July/August,  2023.  

Our5day  trip to the Cote d'azur for Max's birthday ( golly these😂 things keep happening).

What a lovely surprise,, as we expected big cities/towns and marinas. What we found were lots of lovely little old harbours, squashed into small coves amounst hilly outcrops of rocky shores.   These small old fishing port size harbours, crammed houses on the little bit of flat ;land before they rise up the sides of the hills behind. And these lovely liitle old streets, narrow and winding though old houses. Colourful and picturesque.

NICE,   We walked to the waterfront of ?? newer Nice, still 30degrees at 6pm-- its been a hot summer here..... luckily we had a place in the old part of town which was prettier, and walked through the old narrow winding streets of Nice to the look-out. Not somewhere we lingered- preferring the old port and its ambiance.

The beaches are mainly pebbles, and this main beach at this end is so steep that you have to use a rope to get up the slope out of the water- up to your shoulders about 1m out.

 

Beer-time again😊😊😊😊😊😊

        This is the port of Nice- not the size we expected but they still manage to get some Superyachts in. Most just more out in the bays and have very very nice tenders!!!

 The bus to VILLEFRANCHE in the next bay to meet Janine from Sumner, NZ for lunch. Lots of old little steep street up from the harbour. You would need to be fit to live here all year.

These streets are where the old shopping street and markets were many years ago= all under the 3-4 storey houses above.

Next day, again by local bus going through VILLEFRANCHE and onto Saint Jean Cap Ferrat.

Lots of little bays, not too crowded with lovely clear blue water. We walked around on one of the coastal walkways and then back past David Nivens House and up to Villa Ephrussi, the Rothschilds Mansion.

 

Built in 1907-1912 by Beatrice de Rothschild. On her death in 1934 she donated the entire Villa to Academie des Beaux-arts.

They were busy setting up the flowers etc for a wedding that evening             💘💘💘💘

They have an international Garden here , 9 different gardens on different themes, and look what I found in the exotic garden!!!

On the plaque it says===== 

Muehlenbeckia Complexa, Muehlenbekie, polygonaceae, Nelle Zealande. 

We now have a little bit of Sea-boat envy!!!!!

or Summer bach envy !!!!

Big day --MONACO, again by local bus. It took one hour winding all along the coast line- so had beautiful views and all for only 2.5 euros each.

The Monaco Casino.

Look what we found !!😊

Amazing convex/concave sculpture- you can just see our reflection in the bottom rt hand corner.

Went in to have a flutter at the tables, but it was not open till 2pm 😢😢😢😢😢

Very easy place to walk around - mainly because Monaco is so small- 2.1sq kms in total, 38,000 inhabitants and 300 days of sunshine each year.  What did surprise was the building works and more high-rises being built and they can only go UP....

Again a small port- not what we expected.

This video shows the harbour and around the bay up to The Royal Palace.

This car is William Grovers Bugatti, which  won the 1st Grand Prix de MONACO, 1929.

Couple of super yachts in Monaco.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - Back in NICE-- we go out for Max's birthday.....

Thats our resturant on the rock behind - a lovely meal- amazing night...

Le Plongier.

💕💕💕💕💕

We have been surrounded by big boats here on the monied South of France.   Its a different world!

But if you would like to rent this lovely 95m, 10 cabin (only 12 guests) with 28 crew, for one week, it will cost you 1,600,000 euros for the week with an avaerage of 150,000 euros for extras !!!

 July , 2023.

So on our way to Avignon, still 30-34 degrees but with a sea breeze. At least we are now moving!!!!

As we pass through The Canal du Rhone-a-Sete on our way to The Mighty Rhone,  we see these lovely old little fishermen houses - looking more like summer bachs now---

Again- love the feeling that your can just build anything here, not sure this would get a full building consent in NZ....

Finally we see freely roaming wild horses, and flamingoes flying overhead as we pass through The Camargue.

 Love the symbiotic relationship between the horses and the White Egrets.

Leaving the canals behind us, and heading onto the Petit Rhone and then the big Rhone- the scenary changes.

