On
October 26, my friend Sarah came to visit. Sarah went to Smith and studied
abroad in Paris with me and she is currently doing TAPIF in the north of
France. The first afternoon we planned the rest of our trip and then walked up
to the center of Grasse to get a nice view.
The
next day we went to Villefranche-sur-Mer, which is just past Nice on the train.
I had heard that it was a very cute town and it looked beautiful whenever I
passed it on the train.
We arrived shortly before noon and walked around the
town to check out the restaurant offerings. We decided on a restaurant with a
set lunch menu for 18 euros that included a hot goat cheese salad, lasagna, and
speculoos tiramisu. It was very good!
After lunch we went into La Chapelle St
Pierre, which is decorated by Jean Cocteau. (No photos allowed inside, but google it if you're interested.)
We then climbed up to an old fort
where there were nice views and a few small museums. The first museum was
sculptures by Volti, and it was kind of weird because it was basically lots of
sculptures of naked women housed in what seemed like a dungeon. There was also
a little art museum with some paintings and a figurine museum.
We walked around
a nice garden before going back down the hill and walking along the beach. In
the evening we took the train back to Cannes and climbed up the hill to watch
the sunset. We walked along the beach and then had burgers and frappes for
dinner at Steak ‘n Shake.
The
next day we went to Vintimille, a city in Italy that is just over the border
from France. The Friday market was supposed to be particularly nice, but we
found it to be fairly tacky and touristy. We walked around for the morning
and saw some nice views then had some very crummy Italian food for lunch,
including a still-frozen pre-packaged tiramisu.
We went to Menton for the
afternoon, which we much preferred even though it was cloudy. We walked along the beach and collected sea
glass and then climbed up the cool staircase toward the cathedral.
We visited
an interesting cemetery at the top of the hill and then met up with Russian
Marina and her friend to walk around the town and sample some of Menton’s
famous limoncello.
Sarah and I ate dinner at a creperie and the owner (?) and another patron chatted with us and told us that our French accents were very
good and at first they thought we were Belgian or something. He later said that
my accent was almost Parisian and that Sarah had a northern France accent. I
know my French isn’t quite that good, but it always feels great to get
compliments on my French anyway!
The
next day we explored Grasse some more. We met Russian Marina and her friends at
the Fragonard Perfumerie for a free tour of the factory. Then Sarah and I went
up to the center of Grasse and saw some of the free museums about perfume, art,
and culture of the area. We had violet ice cream and then returned to my
apartment to prepare for our trip to Marseille the next day.
