Another long travel day of almost 700 km found us leaving
Barcelona at 7.30am to head back into France and wend our way through Provence
and up to the Cote d’Azure or the French Riviera. We had a lunchtime stop in
the city of Arles, famous mainly because this is where van Gogh lived for a
while and where he cut off his ear and recovered in hospital. We went to look
at the garden of what was then the hospital where he stayed and I was able to
take a photo that pretty much replicates a painting he did there. We bought a
fridge magnet of the painting so I will have the matching set!
Wandering through the narrow cobblestoned streets we also came
across a Roman amphitheatre but didn’t go in as we’re saving ourselves for the
Coliseum in Rome. CJ and I decided we wanted to sit down for a proper meal so
we found a restaurant and then panicked that we would not get back to the bus
in time. I was dragging French words out of my deepest memories to try to tell
the waitress we needed a menu fast as we were in a hurry. I’m not sure whether
my limited vocabulary did the trick or whether it was the frantic pointing at
my watch but she got the message and we got our yummy chorizo pizza toute
suite! I also had a glass of white wine and felt very French as we watched the
world go by surrounded by dogs that were also enjoying an outing at the café. The
French are so civilised!
My French is actually not too bad – I seem to be able to dredge up
some long forgotten word when needed – though my grammar is shocking. I speak
mainly in nouns as I have no idea how to put them together! People seem to
appreciate that I’m trying…and a smile goes a long way as well. Carly has also
been doing very well but gets frustrated when she has just perfected one
language and et voila we are suddenly in another country and need to reprogram
our brains into a new language. We started with Spanish this morning, needed
French by lunchtime today and tomorrow we will need Italian – no wonder we are
confused. To top it all off both Carly and I have noticed that we now think
with a French accent! Patricia, our guide, talks a lot (as you would expect)
and so her voice is sort of continually in our heads. As I’m writing this I am
hearing the words I write in her voice and have to consciously correct the way
she would grammatically express herself – mon dieu - c’est tres difficult!
So we had another long drive from Arles to arrive in Nice at about
5pm which allowed us about an hour to ready ourselves for a big night out in
Monte Carlo, Monaco. Although it was
dark, we enjoyed the drive up the coast from Nice and arrived at Monaco to have
a lovely meal in a restaurant and then look around the area of the palace where
the Grimaldis live. It was all very lovely with fantastic views over the
Mediterranean Sea.
We later climbed a lot of steps to go up to the Monte Carlo Casino
and have a drink at the exclusive Café de Paris followed by some free time to
gamble, shop, or sightsee. We chose to gamble! We found a poker machine that
looked vaguely familiar – it was called Captain Cutthroat – and then managed to
lose €10 fairly quickly…though we did get a feature in a feature first that
kept us going for a little while. We wandered about to have a look and also
used the toilets which was an experience in itself. When you flush the toilet
you suddenly hear a whirring noise and the toilet seat starts spinning around
in some bizarre cleaning ritual – very strange! We obviously didn’t choose our
poker machine well as another lady in our group who is travelling alone (but
may not be for much longer!) played a Batman machine and won a large amount –
large enough that it was paid out by cheque and she was invited back for the
grand prix! I haven’t asked her how much she won though the rumours on the bus
range from $19,000 to something much higher. I know her hands were shaking when
she came back to the bus - good on her!
By the time we got back to the hotel it was 1am and we were
stuffed! The wakeup call was set for 6.30am so we’re hoping we get to sleep on
the bus tomorrow…
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