While in France we were lucky enough to have a private tour guide (Robert's sister's boyfriend) drive us around a bit. Thanks Phillip! This shot is looking down on Cap Ferrat.
Cap Ferrat was named in 2012 as the second most expensive residential location in the world after Monaco.
We ate a great lunch at this marina there.
Visiting a village in the mountains.
I love how this lady was dressed to do her shopping! One of the very few that caught my eye when I was away.
A quickie tour through Monaco, the smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. It also has one of the largest police forces, 515 officers for 35,000 residents. You can see them on every single street corner. Oh! And they have elevators on the street so you don't have to walk up the steep hills. No joke. San Fransisco…are you listening?
Beautiful old monastery in Nice.
Taking a little after lunch nap.
Someone asked me if I went shopping while I was away. I tried. I found very little in the way of unique items of clothing and also the prices were outrageous. The Euro is almost double the Canadian dollar and even without the conversion I found all the prices too high.
More Interesting Facts About France
They don't quite "get" the idea of a thrift store.
We were in Galeries Lafayette (their nice department store) we came across a section marked as "Vintage". It was quite well merchandised.
It was a thrift store in the middle of what in Canada would be a similar equivalent, The Bay department store, or in the States, Macys.
A crazy vastly overpriced thrift store. As in, a pair of cut-off jeans from the 1980's for $70. WHAT???
I am sure that they got the product for free, or less than a Euro. All they had done was maybe clean it, hang it, and attach a fancy Galeries Lafayette store tag and a hugely inflated price.
Pffffth.
Seriously.
I don't know if this is because thrift stores aren't as popular, or people don't really know what they are, or what. It is one huge scam though.
Also, as my husband pointed out, no French people were shopping there. It was all tourists, many Asian, and some from the US and Canada.
Needless to say I didn't buy a thing.
They Don't Have Kale
They don't even know what it is. Thanks to protectionist laws in France that keep a strict control on what is imported as far as food is concerned they are without the number one trending superfood in in the world today. Apparently a gal from Pittsburgh is trying to introduce kale, the wonder green to France by bringing in seeds for the farmers of France to plant. I don't think it has gotten too far though since no one in Nice seemed to know about it.
I didn't see one smoothie shop either. But I did find a wonderful traditional ice cream shop : )
Over Tanning
People in the south love to tan. I mean, really really tan so that they start to look like a well used leather handbag or a version of The Tanning Mom. To each his own I suppose.
I saw something hilarious when we were walking on the Promenade des Anglais one day. It was a bit cool with a little wind. There was a man walking down the promenade wearing a white man-kini (barely there swim trunks). His body was hairless, toasted cinnamon bronze, sleek & slippery as a seal, slathered in coconut oil. Walking next to him, what I assume was his partner, a gal dressed in a knee length down coat wearing a wool hat and jeans.
????
How I wish I'd taken a photo!
I will have one more post coming up with our photos from France.
Have you noticed anything unusual about some of the places you've travelled to?
