Day 4 Monday 25 June (Villefranche)

This morning we arrived in Villefranche.  Grant and I went up to the deck to watch as we glided into the port.  This is the one port on our cruise in which the ship doesn’t actually dock – we had to catch a tender into shore.  So after breakfast in the Windjammer

we made our way down to Deck 1, where we waited in a line for a short while and then after scanning our sea-passes we boarded the ferry type boat that transferred us to the port in Villefranche.  We waited a little while for the boat to fill up and then left for the port. 

The tender boats were a lot bigger than I expected, and the ride was very comfortable and only took about 5 minutes.  We got to Deck 1 at 08:45 and were in the port by 09:15.

Our tender boat

The port building at Villefranche

After disembarking we met up with Sylvie Di Cristo, our tour guide for the day.  We immediately set off for the medieval village of Eze, hoping to get there before too many tourist buses.  The drive to Eze was beautiful, with great views of our ship...

Eze is a tiny little hill-top village, all big walls and steep, cobbled, winding streets.  Such a picturesque place.  We managed to find a geocache at the church in the village.   Eze currently has a permanent population of only 28 people, but a family of 3 is moving in shortly, so they will soon number 31 J

Okay, indulge me here, because I have yet another loo story!  Most of the public toilets in Europe have “loo-ladies” who collect the money and keep the loos clean (having a wee in Europe is not cheap, we have been paying on average 60 Euro cents to use the loos i.e. R6 each!) The loo-lady in Eze was a particularly bossy and scary woman.  But get this: while Grant was standing at the urinal, mid-wee, she marched in with her mop and began cleaning the floor around his feet and even between his legs!  Over-zealous much??  I would have paid good money to see Grant’s face!

Then it was off to Nice.  The roads along the Cote d’Azur are very winding and quite narrow, so it’s a little bit nerve-wracking, but the views are stunning.  The sea really is azure and the yachts are beautiful and of course there are lots of my favourite oleander bushes and beautiful bougainvilleas too. 

Nice was really pretty, but not as shoo-wow as I was expecting.

We had lunch at a little street café, Paula and I had nutella crepes which were delish.  After lunch we took a lift up to the top of the mountain over-looking the city and the views from there were just spectacular. 

There are recent tourists to Nice who believe that Paula and I are certifiably insane - we got a horrible fit of giggles in the lift, the kind that make you snort and cry and that just won't stop.... Grant and Cal were eventually pretending they didn't know us.... I'd tell you the story only it involves yet another loo, so I don't think you want to go there!

We then ambled briefly through the antique brocante that was happening in the square and then strolled along the beachfront promenade.

Then it was back in the car and off to Monaco.  I had heard that Monaco was really not much to write home about, but I enjoyed it.  We drove (along the Grand Prix track) directly to the casino in Monte-Carlo, which was a lot smaller than I expected.  The greatest thing about Monte-Carlo was counting the number of sports cars we could see….about 9 or 10 different makes!

We then wandered past a few of the big name shops (Louis Vitton, Prada etc etc) before making our way around the back of the casino, which I thought was more appealing than the front. 

Grant and I discovered our body doubles in Monte Carlo!

Having seen enough of Monte-Carlo we drove closer to the Palace and then walked the steeeeep path up to the palace.  Definitely worked off a couple of the puddings we’ve been eating!  The area around the palace was soooo nice, lots of little winding streets with touristy shops, ice-cream places, bars and restaurants.  I so wish we had had more time there, but it’s something to add to my “go back to list”.

We piled back in the car and headed back to Villefranche, where we had a short drive around and got to see the medieval streets, before saying good-bye to Sylvie. 

Villefranche is a lot prettier and nicer than I imagined.  After a quick saunter through the little shops we caught a tender back to our ship for some rest and relaxation after a busy day.

We had supper at Johnny Rockets.  The burgers and shakes were good, but the service was extremely slow. 

Paula, Cal, Grant and I were a bit naughty tonight – we got into bed, said good-night and then chatted for a lot longer than we should have, said good-night again...chatted a bit more - like a bunch of naughty kids at a sleep-over!  I expected to have a lot of difficulties with the four of us sharing a cabin for a week, but Grant and I reverting to child-hood wasn't one of them ;-)

I must say that, on the whole, sharing a cabin has been a lot easier than I expected.  We have got into quite a good routine that works for us.  I get up at 6am on the dot and leave the others to snooze while I shower, Grant gets up shortly after I do and he heads to the showers at the gym.  Once I am finished in the shower, Paula jumps in and Cal starts surfacing and generally chats to me while I put my make-up on.  Then Cal heads to the bathroom, while Paula gets dressed in the cabin.  Grant normally gets back at about that point and we all head to breakfast together.  So it’s really not as hassley and fraught as I imagined it to be. 

When we get back from our tours Grant, Paula and Cal usually go for a swim and that’s my “Me-time” (I’m a horrible beast if I don’t have some Me-time!) I jump in the shower and then laze about, doing this journal, going through our photos etc.  By the time they get back to the room I am a happy person and ready to face the evening.   So it's all good!