Provence and French Riviera: Part 4

We finished up our trip with some time on the French Riviera.  We drove down through Cannes to Antibes and browsed their market hall, saw the Picasso Museum,  and walked along the "quia des Milliadaires," ate a tasty lunch, and then drove some more down the coast along the beaches of Nice to Villefranche-Sur-Mer.

  

Not a bad view out the car window!  

We had a good time walking around Antibes.

Picasso Museum.  I think that once a person is famous, they can scribble on a paper and it will be framed and worth millions.  Seriously, some of his stuff is pretty awesome, and then other pieces look like he made them in his sleep.  People say those are awesome too.  Whatev.  Fun to see anyway I guess.  Picasso lived in this castle (now the museum) while he did a lot of his work.

There are sculptures and items from other artists there as well.  I thought this area outside was kind of interesting.

We walked by a gelato shop and I couldn't pass it without getting some.  So tasty.  I got a scoop of Nutella and a scoop of chocolate chip.  So good!  This was gelato stop #2 on the trip.  I could eat it every day.

Strolling along Billionaire's Dock...

Yacht envy.  Well, car envy too.  haha

There are hundreds of these lined up down there.  Made for a fun walk!

Back in the car and headed to VilleFranche-Sur-Mer...  here's another picture from the car :)

Guess it's a popular place for cruise ships to hang out for the day.

We parked the car and walked around the town for a while once in Villefranche and then planted our bums on the beach for the rest of the day.  So nice!  The weather was perfect.  Not hot enough to want to go swimming but just right for hanging out in clothes!  Saw a few nudies chilling on the beach... one of them being a super leathery and flabby old guy doing some sort of yoga.  Gross.  haha

 Here's an out of focus pic of the two of us in Villefranche.  This day was warm!  And I'm thinking I should have worn a different shirt.  Not so flattering on the pregnant lady!  Ha.

Where we parked our rears for a few hours.  

One more walking around the town.  Cutie how everyone dries their laundry outside the windows.

Our flight back home took off after 10 that night from Marseille, so when our beach adventures were done we just headed back to the airport.  Such a fun trip!  I love the South of France.  Glad I got to do it with my favorite person.  

Provence and French Riviera: Part 3

Thursday morning was spent walking the streets of Aix-en-Provence and exploring the markets and shops there.  I think this place was my favourite for market day!   They have a produce market, a floral one, and a flea market with books and artwork.  The shopping there is great too.  Well, window shopping that is.  Most of the stores are for fashion crazies with bottomless budgets for clothing, but it was really fun to look at the stuff!  Some market pics :)  

They had so many different kinds of herbs and spices.  It was fun just walking and smelling them.   I wouldn't have a clue as to what to do with most of them though!

Cute little biscuits..

Sausages, breads, and veggies.  The Provence region is known for its Lavender in the summer months and from the pictures, it's really gorgeous in the area when it's all in bloom.  You can find it packaged for purchase everywhere.

 

 

Another Patisserie.  Love them.  We shared some steamy hot cheese rolls.

I love taking pictures of treats.  Don't always have to eat them... they're fun to look at.

And I love all the narrow little walkways between buildings in France.  So cute.

After our morning in Aix, we drove over to Cassis to spend the rest of the day.  The place is gorgeous.  We walked around the little town, checked out the shops, and went for a boat ride to see the 3 main Calanques.

I think this next picture is my favorite one from Cassis.  The boat we were on was just pulling out of the dock.

On the boat ride.  Those are the tallest cliffs in France.

The water here is so clear.  The bottom looked like it was only about 12 feet down, but our tour guide said it was probably like 40 ft.  Crazy.

If I had a lot more time here, I'd pack a lunch and hike over to this little beach to spend a day.

More of the coastline..

And the port.

Cute little town.  I'd love to go back one day!

We went back to Aix for dinner again this night and ate at L'epicurien.  They serve French dishes.  We usually trust Trip Advisor's restaurant reviews, and this one was rated 1 followed by Pasta Cosy from the night before.  I was really nervous when the guy didn't speak much English, and I knew I wasn't interested in the 3 main course choices on their set menu.  Aaa!   The waiter was really nice though and asked the chef if there was another option beside the 3 on the menu.  I lucked out when he came back and asked if I liked veal.  Sure, that will work.  Jake got fish.  I'm not a fan of lamb, duck, or crazy fish.  Jake is a serious foodie though and will try anything.  His favourite part of vacation is the food.  Anyway, dinner ended up being very good.   None of the restaurants open in the area until 7:30, so we'd just walk around and read the posted menus before opening times for fun.  Here's the cute little courtyard that we ate in that night.  Pretty much all these buildings are restaurants.

Up next:  the Riv!

Provence and French Riviera: Part 2

Wednesday is market day in St. Rémy-de-Provence, so right after breakfast we went to check it out.  I love seeing market days in different towns.     

Every market we went to in France had sooo many different kinds of olives.  Lots of olive oils and olive pates, too.  I would have bought some if we could have taken some back on the plane!

Cutie little olive trees.

People making and selling food everywhere.

One of many fromage stands... French people love their cheese.  They are super big on goat cheeses and an owner of one of the restaurants told us it's because they don't have cattle in the area.  Just goats :)

Vincent Van Gogh was sent to live at the St. Paul Monastery and Hospital just outside St. Rémy after he chopped off his ear.  He completed 143 paintings and more than 100 drawings while here.

His bedroom..

They recreated the garden that was outside his room when living here.  Inspiration for a lot of his paintings.

 There are plaques around the grounds in places that inspired his pieces.  Like this one..

We left St. Rémy and headed to Arles for a few hours.  Arles has another old Roman arena, some ruins, and a fun market.  2000 years ago, gladiators fought animals here for entertainment.  Now, bull fights are held here.  The place is being renovated right now.  

And here's the Théâter Antique.  A first century Roman theater.

We relaxed in a park and ate gelato and then left Arles to go to Pont du Gard... a 'perfectly preserved' (acc to Rick Steves)  Roman aqueduct built in 19 BC.  It always impresses me that people could build huge things like this before all the modern equipment we have today to help them.  You can hike around the sides of the bridge and walk across it.   

View from the bridge.  There were quite a few people swimming down there.  Looked kind of fun!

Jake and our sexy rental car.  A week is all I can take driving a Smart.  Seriously felt like driving a go cart around.  One time Jake hit a speed bump a little fast and everything I was holding went flying up in the air.  No suspension in the thing.  haha.   And obviously no space.  We got away with filling up only twice on our trip though and we were driving all the time... gas mileage is the one thing they are good at. 

 

We headed back to Aix-en-Provence after our little Pont du Gard excursion and walked around the town until dinner hour.  Love that town.  Crazy to me that French people are so small and they eat so late at night.  We ate at a little restaurant called Pasta Cosy that night.. my favourite meal of the trip!  Some of the best food I have had.  The owner is super friendly too.  His wife is the chef.  He sat us down and since he could speak English too, explained the whole menu to us and why he would pick each dish.  After explaining that he drives two hours to pick up his Parmesan cheese in Italy every week, I went for one of the Parmesan dishes.  So tasty!  I think it was the 'pasta cosy' pasta.  Jake got pear and gorgonzola ravioli that were awesome, too.  He brought out like 9 little sample things for our starter.  There were some crazy things, but most were really good.  Like a dill crème brũlée, pears and chorizo, and a green olive sorbet.  And, the dessert was awesome.  It was sort of like hot chocolate molten cake, but it had frozen coconut flavoured  snow type stuff on top.  Sooo good!