I WON MONEY AT MONTE-CARLO. I just wanted to start off with
that fun fact, but now I will start from the beginning.
On Saturday we took a trip to visit Monaco, the 2nd
smallest country in the world, and Eze, a French commune near Nice. The drive
to Monaco was fairly short, only about 2 hours, and had breathtaking views the
entire way through the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean. About half an
hour outside of Monaco we pulled over on the side of the road to take advantage
of the scenery and snap some photos.
We spent the morning in Monaco-Ville where the Prince’s
Palace is. We were able to see the changing of the guards, which takes place
once a day at 11:55am. Having never seen a changing of guards anywhere, I
thought it was pretty cool, but apparently it was nothing compared to the
changing of guards in other cities. We had some free time in Monaco-Ville to
walk around the shops, the gardens and the church. The Saint Nicholas Cathedral
was beautiful and is where many of the Grimaldis, Rainier III and Grace Kelly
are buried. Right outside of the church are the gardens; filled with cactus,
seagulls and statues overlooking the water. While the views from the garden
were amazing, the seagulls were vicious, sandwich stealing monsters. Lucky for
me, I didn’t have my food with me in the gardens and was not personally
attacked.
After finishing up in Monaco-Ville we headed to Monte-Carlo
for the casino. This was possibly the best part of the trip, considering I won
money at one of the most famous casinos in the world; even though it was only
20 euros, it was better than nothing. The Casino de Monte-Carlo was designed by
architect, Charles Garnier, the same man that designed one of my other favorite
buildings in France, the Palais Garnier (Paris Opera.) I wish I could have
taken pictures inside of the casino because it was absolutely breathtaking, but
I probably would have been arrested.
When everyone that was lucky had collected their winnings we
headed back to the bus and started off towards Eze. Eze is know as an “eagle’s
nest” because of it’s high location overlooking a cliff. Eze is so high up in
fact, it was SNOWING the entire time we were there. I had been hoping to see
snow while I was in Europe because I haven’t seen snow in the 3 years since I
left New York. However, I was not expecting to see snow in the South of France
when it had been 60+ degrees in Monaco just an hour before. Even though I
enjoyed the snow, Eze would have been a little nicer sans neige. After a very
steep hike through the village we made it to the top of the gardens. The
gardens were again filled with cactus but I think it was too cold for any birds
to be up there. The view from the top of Eze was like a view from a plane. You
could see everything down below and some of the houses and cars were just
little specs. I definitely want to take a day trip back to Eze when it is
warmer and not surrounded by a cloud of snow.
This week has just been filled with class and walking around
town. We had a wine tasting yesterday and I don’t believe I will ever be able
to drink Franzia again after experiencing what really good wine tastes like.
This weekend we are going to head into Nice on Sunday to watch two of our
friends finish a 10-mile run for the Carnaval de Nice. Next weekend we will be
heading back to Nice to stay for the entire weekend and see the Bataille de
Fleurs (Flower Parade) and the Corso Carnavalesque Illuminé (Parade of Lights.)
I promise to take LOTS of pictures!
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