guy did not mind parking there only for a moment§ since it zqs almost 11 we immediately mved the car§

A zillion tiny cars from everyzhere around so no sidezalk to park on. We finally stole a little piece of sidezalk on a 10 foot zide street and left the car; hoping it zould not get tozed zhile ze zere gone:

Today is the day before Easter; so they zere having a big festival and running the bulls through the streets to mark the beginning of the season! Unfortunately no bulls ever came so I asked the police zhy and they said because of the rain; the bulls zould slip:

At any rate; ze zalked to the Arena: Itùs just like the Roman coliseum; but a little smaller: Very impressive and right in the old medieval center of tozn, built in the second century. They have had bullfights there since the 1850s: Many peoplecrozded into tiny little streets; At the Arena I stood in 3 different lines to tryto buy tix for tonight and each sent me to the next zindoz over. Finally some tiny little lady helped translate poorly and I figured out that today the bullfight kills the bull; I did not zant to see that, I zanted to see the Bull Games, where the picadore has 15 minutes to snatch the yelloz ribbon off the horns of the bull; or the bull wins; nobody dies. So after all that scurrying through the rain and jostling black coats; I did not buy tickets after all§

Ze decided to go back to the market, zhich zas really quite good; Larry thought. Lots of flowers and plants, fresh breads and homemade jams; purses; chickens and eggs, vegetables, some carrots that zere probably yanked out of the ground this morning bcause they still had wet dirt on them, artichokes everyzhere lots of people crowded in betzeen the zhite overhead tent tarps because it was rainging: We had a good time an bought a baguette; pain au chocolate; something red in a jar that was really good on bread and is probably like a red pesto, but the ingredients list she gave me zould made you sick: We bought Larry some raspberry jam because he is getting sick of eating just cheese on bread and yogurt.

A brass band came don the market and I took pix of them and ze really did have a good time in spite of th rain. Ze found a tiny little park and sat on a bench to eat our souvenirs. Pansies and poppies are blooming noz; so the park was lovely zith tall trees, cedars of Lebanon:
Most all of the people here in south of France and in Spain zear jeans and a black jacket. How many varieties can youmake zith jeans and a black jacket? A few others zear black pants and alzys a dark jacket. Maybe they change to brighter colors zhen they think zinter is ovr. I stand out like sore thumb zith tan pants and zhite hair and a bright turquoise raincoat§

On the zay back to the car ze heard another band and zent and listened to them for a minute: They zere a jazz band; and really pretty good: What is that song that in the middle they yell 'Arribba?' Lots of good stuff and really clean zith the rhythm and I loved it so mch I about laughed the zhole time they played;

Guess zhat§ the car did not get towed and ze zere really glad to see it still sitting there zhen ze got back§

Ze decided to bag Arles and forget about trying to see sites of Vincent Van Gogh because they are mostly markers on the sidezak saying here is zhere he stood zhen he paintedthis or that picture: i did not zant to hunt for sidezalk markers in the rain zhen you can't even driv in the the townbecause it is holdiay nd the streets are all barred against cars because of the festival: You can; hoerver, visit the hospital outside only zhere he zas a patient; So ze bagged it.

Ze decided to do some of tomorrozs stuff today because of the rain: I left the LDS church address in Avignon back at the hotel, so back out to rural Fontvielle to the hotel to get it, so ze drove to Avignon, of course on the tiny back roads led by the GPS.

We wanted to see the bridge at Avignon and the Palace of the Popes which are right next to each other: I wanted to dance on the bridge just like the nursery rhyme:
Sur le pont D'Avignon;
On y danse,
On y danse,
Sur le pont D'Avignon
On y danse something something rond;
It means like: On the bridge of Avignon, we will dance there, in a circle.
Get Kim to explain it to you. Anyway, we finally found the bridge, but could not get up onto it; so ze took a free ferry across the river Rhone and back again: In medieval times, this was the only bridge across the Rhone. In the picture you can see 3 arches. It used to have 22 I think, and it stretched over a mile across the river. What you see is not the far side, It's just an island in the middle of the river. Finally found the ticket office and bought my first senior citiwen reduced price tickets to the bridge and the palace; I did dance on the bridge, just zait till you see the pictures ; ; ; Other people laughed because they knez zhat I was doing, but that zas my dream

The Palace du Papes is on a grand scale. It is the largest Gothic palace in the zorld: Larry zas so amazed hoz huge the rooms are. You have to remember, this was Vatican City for 9 French popes zho lived here in the 1300s until they moved back to Rome. The rooms are empty now, but they have a dry as dust (only thingaround here thatùs dry) free audioguide in English to tell you howamazing it all reallywas;

Eureka our car zas not tozed again§ We were glad because ze did not have coins to put in the machine except 1 euro; so thats all the time ze paid for and put the ticket on our dash that said ze paid, and put the handicap hanger on the mirror, and zere gone for 4 hours. Actually, I figured ze zould be OK because of the holiday.

