Trip to France - Day 7 - Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 - Nice

Our last day in France. The plan was for Truss to take the group for a walk to the town center and the flower market and then let people explore a little until they left for an optional excursion to St. Paul de Vence. The rain had other ideas though. The group decided they wanted to leave early and as we weren't going on the excursion we found a little restaurant where we stopped for a tea until the rain let up a bit later. We saw the flower market and lots of little shops. I finally had a bit of time to shop and pick up a few things. We went to the Christmas village and did some window shopping through the market stalls. We walked to the Promenade Anglais- a part of the famed French Riviera - the main drag along the water and went up to the Castle on the hill with an amazing panorama. At 4:00 we met back at the hotel and drove to Eze to visit the Fragonard Perfume Factory before we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant. I didn't buy any perfume but did buy some argan oil. This was our farewell dinner and we had a good time. In fact Nice was nice.  Maybe our favorite as the national strike wasn't evident and we had time to do our own thing as we do our homework while still in the State's and know the places we want to see.   Didn't get back too late since we have a 3:15 wakeup call tomorrow.

Where we took refuge from the rain

Central Market

Love olives

The marina at Nice - just a few yachts

When built this yacht was in the top 10 of largest yachts

War Veterans Memorial

The weather won't deter us

Yes, we did

Food in the Christmas village

We found one of our favorite treats that we discovered first in Prague

The beautiful Cote d'Azur

Stopping for a snack

Trip to Eze

Fragonard Perfume Factory

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Farewell Dinner

Trip to France - Day 6 - Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 - Avignon to Aix-En-Provence to Nice

I think our guide likes to sleep in as we had another late start of 9:45 today. We had a delicious breakfast with a little culture lesson that displayed the 13 Christmas desserts of Provence that we could sample. We had a 1 hour drive to the elegant city of Aix-En-Provence which is famous for black bulls, white horses and flamingos. It is also famous as the birthplace of Cezanne and Emil Zola. We started our visit with a cup of tea and calissons (a traditional French confectionery). It was a nice gesture but not my favorite. We had a few hours to explore Cours Mirabeau and the maze of streets that were filled with shops, restaurants and Christmas market stalls. We stopped in one of the churches, window shopped and had a snack at a little bakery/pizza shop. Then it was back on the bus to the hotel in Nice. Since we didn't have much lunch we ordered a charcuterie plate (they called it tapas) at the hotel and enjoyed some champagne. While in Nice we had the option of going to Monte Carlo but we decided that we wanted to have some time to explore Nice as our time in the other cities had been too brief. Those that went said it was amazing but we had a wonderful time exploring Nice. Our hotel was within walking distance of the town center which made it easy to get around. We did have a little issue with our first room which was gorgeous but ant infested. Then we were given another room that was definitely a down grade but soon found out that the phone didn't work. As we had a 3:15 a.m. wake up call the following day we got a third room that worked out fine. Like the other cities we had visited Nice was decorated for Christmas in a big way and had a huge Christmas village with market stalls in the center of town. We were still fairly full from our "snack" at the hotel but stopped at a restaurant and shared mussels and fries - yum. Lovely evening - no regrets about not going to Monte Carlo.

Views of Aix-En-Provence

The restaurant where we had calissons

Calissons

This wasn't a Christmas market tour but we sure had a good sampling of the markets

Views of Nice

Pere Noel

Charcuterie or tapas - Yum

Trip to France - Day 5 - Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019 - Dijon to Pont Du Gard to Avignon

A 7:30 departure today as we have a lot of territory to cover. Our first stop was to pick up some lunch that we could eat at our stop at Pont Du Gard which was 4 hours away. Pont Du Gard is a bridge and aqueduct from the Roman Empire that is 2000 years old. It is a masterpiece of engineering and a UNESCO site.We had one hour to explore and eat while we were there. Then it was on to Avignon where we stayed at a hotel in the historic center of town. Avignon was home to 3 Popes. We did a walking tour which took us by the Palace of the Popes. This town was also decorated for Christmas and had many market stalls. At 4:15 we left for a wine tasting at the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The presenter was very informative and there was an opportunity to buy wine at the end of the tour but we declined - don't want to carry wine bottles home and too expensive to ship. We came back to the hotel and then found a little bistro where we had risotto and penne after walking around and admiring the decorations.

Views of Pont Du Gard

  

Views of Avignon

Truss, our guide