Fin

Well, I've been back in the States for about 36 hours or so now, which brings my lovely international blogging to a close for now at least. I hope all of you enjoyed my adventures, I know I did! Hopefully Ill talk to and or see most of you very soon!

Ciao!

Up in the Mountains

For our last full day out, Helen and I rented a car for the day and instead of staying coastal, we headed up into the mountains. The views were spectacular. By the time we started to head back down and out, we had made it pretty far into the Maritime Alpes area. Here's some sneak peeks!

Pro Time!

Just got word that one of my drawings (this pretty one to the left here) has SOLD!! Some wonderful lady bought it for her daughter and will be coming to pick it up on Friday afternoon (after I have already relocated to the airport terminal probably). But still great news to receive. I feel like a pro now. :-D

Portanier Studio visit

This morning, we were able to meander down the hill where we had an appointment for a meet and greet at the studio of Gilbert Portanier. Both him and his wife were extremely nice and we were able to tour both his personal gallery and studio space (which was room upon room). He has been a potter for about sixty years now and the space and work was pretty incredible.

Molto Bene

Yesterday we hopped back on the train into Italy, this time to a town called Imperia. We had to get our last fill of Italia before our time on the Cote d'Azur comes to an end.

Another beautiful day on the water, just a tad windy. It wasn't quite as beachy of season in Italy yet as it seems to have gotten to in France, but the influx of people for the Cannes Film Festival might be to blame for that as well.

Talk about making you feel small. This church was quite impressive, inside and out.

What's a trip to Italy without a little food porn, Spaghetti with pomodoro, pesto, pancetta, yummmm. Oh and some fresh calamari, lightly fried on the side. Finished the day off with gelato of course.

Ambitious adventures

Bright and early yesterday morning, we hopped a bus to train to a tram to a bus up a mountain to La Turbie to see Trophy of the Alps (apparently only 1 of 2 Roman Trophy monuments left in the world). It was pretty spectacular to see it and learn the history of it.

Helen fell in the abyss! It was a bit foggy, but apparently on a clear day you can see a good amount of the coast and further into the hills and mountain, but as you can see there wasnt too much of a view except the fog.

I was going to feed them, but I figured it wasnt the same as a petting zoo.

We had climbed up the hill via the town of Nice, but we decided to take the descent route into Monaco. Unfortunately, it was not only Sunday, but it was also the weekend of one of the Grand Prix races so a good portion of the town was closed off to traffic. We did get some good sneak peeks at the racers and the racecars a couple times though, which was pretty cool. I started to pull out he camera through the stair crack, but the security guard didnt seem to be a fan of that plan.

We managed to maneuver away from the chaos and down to the coast. Still amazing as ever though.

We finished the day off with some crepes in Nice and some wandering around the old town area. We did actually make it successfully on to a train home that night, by the way.

Climbing Nice

So the day after the "stuck in Nice and had to take a taxi" night, we returned to Nice with a better check-up on the train schedule. It was a GORGEOUS day and I was cringing about the fact that I did not bring my bathing suit because the water looked like a bathtub. (SIDE NOTE: I did go swimming the following day which was an even NICEr day than the previous so worth the wait).

Anyways, we saw some stairs leading up a hill and ended up touring a Chateau/old fortress thing with a view of Nice and Ville France. Consisted of lots of stairs, great views, a little park, a waterfall, cafe, more scenic touring, etc, etc. We rewarded our trek with gelato afterwards.