Cinque Terra - a hiking paradise

We left France with anxiety and anticipation about the next part of our journey to Italy. The day we needed to vacate the apartment we got up early, Donna came by to pick the keys, and we walked to the train station to head off to Vintimiglia. This is the Italian border city with France and the final destination of the french train. It was a very short ride from Villefranche, about 30 minutes. The train was packed and we rode standing up most of the time; everyone got off at Monaco. We briefly talked to one of the passengers and she said many people commute to work in Monaco. From Vintimiglia we purchased our train ticket to Cinque Terre on the Italian rail. It was a nice three hour ride with a transfer in Genoa. We have been truly enjoying the rail system in Europe. We passed many towns and villages, but the biggest one was Genoa, a huge port city that seems very industrialized. The entire ride was along the Mediterranean coast. Here is one of the many towns we passed. I am convinced now that no beach town exist without a promenade in this part of the world.

                                

We arrived in Riomaggiorie our home base in Cinque Terre. We rented an apartment and got instructions how to get there via email -  you should see the instructions - like in the old days, you will pass a pharmacy and at the corner make a sharp turn right, go to the end of a wooden hand rail and turn right, etc. The keys will be hidden in a vase. We had to laugh, we rely on the GPS to find anything in the states, nice to see the old fashion way working too!

Well, we knew all towns in Cinque Terre were rugged. We also knew that we would find many steps before we hit our destination. Portugal and France prepared us for the hills physically and mentally, but we didn't anticipate such a long trek and with the luggage and it was a much slower hike. The views from the apartment were out of this world. We were so high we could look down and see the whole town from the window. Now you can imagine the hike. Here are some of the views from our windows...

                                  

                       

    

The next day ready for adventure, we headed down the hill to take the train to visit the five towns as they are only a few minutes away from each other. We found many tourist groups. The guides were either holding a flag or an umbrella calling their group at the train station. All the groups were Chinese, young families or couples with their fine cameras, some of the ladies were even wearing skirts, many spoiled rich kids and even spotted some ladies with fancy purses. Not hiking outfits for any of them.  They are living the good life, not an American in the crowd to be found. The other few tourists or hikers seemed to be from Northern Europe. I guessed trying to get away from the snow. Of course, we didnt see the hikers at the train stations but we found them at the pizza places with their boots, hiking sticks, backpacks and all the hiking gear. If you want to hike in this "five lands" you need to purchase a hiking card to be allowed on the traíls. This is how serious hiking is here and they have hiking competitions.

There are train stations in every one of the Cinque Terre towns, and in many of the nearby towns as well. The trains that run between the Cinque Terre towns are slow - they putter from station to station, stopping at each other and they are about 5 - 10 minutes apart by train.

With that said, it is easy to conclude that Cinque Terre is a hikers'and photographers' paradise. For the typical tourist you are done after you take your pictures and you will take many wanting to capture every view as they are phenomenal. But that is it!

Here is a map of Cinque Terre...

From top to bottom:

Monterosso: this is the only flat of the five, I would consider this the only beach town with the walking promenade. Its the only town that I envisioned with umbrellas during the summer and crowded with people laying on the beach. It has a beautiful rocky fortress type and WWII German pillbox.

                      

    

Vernazza: this town is perched on a charming cliff. As you walk down the hill from the station you find yourself in an enclosed bay/harbor with a launching pad for the boats surrounded by a small plaza to sit and enjoy the scenary or just watch the boats.  As all Cinque Terre towns the homes are painted in the approved pastel colors with hunter green shutters that give all towns certain uniformity and charm. It has an old castle hanging on the side of the hill, a breakwater and a church. Here we had the best gelato EVER!

                        

                        

Corniglia :  this town sits on the top a hill 100'ft high. It's the only village that doesn't have access to the sea. To get to the town, you need to climb at least 400 steps from the train station. It was getting late, so we skipped this one. Took this picture from a poster at the train station.

