Sites of Villefranche sur mer
Trip Start
May 18, 2007
1
30
62
Trip End
Jul 18, 2007
Villefranche sur mer,
France
Friday, June 15, 2007
We ate at the Hotel Riviera this morning and headed out to see the sites around 9:30am. We wandered the narrow little streets and watched the clouds get darker and darker and actually came back to the room to grab our rain jackets as it was looking very gloomy. Our original plan for today was to go to Monaco but the weather looked too iffy. After stopping at the tourism office we made the good call to stick around here for a while and head to Monaco tomorrow.
The decision to stay here was a great one and we enjoyed the water front walk and before we knew it we were hungry and stopped for a quick lunch. Just as we sat down and ordered the raindrops came down and we were glad the jackets were packed as we put them on quickly
Irish painter along the waterfront in Villefranche
. The most delicious cheeseburgers were brought to the table and before we had taken 3 bites the rain hit hard and brought with it gusty winds and a complete mess in this small alley filled with tourists, shopping and outdoor restaurants. The nice family that ran the restaurant whisked us inside of their 11-seater restaurant, no bigger than a typical bedroom and we noticed the date of 1557 engraved into the heavy stone wall inside. It was certainly cute and tight, and we had an incredible lunch as we watched the rain come down. We had to wait out the storm so we HAD to have cafe au lait's and crepes which put us into a food coma....ready for an early nap which we fought off and hit the village when the sun came out shortly thereafter.
This village was great and the deep blue-green of the Mediterranean ocean against the contrasting peachy-colored buildings mesmerized us for the afternoon walk. Along our stroll we stopped into a small gallery and found some gorgeous bracelets and necklaces made from Venetian Murano glass. The artist recently moved from Venice to Nice and has quite a good business from here. Once we saw these pieces in the sunlight it was all over - charge and wrap them up for a very unique trinket!
The sleepies got us early today and we fell into our French Riviera coma for a few hours before dinner. We found a nice place in the village and enjoyed homemade ravioli, which we found out was invented in Nice - so the dinner was quite local!
After dinner we strolled along the beach along the waterfront and took a few night shots of the village and called it a night.
Tomorrow we are going to Eze and then to Monaco. Ryan is thrilled to learn today that Monaco is an independent country so we can add another country to our list!
Today's walk: 5.3 miles
Total for the journey (157 miles, 29 days)
Love,
Laurie and Ryan
Comments
Irish artist's hat
I loved it! Did she run into a goat that ate part of the top?
Another beautiful place
It's hard to believe, but you keep topping yourselves with beautiful places. The blue of the water is amazing, I can only imagine what it looks like in person! Enjoy! Sammy
Artist's hat
I love the hat eaten by the goat picture!!! All that money in the air and a broken hat :) love it!!
xo,
Gaily