- river flow hard to determine but probally 2-3 kms downstream. Still we go at a steady pace and it all seems ok. Unfortunateley our speedo is sulking but the reves sit nicely at 1800-1900 and the GPS on our phones say we doing 10kms hr.

Water and wind are used alot in France for their Electricity.

Below- coming up to Beaucaire and our first lock coming up on the Rhone.           

River on the the right and a barrage now on the left, and you used to be able to go up that way into the town of Beaucaire- and go through a lock onto the Canal du Rhone-a- Sete --but sadly no more.

So this is the water flow down The Rhone today-- very noticable here at the lock -- its only a 11.3m deep lock😱😏😏, containing zillions of litres of water and filled just for 2 of us little boats.

The water fills in fast but so gently as it fills up all along inside the lock chamber and has lovely free floating bollards.

Arriving into Avignon and under the amazing rail bridge and the Palais des Papes on the horizon.

And finally we turn up into Avignon and the famous Pont-de-Avignon- ( Pont St. Benezet) and the Papal Palace,

Avignon 

Met up with Paul and Claire again and out for a night to wander around. Music and people touting their theatre shows everywhere. Its very busy and friendly and HOT.....

Walked around during the day and there are posters and people everywhere. This is a human scupture - these guys are so clever and can sit so still for ages.

Only one way to park in a tight spot.

 And of course the obigitory Irish Pub!!!

Posters everywhere, on walls, lamposts, railings etc.....

thought this would have been fun to see-- if we understood French!!!

So---------  Claire, our new friend, being Scottish, had found a theatre Troup ( Ozzie, Brit and a Swede) who were doing a skit about Scotland ......  t was basically mimme, so 4 tickets later...

Now What you forget about Fringe theatre is that often the audience gets to be involved - no hands up - they just pick you!!!  so second up was Max. 😂😂😀😀

  ( reminder---don't sit in an ilse seat or at the front)

The skit was about Scotland, so you had the fly- fishing, the climbing mountains and the echos of the Glens, you had the eagles flying, and the stag/moose hunting and of course the whiskey drinking.

Then Brave heart with blue face dye and the war with england.  Although in Mime -- their sound effects were brilliant. It was very clever and funny... and Max got picked on to play a Stag...

We couldn't down load all the videos we took so we have split them up into short bits------ BUT you will certainly get the idea.

And after all that --  and another night out on the town...

Scenes from AVIGNON.

Papal Palais.

The immense walls of the city--4.3kms, took 20years to complete and are still intact, surrounding the old town of 150ha, including the Papal Palace.

More music from the festival ( in 2 clips again)

More music in the main square.

The Pont du St  Benezet,,,first biult in the 12C by Benoit or Benezet from a religous order whose noble task was to build bridges and hospitals   .The bridge was 970m long with 23 arches.

During the years since completion it has been constantly attacked by war, floods and spring thaws, finally never rebuilt after the last collpse in around 1670. 

Benezet died before it was completed in 1184, and now only 4 arches remain. St-Benezet is buried in the little chapel under the 3rd arch.

The bridge used to stretch across this branch of the Rhone, over the island and across the other branch of the Rhone to Villeneuve-Les-Avignon and the Fort Saint-Andre.

💜💛💚💙

BE PREPARED!!!

CLOSE CALL! And we get worried about our bimini!!! 

We just love the way the Europeans embrace family cycling life.

A comfotable 3 on this bike.. Only 2800 euros from Decathalon.

But maybe as they get older 

OK - This unbelievable but people just seem to love Max's bikes even when they are locked up with 2 locks at a time and left chained and locked up to a steel pipe by the boat--- LOCKS CUT THROUGH  AGAIN!!!!!-----his bike always gets stolen but they leave mine just lying on the ground-- 

I know mine is a sit-up-and-beg bike, and we always take the battery out -- but even so! !!!!  

✌✌

So now his new new bike is locked beside us when in dock --- he is taking no chances at all now. 

 

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

And onto Cote d'Azur celibrate Max's birthday.