                 

Manarola : Many say that Vernazza is the prettiest of all. Well not for me! My favorite was Manarola. I thought it offered so much to see and it is easy to get everywhere. Yes, there are many steps and hills to climb, but it has more sights, a park for kids, a dog park and many vineyards, plus the rugged hill by the sea. From the train station we passed a nice plaza, went down some steps and walked down to the ocean on a street that was surrounded with small wooden boats sitting in front of the homes. It's a painting not matter where you look at it; a paradise of vineyards and olive trees, same pastel color homes with hunter green shutters. 

                  

Riomaggiore : this town sits between two hills descending to the sea in steep cliffs. A very tiny harbour where colorful wooden boats are launched into the ocean. At the train station there is a huge mural that it represents the working people of the area. Then there is the entrance to the blue tunnel that takes you to the other side of the village. The tunnel is decorated with mosaics, sea shells and driftwood. Every town has its own tunnel, otherwise it will take hours instead of minutes to walk thru the other side of the mountain and each one is different in width, length and decoration. 

                            

     

                      

The entire Cinque Terre is a protected area with spectacular views and cliffs. It is amazing that with this mountainous terrain you find many vineyards and olive fields, plus orange and lemon trees, and basil fields throughout the area. Some if the slopes are almost vertical, despite of this they manage to devise a way to grow their grapes and more. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, gnocchi, acciughe which means anchovies and many local wines. The acciughes are eaten fresh, served simply on a plate with olive oil and lemon, also very common with pasta and they are not salty.  Sciacchetra is one of the special wines of the region. It's a strong sweet wine. The grapes are left to dry in the sun and then shelled by hand. This picture illustrates how grapes are picked on the hills. When there is a will, there is a way!

 

Well, once we visited the towns, took hundreds of pictures, enjoyed a couple of local meals, tried their gnocchi with pesto, tasted the local wines, had one of the best gelatos EVER, there is nothing else to do but to hang out. 

Yes, it's beautiful on pictures, but in my opinion it's a little over-rated. I will not change it for the French Riviera. I guess this is part of the beauty of the "five lands", the ruggedness and slowness! It seems to me the people that live in Cinque Terre got stuck in the old ways and this is their only way living a very slow life and the slower the better. 

After three days here, it was time to move on. We are off to Florence next! Time to pack again!

Au Revoir Côte d'Azur!

Our time is up in France! What a wonderful journey we had in the Côte d'Azur. We visited so many beautiful towns; Nice, Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu, Eze, Monaco-Montecarlo, Menton, Cannes, Antibes besides our lovely home base town Villefranche-sur-Mer.  We are leaving with nostalgia. The french definitely lead a more simple life than Americans; there is more to life than their jobs. Here are some of my observations. Keep in mind it wasn't tourist season; therefore, we were able to experience their real life. 

The second largest nationality of expats seem to be Brits.  Hard to spot them as they speak french and have adapted to the French life style. However when they are together, they are loud  and friendly. We didn't run into any Americans.

Starting with the food, I have no doubt that the french spend as much of their income on their stomachs as their Englishmen do on their cars and stereos, and Americans on their homes and cars. The French are as passionate about food as other nationalities are about sports and politics. Wine and olive oil are considered part of every meal and it is a ritual.

Seeking ambiance and fun to feast cheaply in the French Riviera is an understatement. Every place is unique and inviting as French care about the atmosphere as much as the quality of the food as they spend hours in a restaurant.  They are all "très cher" expensive. You will never get the bill unless you ask for it. Ed asked the owner of the Oliveria Restaurant for the bill and he said, humorously, that it was good he asked or we would have sat there for a month!

All stores are closed from 1 pm to 3 or 4 including the supermarkets. I was doing some grocery shopping at Casino, the leading supermarket in all areas, it wasn't 1pm yet and I was asked to leave as they were closing. I couldn't finish my shopping. Definitely not customer focused.

