travelogue, day 3: cannes and nice, france

I woke up at 8AM to a pitch black room, which was a truly odd experience (but made for great sleeping most of the time!). I showered and got ready for the day, fully expecting to spend it alone wandering Cannes. After grabbing a quick breakfast in the Windjammer, I got in line near the pool to receive my tender boat ticket, as we were not able to dock directly at Cannes. They were calling Boat #5 as I received a ticket for #10 and 15-20 minutes later, called my boat for boarding.

I got on the top deck of the small tender boat and saw Steven and Fiona get on my same boat, though they had to sit at the bottom. We waved and exchanged greetings. Cruising away from the ship was really neat and gave me an appreciation for just how large the ship really is:



Of course, the views of Cannes were fantastic from this distance, too:



When I got off the tenderboat, Steven and Fiona were waiting for me and asked me to join them in going to Nice. I readily accepted and we walked through Cannes, trying to find the train station. Eventually, we found it and bought our tickets to Nice:



We had some time to kill before the next train, so we strolled some more through the streets of Cannes before boarding the train:



I shared my seat with a lovely young Spanish woman who had lots of family with her. As we sped by the coast of southern France, it was absolutely breathtaking. We went through quite a lot of small towns and villages before arriving in Nice. Here is the hotel opposite the train station (which in itself was quite gorgeous and I regret not taking a picture of it):



We wandered around Nice for awhile before deciding it was time for lunch. My companions, bless their heart, asked if I wanted to eat at a “KFC or something,” perhaps believing all Americans are all about fast food? I assured them that, no, I’d really rather eat at French café if that was alright. We found a cute one and settled into the table. I ordered a croque monsieur with a salad and a Coca Light:



Diet Coke in Europe is amazing. It is much better tasting than the stuff we get in the states, but I didn’t figure out why until later in my trip (stay tuned for more ramblings about the nature of Diet Coke!).

After lunch, we walked towards the pebbly beaches. The rocks on the beach were smooth but fairly good sized—at least as big as my palm. Though I think they’d be lovely for the warmth factor, I’m not sure how comfortable all the folks laying out and catching the sun could have felt. Steven and Fiona laughed at me when I pulled out my little baggie to grab some sand from the French Riviera. They joked that a French cop was coming my way and I better hurry up!









We (or rather I) did a fair amount of shopping and came away with two new casual handbags from a French Claire’s-like store. I admitted to Steven and Fiona that France was hard for me because my default reaction to “foreign languages” is to speak in Spanish. I was constantly saying “si” to store clerks when they were really waiting for me to say “oui.” When we were in a perfume store shopping for that perfect fragrance, a clerk approached us. I was too engrossed by the options to hear her and so Steven said to me, “Hey, she wants to know if you’re doing fine.”

“ssss…I mean, OUI!!!!!!” I said really loudly, and my companions burst out laughing. The clerk was at least a little amused, too.

Shopping in Nice was my first exposure to the Frenchies' love affair with tiny, yappy dogs. They were everywhere, including in this department store:



We caught the train back to Cannes in the late afternoon and snoozed on the “choo choo,” as we decided the universal word for train was. In Cannes, we found the film festival building and red carpet before heading back to the tender boat:



My overall impressions of Cannes and Nice were that they were nice towns in beautiful surroundings, but they didn’t hold much allure for me. Sure, I’d go back if someone took me, but it probably wouldn’t be my first, second, third or fourth choice for a vacation destination in Europe.



Once we were back on the ship, I relaxed for awhile and then got dressed for formal night in the dining room. Because it was formal night, I allowed myself to have a slightly more swanky (read: caloric) meal that I ordinarily would choose. I started with shrimp cocktail:



And had the sliced filet of beef with mushrooms, asparagus and mashed potatoes. I ordered it medium but it didn't come that way, as you can see:



Dessert, a grand marnier soufflé, was quite good:



My dining companions got a kick out of my continuous picture taking of the food and often had to remind me after my first bite to remember to take the picture (as seen above with the souffle)! Dinner seemed to go so slowly that evening and it took forever for us to get out of there, which made me a little cranky. The waiters singing for the dining room almost made up for it:



Here I am in all the splendor of the dining room on formal evening:



(uh, something about the wrap is making my midsection seem a lot wider than usual. weird.)

I think I went to bed at a decent hour after doing some research on Florence and Pisa, which were my stops the next day. I also called the spa and booked a pedicure for Friday morning, during our long day at sea headed back to Barcelona.