More photos to be added later. Wifi is having streaming problems and cannot upload all our photos. Also, we wouldn't be able to get them in order or with captions, as we have no computer access today and just have mobile devices to update the blog again tonight. As usual, check back later for photo updates and additions to the blog posts!
Summary: We began in the Nice area (in Cannes), and had a later departure (9am) from our hotel after last night in Monaco out for dinner and at the Casino Monte Carlo. We toured a perfume factory in Eze (Grasse, to be precise), and then headed northwest across the French Riviera, en route to Paris. Tonight we stay in Lyon.
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A stop at an Auto Grill (sort of like a restaurant-convenience store at a rest stop). Lara´s not a huge fan of the food here.
And completely unimpressed with the toilet facilities. |
Awesome Moment: for Lara, seeing lavender where it originated (in the Provence region), was simply divine! Even though most of it was already harvested and not in full bloom as it would have been just a week or two a ago, the acres and acres of bushes in cultivation in France were pretty awesome, mixed in with the fields upon fields of sunflowers as well. She is determined to come back another time when it is in bloom.
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This is actually harvested lavender bushes in the field closest, if you can´t tell.
More lavender is behind these baby plants. |
Bloopers:
#1: On this long day of driving in the coach (without too many stops), our tour director, Truus, made the mistake of passing up what was intended to be our lunch stop, opting for a quieter and less-busy stop about a half hour down the road. However, some fellow tour members reeeeally needed to go to the bathroom, so we had to make an emergency "quick" stop, which ended up taking a half hour in itself because the line to the ladies' restroom, per usual, was forever long. So much for saving time in finding a "quicker" lunch stop.
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This was the view we had from our seats, located halfway back
(with lots of spaciousness and window views near to the mid-bus doorway) |
#2: In most of Europe, the bathrooms have a bidet accompanying the normal toilet. (Truus had a blooper of her own years ago, when she originally thought they were an extra sink to wash your dirty laundry in, as she explained to the entire tour group at the get-go, that they're actually "special" toilets for feminine uses). This evening, as we checked out our hotel room for the night in Lyon, France, we were appalled to find that there was ONLY a bidet in the bathroom, and no toilet accompanying it! "What happens if you need to go number two?!" we wondered! Three minutes later, Lara opened a door that appeared to be connected to the room next door, but in all actuality was a private closet just for the normal toilet. Phew!
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| Bidet. |
Cheapest Pleasure: We received free perfume samples after a very educational tour of a perfume factory in Grasse. What an experience, it was! The factory is family-run (there are seven factories in all of France). They do no advertising, shipping, distributing, or marketing outside of France, so it is a specialty item that is basically sold at face-value, without any additional charges for packaging, shipping, etc. Also, learning about "noses" and what they do was so intriguing! Check out the link if you're interested!
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| Perfumerie in Grasse, Eze France. |
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| Lavender in France! (This happened to be old and rather dry lavender just outside the perfume factory.) |
Like the blooper #2 :)
ReplyDeleteYou found Lavender!! I wanna see the fields of Provence tho! When's that happening?
The month of June is best here.
ReplyDeleteOH haha yeah Mom was distracting me and I didn't read that paragraph oops.
ReplyDeleteOk glad you saw it now. The pictures aren't in order either but there's a photo of the bare bushes.
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