Another rule of life, frenchman don't dare to call anyone between noon and three on Sunday. They wouldn't dream of interrupting the most relaxed meal of the week. If you get "interrupted" it must be from an Englishman or expat. After lunch, you see them walking along one of the many promenades, sitting on a bench talking to friends, or smoking, or simply people watching. 

Just spending two weeks in France had turned us into bakery addicts. All "boulangeries" are very nice, everything is displayed beautifully with their handwritten signs and prices. I have always loved bread, but there is something about buying your bread fresh daily. We tried the typical baguette, the olive bread, the multi seed bread, dark crusted. We tried tarts and pastries made fresh every morning. There are 4 bakeries in Villefranche and we saw a fifth one under construction with the sign up already. This is significant as the town is very small. Frenchmen eat bread with their aperitif, salads, crudités, charcuteria, cheeses, pates, soups and desert. They also gift wrapped your pastries in pretty paper with scotch tape when you order them to go and trust me they take their time to wrap it, no matter how many people were waiting. Like this....

Olive oil is so abundant here that is used for everything from cooking, marinating cheeses and peppers, storing truffles, dipping bread, bathed the lettuce and there are different grades and flavors. It's a ritual to go into an olive oil expedition almost as much as visiting the vineyards.

Cours Saleya is the open market in Nice named for its broad exposure to the sun. It's an experience in itself with the mix of colors, smells, sights, and people carrying their shopping bag on wheels which I find very convenient.  From the flowers, to the cheeses, to the meats and produces, the later has better prices here. The same place is converted into an antique market in the afternoon. Every town has an open market. We loved the displays of spices, olives, produces, fromages, charcuteries, dry fruit, fleurs and more.

    Nice displays of food and vegetables with hand written prices.         

      

    Beautiful art at the Market.

French women sunbathe topless, even during cold weather. We also saw a few swimming in the cold water on sunny days. Keep in mind the temps were not higher than 55F.

The promenades are the only flat land to walk on. Otherwise, you are climbing up or going down a hill, up or down steps, some long, some short, no matter where you go. One of the many walks we did we encountered going up many steps on a curvy hill. We climbed and climbed and one more turn and couldn't see the end. Finally, we think we climbed 300 steps in sequence of 15 steps and then a short landing before the next 15 steps (but who was counting), here are a few of them...

    Le Promenade d' Anglais in Nice

                            

    Le Croisette in Cannes

    Promenade de Soleil in Menton that connects the beach with the harbor

We will be back!!! I felt in love again!!!

Carnival in Villefranche-Sur-Mer!

Every town in Côte de Azur has some kind of celebration for Carnival, our little town was no exception.

We had breakfast after getting ready planning to leave to see the parade around 1:00pm, but we heard the drums thru the window coming down to the harbor and we ran out to the street to see them. It was around 11:30am  The program said 13:30, so never knew if the marching band was practicing or what but this wasn't on the program. Glad that we were 3 minutes away. 

             

Then at 13:30 like the French keep time, the parade started with the carrozas all colorful and grotesque. The boats in the harbor were decorated with yellow flowers and they had a crew dressed as well. There were many vendors on the street selling tons of candy, crepes, ice cream, all kinds of nuts and ballons.

                   

     

Above are some memories of the occasion.

We sat on the edge of the harbor next to a french couple, similar in age as ours, who were enjoying their picnic. They had their basket with dry sausages, breads and cheeses to enjoy the festivities.  On the other side was a french woman in her 70's. She was alone and was using a cane so we helped her step down on the edge of the pier to sit. She wanted to talk to us, we tried but with our poor French the conversation didn't last long.  Just a little bit of history, I read that this area is more Italian than French and many of the traditions have some Italian influence including their food which besides the typical French food, it includes pasta, pizza and tiramisu. The Italian affect is also reflected on the colors of the town that for many it's very Italian. This goes to a great part of the south of France which at one point in history belonged to Italy. In the 1800s the people were given the option to stay with Italy or become part of France. The people voted and the rest is history. Below is picture of this beautiful town. It sure has a lot of pastel colors. If you continue walking to the right of this picture by the water road, it forms a huge bay at the bottom where there is a nice sandy beach. Not common here as many beaches have gravel, big or small, some pulverized. This beach has a large paid parking which is usually crowded on Sunday's. The beach is called "Plage des Marinières". The French people love to named every beach. It's not the town name which is what I am used to in California. You don't get tired of this view, I have taken so many pictures...in sunny days, not to sunny, rainy days, no matter what the weather is, it's always a beautiful site.

