Tag: French Riviera

Once upon a time…

P1060839  P1060753

Amidst the rather “famous” cities in Southern France such as Cannes and Nice, there lies several captivating small villages that are really worth going. They might all look kind of similar at first glance, but to actually be there you can feel the subtle differences amongst the lay out of the village, the pavements, the twists and turns between the alleys.

Saint Paul de Vence

P1060745

P1060806

Traveling back to Medieval Ages, the entire village was erected back in the 14th-15th century but amongst the old fortress and cottages, the place was painted with a modernistic aura.

P1060766 P1060773 P1060775

Right above the tourism office is a free art gallery. (With random black and white rocks that I have no clue about…)

P1060756

P1060760

Although art is not my thing, it really added a special coating to the entire village. Art galleries of different themes and styles were on every corner, each with a beautifully crafted sign hanging from the top.

P1060772  P1060777P1060776 P1060790

Then there were always random art pieces, sculptures just lying all over the village, blending in. (Or standing out) Art is inextricably linked to the village, not a single piece can be left out.

P1060828 P1060827 P1060834  P1060786 P1060823  P1060815 P1060812

It was as if I were in the Middle Earth of Lord of the Rings.

P1060802P1060800

P1060836P1060788

I know.. photos overload, but it was just hard to describe with words! See for yourself 🙂

P1060816

Have a nice day! More on other villages tomorrow.

Eze

P1060841

Now heading towards Monaco/Italy, there lies an even smaller village all  the way up the top of a mountain – Eze. It is famous for even Nietzsche found  the truth of life while hiking up the hill top. Of course I just took the bus up for I am no philosopher… I thought I could just go to one of the two and I would have seen it all, but the truth is, the view up Eze is very different.

P1060859 P1060883

From the top you can have a gorgeous view of the ocean (the weather was not perfect unfortunately…) and on one side you see the old clock tower.

P1060881

 

P1060874

 

Eze feels even older, and less touristic. There were so few stores (or perhaps it’s off season) and the style is slightly more reserved.

P1060849 P1060853     P1060895  P1060914 P1060917 P1060923

There were also metal giraffes in a hotel! (I love giraffes for reasons that I am not quite sure of) It’s like how I felt towards stars and chocolates and all other adorable things.

P1060924

 

 

 

C for Cannes (A for Antibes, B for Biot lol and so on)

Off to Cannes today. Weather not that nice unfortunately :/ but the place is fun nonetheless. There were many Cruella De Vils 😛 (Old ladies in fur with big dogs) and so many nice cars and yachts. (One was called Nonetheless, and one called Knot To Worry)

P1040847

P1040849

We arrived at 9 am and just walked around to get the map and figured out where to go. Then we ended up roaming around the old town and the Castle Museum. Free entry for etudiants. I love France.

P1040854 ( I have to post this because I look tall for once 😉

It was donated by several rich aristocrat, rich man’s daughter and a journalist/soldier from many years ago and there were exhibits from Arctic, Latin America, Himalayan and Oceania etc.

P1040870 P1040879

This photo below is a currency they used to use to buy WIVES and FINE PIGS in Solomon Islands. YES, wives and pigs. I had to laugh at that. The brighter the color, the higher the value of this currency, so whoever has the sharpest one gets to buy the wife or pig that he desires the most.

P1040887

There were also paintings from the 19th century and they were just like photographs. The castle itself holds all these exhibits and is a lot of fun to tour around too.

P1040888

We climbed up 109 stairs to a clock tower that over looked the whole of Cannes. (These are old stairs only for display, thank god haha they have newer ones now)

P1040897

Too bad the sun was on a strike today (haha french thing) if not the view would be 10 times nicer.

P1040911

P1040906

Then we started looking for the marches around (flower and grocery markets) and we passed by so many petit restaurants and shops “SOLDES” (On sale) until we made it there. Then we finally started shopping yay. And then we tried looking for another museum that is unfortunately closed today. It only opens on 2 days a week from 3-6pm. WHAT kind of musee does that? -_-

P1040934

Anyway we have to come back again to the 2 islands outside of Cannes so we weren’t too disappointed. Then we walked around the port and down the beach for the sunset. Each beach is completely different: the Nice one was black rubbles, the JLP one is whiter and softer sand but this in Cannes, is darker and harder, with many many seagulls. The sound of waves tapping the coast was angelic. The sunset could have been better if the sun wasn’t on strike haha but we will return 🙂

P1040947 P1040958

What really touched my heart today was that 2 old couples approached us so genuinely when we were looking at our map-turning-it-constantly-not-sure-where-we-are-lookng-puzzled-and-confused. They spoke to us in French which I could only guess that she meant her husband has some Chinese blood too and she blessed us. Who knows that French people (especially elderlies) are that nice? People’s stereotype and misconceptions should really be reassessed.

One last joke: We can always run and make it to a bus. Even when we see it coming all the way from the other side of the street, we can still catch it for sure.

WHY?

Because more than often, the people boarding the bus are old and they move r-e-a-l-l-y-s-l-o-w. Lucky for us 🙂 And I love old people in France. They are lovely.

Jan 9 9:40pm