Nice

Le Cote d'Azur

The water is most certainly blue, there is no doubt about that. But is that all you really look for in a beach? I think good sand is necessary too. These beaches are rocky! No sand! and because its the Mediterranean Sea, there is no tide. None! If you look closely at the picture, you'll see all those chairs on the beach... they just stay there.

Somehow, all these crazy colors just work.

I'll tell you this, if anybody tried to paint the town's clocktower pink in the US... they would be sued.

And, as usual, there is no rhyme or reason to which way a road goes.

I read in my little tour book of France that Nice is known for painting buildings a "pompeeian red." I'm just guessing that the color of this building must be that (although, I don't really know).

And oddly enough, they had a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Believe it or not, these greedy people wanted to charge three euro to see the inside of it! How obsurd for a church to charge an admission fee... the Notre Dame in Paris doesn't even do that, I'm not sure why they think they should be able to get away with it. Danielle and I both agreed that we wouldn't pay money to go to a church. :-)

Monte Carlo

I wasn't supposed to leave France, but come on! Monte-Carlo was a 15 minute train ride from Nice, how could I possibly pass that up?

The prince's palace. It can only be toured when the Prince is out-of-town as he still lives there.











































(Above: Their famouse casino.)



















They also have a small zoo... you can even buy food to feed to the animals. It was kind of odd to see this Hippo begging for cookies. This huge guy just stood next to the wall with his mouth wide open waiting for you to throw him a cookie. Once you threw it in there, its hard to believe that he would actually notice a tiny little cookie.

The Exotic Gardens


While the gardens were definitely exotic, it consisted of mostly cactus plants. Danielle and I found ourselves more interested in the cave that was hidden underneath it.



























Grand Prix

Before you get too jealous, we missed it. And, its not like we could afford to go to it anyway. I think the cheapest ticket was 70 euro.

The Catacombs

Stop! This is the empire of the dead.

Its way cooler looking in French, don't ya think?

Remind me to translate this one later... if you try hard enough, you can probably figure out that it says who ordered the catacombs to be filled with bodies and when and by which department... blah blah blah.
























Just as I was becoming jaded with Paris, Danielle had this brilliant idea of going to the catacombs... it had never even occurred to me... I'm not even sure I was aware that they existed. It was great! A much needed break from all those museums and churches... I recommend everybody visit this place.





























At some point, somebody decided to empty out all the cemetaries in Paris and deposit the bones into underground quarries. Stone was removed from here for centuries. Some of it was used to build Notre Dame.
















After a bit, Danielle and I began to wonder where they put all the other bones. All we saw were skulls and femurs... we would surely recognize a hand or a spine if we saw one. We determined that they simply built a wall of skulls and femurs and just threw everything else behind it. When you looked at the top of the stack in the back, you could see that they weren't very tidy when they were putting stuff back there.
















They would move the bodies at night in horse drawn carriages. Priests would walk beside it while chanting prayers. Could you imagine how creepy it would have been to see that? Just think, you're in your overpriced room...looking out from the balcony, its late, you can't sleep... and then you see these carriages led by priests and torches. Who knows? Maybe it was just a common thing back then?
















Bones and more bones.

















When you leave, they actually check your bags to make sure you didn't steal any bones. But honestly, the check wasn't *that* thorough. So long as you weren't greedy and tried to steal a skull or something, you probably could have gotten away with it.
















This is the ceiling in one of the parts that was about to collapse. They have to monitor the catacombs pretty regularly to make sure cars and other objects don't fall through. This particular area has been reinforced with several types of concrete and is now considered safe.

The Zoo in Lille

Lille has a small zoo... its even free. Given my fixed budget, I like free things.















I don't think I'd ever seen a porcupine before... I was a little nervous because I could walk right up to the cage, lean over the fence and touch it if I wanted to. I thought these things could eject spikes at objects if they got scared, am I wrong? I must be...





























Cute little monkeys!















Surprisingly, all the animals were pretty active while I was there. But the most active were these ducks... man, you couldn't keep them off that female duck.















And in front of children, no less!
















They don't look trustworhty to me...

Mont Saint Michel

From afar...




Also known as, the pyramids of France... (is it really? I don't know, I read it somewhere... but be sure the French don't walk around saying that). I think it's even being considered for one of the "Natural wonders of the world."

Château d'Ussé

It was this castle that inspired Charles Perrault to write Sleeping Beauty. This was last castle we visited before heading back north. I think it was a nice way to end our visit to the Valley.

































































I'm running out of things to say... so for the moment, you'll just have to enjoy these few pictures.

Château d'Azay Le Rideau

Quite honestly, this castle didn't impress me much. I don't remember anything of historical significance about it. I'm sure Louis XIV stayed here at some point... as it seems he stayed at nearly every castle I went to...





































































Perhaps I was just getting tired... my advice to you, if you ever go to Loire Valley... skip this one, there are many other ones in this area that are much nicer. :-) (Flo disagrees and feels that I've become a spoiled american)

More to come...

Château de Villandry

Another castle in the Loire Valley:

Originally, it was built in 1536. However, the majority of what you see today was built in 1754 and was redesigned to meet 18th-century standards of comfort.

The Castle was ok... parts of it were rather old... but if you asked me, I would say its a mansion. What's the difference? It just doesn't look and feel old enough to be considered a castle to me.

I was more impressed with its garden.

Yes, this is real.

This is still privately owned. When you walked around the building, you saw pictures of the current owners and their children around the place.

I felt like I was walking around in magical fairy land.

Les Grottes Pétrifiantes de Savonniéres
We even had the pleasure of going to the quarries from which the stone came to build this castle (I mean, mansion). This was at another location about 1 kilometer from the castle. Apparently, there is a tunnel that goes straight to these caves that we visited.


























It's really pretty neat. There is so much calcium in the water they are able to take basic items like a vase or a coke bottle and in three to six months it will be completely covered with Limestone (I guess?).







If you're a consumer whore, you can buy one of these little things in their gift shops.




In the grottoe! (in the grottoe!)