   

When this event was over we headed down for our walk of the day. Down to the end of the beach there are some steps that took up to the next town about 15 minutes away. It's located on the other side of the peninsula. It's called Beaulieu-sur-Mer. We continued to be impressed as every town is as beautiful as the other. Every town has a harbor, some bigger than others, a promenade to walk along the beach, instead of walking on the sand, nice boutiques and restaurants, and overall very expensive.  This town has some large villas overlooking the ocean and the typical apartment building downtown.

                            

       

               

After spending the late afternoon there, we walked back approx. 2 miles. We stopped at the creperia and ordered a Nutella crepe. Today, we ate the desert before dinner and ruined our appetite. Not a problem. Enjoying them while we are here; too many choices and not enough time.

Well, two more days here and I don't want to leave.

Valentine's weekend in France!

We took a long walk on Friday from Villefranche-Sur-Mer to the next town east of us called Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, commonly known as Cap Ferrat. This town sits on a beautiful peninsula with amazing views, famous for the big villas overlooking the Med, the home of Ephrussi  de Rothschild, David Niven Villa and other celebrities. Like all towns on the Mediterranean it has a beautiful harbor and beaches, nice boutiques and restaurants. 

                          

We celebrated our Valentine dinner here. What a great choice in a quiet waterfront restaurant with a beautiful menu, not only in presentation but in quality. I had baked clams, Ed has escargot, and we both ordered the Bouillabaise for our main course, and for desert Ed had creme brûlée and I had the fromage plate. Both were very apropos for the occasion. Another one of those unforgettable dinners! We had to take the bus home as it started to rain.

                  

      

Nice Carnival is a huge event. We saw the stands set up along the streets ready for the celebration since we arrived. It seems that everywhere in the world, but the USA, celebrates the carnival in a big way. Yes, New Orleans celebrates the Mardi Grass but it's not an American tradition. It has its roots in medieval Europe. It's for sure a big thing here in the Côte d'Azur. Our own small town will have a celebration Feb 16th that we will not miss. The program for Nice runs for almost 2 weeks with different events per day starting Feb 13th.  We bought tickets for the flower parade, Bataill de Fleurs, to be held on Valentine's Day at 2:30 pm. With all the sunny days, we didn't think we could go wrong and we selected the afternoon event the as the other event that same day was at 9:00 pm. Well, when we checked the weather forecast and discovered rain was predicted at 50-80% probability; we were bummed. On Saturday we got up and found out thru FB the grand opening was canceled due to rain. We got ready just in case the weather improved, fat chance, we discussed our options and kept looking thru the window - and it was getting darker and darker. We decided to stay home hoping the event was canceled to get our €50 back. Well, thru the Nice Carnival Facebook page was posted that the event will be held.....but an hour later a second posting was made saying that due to rain the event was canceled. Yeah! It's amazing how Facebook it's used as the medium to communicate to the world. We turned the TV on the French channels and nothing found, but checked the web and Facebook gave us the information.

Now we need to go to tourism office so they can process our refund.

We spent a quiet day at home, walked to the boulangerie before the rain started to buy fresh bread and my favorite pastry, a Mille-feuille or "milhojas" en spanish which means a thousand leaves.  It's a pastry of stacked layers of puff pastry, the best!

This is how the clerk wrapped it to go, like a gift, not brown paper or plastic. They do this for a sandwich too, very pretty!

I had made lentil soup the other day and we had a serving for two saved for a day like this, it worked out perfect on a rainy day!

