Saturday morning came bright and early as we drove the streets of Paris a final time, and headed to the Gare de Lyon train station for the bullet train to Nice. Aside from lugging all of our bags into the railcar and then the slight panic of realizing we were in the wrong car (there may or may not have been a Frenchman snickering at the foolish Americans with too much luggage), the train ride was smooth and uneventful. Seeing the rolling hills of the French countryside speckled with tiny villages, we were reminded of one of our favorite movies – French Kiss. “Beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here!”
Our driver, Rolf, picked us up in Nice for the 45-minute commute to Monte Carlo. After checking in to our hotel, we quickly found ourselves outside to soak in the views of the water and, of course, to people-watch. Wow. This is how the other half of the other half live. We then took a stroll to check out the yachts in the harbor and met up with our friends, Karen & Bryan, in old town Monaco. The palace is spectacular, as is the St. Nicholas Cathedral. We then stumbled upon the Musée oceanographique de Monaco. Jacque Cousteau was once the director of this aquarium. We arrived just in time for a quick one-hour tour – so glad we did! The photo below is one of Cousteau’s small submersibles.
We had a lovely Italian dinner overlooking the harbor, complete with mussels, lobster, and escargot – paired nicely with two bottles of Rosé. A full, peach-colored moon dancing on the water accompanied us on our journey back to the hotel. A great evening indeed!
The next adventure? We are boarding our cruise in a few hours!
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