June 2 – Villefranche / St. Paul de Vence

Today we docked in the port of Villefranche, which is on the French Cote d'Azur.  It is the main cruise ship terminal for Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo. The bay of Villefranche is one of the deepest natural harbours of any port in the Mediterranean. Cote d'Azur is the area of Europe that is better known as the French Riviera.

Villefranche is a town of five thousand inhabitants with a big marina and is home to some very exclusive properties.  It is the second most expensive area for real estate in France. The Rothschild’s have a huge villa here with many fancy gardens. Paul Allen of Microsoft has an estate here and the hotels in Villefranche host many celebrities during the Cannes film festival.   There are many small shops along the narrow streets that surround the harbour.  The boardwalk along the harbour is the location for many nice restaurants.

The harbour is protected by a huge fort that was built in 1557 and now houses the city hall and a small museum.

Marg in Villefranche

Promenade in Villefranche

The water is very clean and the temperature is currently the same as Lake Erie during the summer.

Brian testing the water temperature

In the afternoon we went to St. Paul de Vence.  We took a tour bus, through Nice and headed into foothills of the French Alps in the north.  St. Paul de Vence is a walled village from the 16^th century  with narrow and twisty lanes. It is one of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, it is well known for its modern and contemporary art museums and galleries. Some of these studios have very impressive collections, but as you can guess they come with a large price tag.

St. Paul de Vence

Shops in St. Paul de Vence 

I went into one studio and was greeted by the owner.  I was able to say hello and how are you in passable French with a proper accent.  He asked me if I was French and when I said no, he asked me where I was from.  When I said Canada, he launched into rant about Quebec French being a vulgar dialect.  I was left wondering why he thought I could discuss this with any intelligence, when all I can say in French is “Hello”, “Thank You”, “ I am well” and “the colour of my pen is blue”.  I guess I am just another failure of the Ontario education system!

Dinner was a seafood Orzo which we really enjoyed.  Our table staff is great.  Rolondo, Howar and Dadan are keeping the mood light. They are providing very professional service with excellent recommendations for the wine and main entrées.

The evening’s entertainment was a mentalist called Alan Chamo.  His first trick was having the audience provide him with two numbers that he combines into a number that he uses as the key for a magic square.  Magic squares are 4x4 squares where all the rows, columns, diagonal and 2x2 squares add up to the key number.  He achieved this feat in about a minute.

He then hypnotized two people from the audience, who then placed back to back.  He then had the first person reacting to a touch, when in fact he was touching the second person. Impressive.