Cannes, the home of the film festival!

 We walked to the train station in Villefranche-sur-Mer to take the 10:00 train to Cannes.   When we arrived at the small train station, the board indicated the train was delayed 40 minutes. No choice but waiting. We sat on one of the benches by the railroad tracks on the sunny side. An english woman arrived and was disappointed by the delay.  We exchanged a couple of words; she showed us how to validate our ticket and then she sat far from us. More people arrived and all had that same reaction. Finally, the train arrived. It was a very old regional train with very dirty windows and some had graffiti on them. We were not happy with the seats available, but we reminded ourselves if we didn't like it, start liking it and enjoyed the ride. It was about 25 minutes, we planned to stop at Antibes, another historical town, to check it out. The destination of our ticket was Cannes, but tickets allow riders to stop anywhere at no extra cost along the way.  

Antibes has a down-to-earth feeling, easygoing ambience that’s rare in this area. Its old town is a maze of narrow streets and red-tile roofs rising above the blue Med, protected by twin medieval towers and wrapped in extensive ramparts. The Côte d' Azur gives its visitors an opportunity to browse Europe’s biggest yacht harbor, snooze on a sandy beach, loiter through an enjoyable old town, and hike along a sea trail. We are taking advantage of every opportunity as each town is 15-40 minutes by bus or train. Antibes only claim to fame is the Picasso Museum which shows off its great collection in a fine old building. We found our way to the old town and ended up in the Provençal Marche. I love how everything is set up in style, from the olives to the cheeses, spices, dry fruit and more. Everything pleased the senses, including tasting as many vendors were offering free samples. We bought some dry fruit, prunes, mango and ginger. Dry fruit is very expensive everywhere, we end up paying €15 for our small choices.

Here are some of the stalls at the Provençal Market in Antibes

                      

      

We ended up having lunch picnic style by the harbor, enjoyed watching people and headed down back to the train station to take the next train to Cannes. 

Antibes harbor....

Antibes beach, sand instead of gravel...

                 

                

We arrived in Cannes. Another glitzy town starting with the train station that has nice chairs with arms inside and outside the building for the waiting, automatic doors, nice coffee shop and more. Across from the station there were many restaurants. We strolled down to main street where the Old Town is on one side, followed by the harbor with the glitzy yatchs next to the Casino, and the huge theater where they hold the film festival in May.

Here is a view of Cannes old town from the main plaza at the back of is picture .

 The casino, we tried to get in...no such luck. I guess they know we are not gamblers, they sent us back.

Cannes harbor; more multimillion dollar yachts!

Cannes is the sister city of Beverly Hills. It has exclusive hotels lining mostly private stretches of perfect, sandy beach which is for strolling, shopping, dreaming of meeting a movie star, and lounging on the seafront. We went inside the Carlton Hotel, very elegant from the outside, but even though beautiful inside, I like the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Nigel better. Money is what Cannes has always been about— wealthy people come here to make the scene, so there’s always enough scandale to go around. We strolled down the promenade to watch the people's clothes, some sitting down at the blue chairs along visiting with friends, some simply relaxing and watching. Many people were walking with their expensive dogs with sweaters on. This is the only place we saw doggie bags and trash cans for it. Perhaps the only place that people pick up, as we have experienced the opposite everywhere we have been.

One of the many fancy hotels along the promenade.

The beginning of the Croisette promenade.

 Palais des Festival et des Congress (the film festival theater) it has three entrances, all very similar.

The Croisettes Bloulevard. Please note that no pastel colors.in this town, all building are white or beige with an elegant feel.

La Croisate Promenade in Cannes , impressive with bar and restaurants on the each side. Not many were open but were getting there ready for the touristic season.

We were impressied with Cannes, it was an elegant town but it can't be compared to Monaco.

The hotels all appear to be five stars with fancy lobby's and valet parking. The beach restaurants, like most restaurants along the French Riviera, were very pricey, Cannes stands out because it is the home of the film festival. We just imagined how this town is during the festival.