Ze found a great and unusual restaurant for supper. pay €5 for your choice of meat chicken, chicken cooked in wine; porc; fish; or fish; Pay for your meat; then go choose all the vegetables you zant from the 4 choices; I zas in heaven and that is a cheap meal around here§

Ze wanted to find the LDS church in Avignon tonight so ze could go to sacrament meeting tomorroz for Easter: I had the address; went back to the hotel to get it, but no, the GPS denied that street existed. Today zqs not a good day for the GPS. It zould not recognize Palace of the Popes, but ze got there: For the church; ze finally put in an intersection a few blocks away; and it got us that far. We drove around for an hour afterthatbefore ze finally found it: The sign was really tiny. A Czech brother said 'But you had the faith' and maybe ze did. His daughter teaches at BYU; After ze finally found it ze saved that locqtion and it saved the coordinates so ze can find it again tomorrow:

Part of the problem is they do not put street names on the main road, just some of the cross streets; qnd they do not put numbers on most of the buildings. Since the GPS denied that street 'no matches found' we were in trouble; After ze had been driving on exact the street where the church is for half an hour it finally recognized that street§

Day10 Drive to Arles, Les Baux Ruins; April 10, 2009

I thinkthis zill beshort becusenot onlydoesit have a French keyboard, you hqvetopoundthe space bar qndthe keys ar soft rubberized and you have to pound all of them too or thecomouter doesnttake theletter.

I just sent Shelley an email on my I-touch for thefirsttime ive used it. Whata huge pain1 My fingers aretoobig andsoImaketons of typos soit takes forever§

Today zedrove from Barcelona to Arles, took 6 hours withstops; nota very exciting drive a few milesinland from thmediterranean coast. Sawlotsofbig zindmills wind blos all the time. Countryside hilly zith chalk white dirt and scrub oak; few talltrees;

Our hotelis nice hereis the link http://www.hotel-peiriero.com/

It seems to be built on top ov old excavations? They hqd q special on the internet zhich they zouldnot give me so I am not happy ziththem.

It has a heatedpool butnothot enouhor meor Mable.

Ze got here about 3 so werntto Les Baux for theafternoon. That's it on the first 2 pix on this post and at left. I'm pointing in the window at a candy store down below in a medieval basement. It's not on the top list of things to do in France, but it was close so we went. Itùsanotherold ruined castleontopof a hill qnd s tourist gauntlet leadingup theold medieval street to it. Zhen ze got totthe top; it cost 11 euros apieceto get in; so ze decided not totour the ruins; ust zqlk bqck down and find a spot to eat in the tiny little medieval streetleadinguptothe castle: We found a really cute tiny little spot all decorated in blue and yellow Provencal prints.

We aretryingto be careful ofourmoney but it is running away from us!

I have to go back all the ti,e and add letters because this really is ureadable becuse you have to pound the keys so hard;

Today the hotel has zireless internet. This is the first time ze have had that, because mostly ze stay in really cheapplaces: So today zas the irst timeI used the IPod touch to send that email to Shelley; It is so much qsier just to go find qn internet plqce evry night§ Someti,es the hotel hqs q computer for guest like tonight qnd also the lqst 3 nights in Barcelona. usally you haveto pay a few euros per hour for it:

Food; ze have eaten like I alwaysdo on these trips: Lots of different kinds of yogurt, lots of different kinds of cheese. Buy q baguette bread every day and make chees sandwzitch zith no butter or mayo. Buy a liter of fruit juice and some fruit every day; eat hot choc sometimes at the hotel for breakfast: We will not get breakfast here because they want 12 euros apice for it§ Plus you always need chocolate and crepes to have a balanceddiet§ Remember Pims cookies? Tucs crackers? Yougurt in tiny containers not much bigger than a thimble has not got yogurt, it has chocolate pudding§ surprise§ We have had several omelets and green salad and pizza because its cheap. In the market in Barcelona ze bought fresh fruit salads for 1 euro. I love the breads: it;s cold, or ze zould also buy icecream Italian gelato style.

We have had no English TV until tonight. Larry is watching CNN and he is in hog heaven. The picture at left is the lobby and that's the computer in the corner I'm on right now.

Tomorroz ze see old Roman sites in Arles qnd qlso Van Gogh if I canfind it;

Ze zill be in Avignon at the old French popes palaces for Ester i hope ze can find the LDS church I looked it up.