Monaco, glitz and glamour!

We did the mandatory visit to Monaco. From our home base in Villefranche-Sur-Mer we took bus 100, each ride €1. Buses are the only bargain in the French Riviera. You even have the option to transfer to another bus within 70 minutes with the same ticket. It rides along the Mediterranean and it takes about 30 minutes zooming thru one beautiful town after another, witnessing dreamy villages, marinas and many of the loved beaches by European alike. Cap d'Ail is the town that borders France with Monaco which is little bit of paradise.  We got off at Place de Arms and found our way to the Monte Carlo Palace by climbing the long stone stairway. We knew we were in when we walked under a huge arch.  Monte Carlo means "Charles Hill". The palace guards protects the prince 24/7 and we made it up just a few minutes before the changing of the guard. As in London, it's always a delight to watch the ceremony. 

We wandered around the grounds, visited the beautiful gardens and strolled through the small town by the palace narrowed and picturesque streets featuring nice villages, boutiques, and restaurants. 

                                          

                 

     

We strolled down the hill back to Place d'Arms and checked several displayed menus looking for a soup. Our choice was excellent! We had a beautiful lunch in a very pleasant setting with a superb calamari soup. At the beginning we didn't know what to expect. Well, we were pleasantly surprised, beautiful presentation, delicious and different soup. At the end the waiter offered us a desert. He mentioned several choices one of them "chocolate bony."   We asked what a "bony" was. He expressed his amazement... "don't you know what a bony is?". When he served it, we realized why he was surprised; he meant a "brownie". We laughed our heads off and enjoyed our chocolate bony.

There was still much more to see. We headed down to the harbor to see the gigantic yatchs. You've seen one multimillion dollar yatch - you've seen them all. That harbor is magnificent. I was able to take some great pictures from the castle that sits on the hill overlooking the harbor. Plus we walked alongside the big yatchs and some were being cleaned by their crew in uniform,

                               

Today Monaco has the world's highest per-capita income. It's a no income tax state, but it's not a tax heaven, as we heard taxes are very high.

From the harbor we took the uphill walk to the casino, about 1 mile long, on a heavy traffic road. We made up to the casino. This is a very majestic place. We couldn't get in as after 2pm, it's open for  gamblers only and there is a dress code. This place was not like in Las Vegas where people can wear tennis shoes, blue jeans, T-shirts, etc. At this casino, and Monaco in general, you can detect the quality of the clothes and shoes of the inhabitants. There is money in the air!!!

 

Diagonally from the casino there is another majestic building. It's Hotel Paris. We couldn't count, but they were many Roll Royces and other fancy cars parked in front.

Monaco is a very special place; we have never seen so much luxury in one place. I guess Beverly Hills may come close, but it lacks all the ornamental buildings with the wrought iron balconies or Mediterranean columns that embellish this town. New York is eclectic. I venture to say Monaco makes sure every building meets high standards to please the eye to the health and famous.

We wandered around the expensive shops and did our mandatory window shopping. Delightful to say the least. We would like to go back and stay in one of these "modest hotels" and experience a couple of days relaxing under the sun. However, not this trip!

We took a bus to Menton, which is 15 minutes west of Monaco. Menton feels like a poor man’s Nice. It’s unrefined and unpretentious, with lower prices, and we heard lots of Italians love to come here for a day tríp as its just over the border (five miles away). We stepped out of the bus 3 or 4 stops before the destination and headed down one block to the inviting promenade that lines the beach and seaside cafés serving light meals and salads (much cheaper than in Nice). From the promenade, a pedestrian street leads through town. We ended up at the harbor which is huge. Then we headed down to old town and strolled the narrow streets and had a gelato. 

We found our way to the bus stop, wanted to get to the first stop to get a seat as we walked about 5-6 miles today and we were a little tired. It took about 30 minutes to get back to Villefranche-Sur-Mer, what a fantastic day!