Where are Matt and Nat?

On Friday (Nov 24th) after work Nat, Norm, Sue and I set off to go visit the south of France. Again they had their car rental so we drove. We started out by driving through the centre of Milan so that we could hop on a highway that headed south toward Genova. Norm and I toyed with the idea of plotting an alternate route along one of the highways, however we decide against it after our extra long trip to Ikea a few days earlier. (They don't always mark highways north, south, east, or west here in italy so you have to know what major city you're heading towards instead.) So we took the route that google had suggested and drove through the centre of town on a friday evening...over an hour later we were on our way to the south of France.

We stayed in a nice hotel a few minutes from the Medieval town of Eze which cooked us a tasty Dinner upon our arrival. I had a steak, I hadn't had steak since I left Canada, and it hit the spot.

The next morning we woke up to find that it was pouring outside. So not to worry because we had a car, which is like a raincoat with wheels which seats 4 comfortably. We decided that we would see the sights until the weather cleared up which happened right around Cannes (where they have that film festival). So we parked the car and went exploring.

I decided (after some coaxing) to wander around in the sea with my pants rolled up.. It wasn't as cold as I'd expected. There were also several people brave enough to swim. We explored the town a bit and headed to the old town of Cannes at the highest point of the city, where we discovered that those pay 25 cents per use telescopes can be used to add a telephoto lens to your regular digital camera.

After exploring Cannes we set off for the Medieval town of St. Paul. It's a small to town with cobble stone streets. There are many artists who have set up shop in the town selling their paintings. We explored the town and then headed out for dinner and back to our hotel.

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed down towards the Medieval part of Eze which is a stunning little stone city perched on top one of the peaks of the mountain-side. There were very few people in the town so it gave you the feeling that you'd stepped back in time. Apparently at one point Eze had been considered it's own country. It had a fort a the very top to defend itself. However once Eze became part of France the king ordered the stronghold destroyed. Now there is a stunning garden in it's place with many different varieties of cactus.

Matt and Nat outside The Casino in Monte Carlo

After Eze we set off to check out Monaco which is the second smallest country in the world. (Vatican City #1) Monaco has two cities, Monaco and Monte Carlo. We stopped in Monaco first and took a walk from a Ocean Museum to the Royal Palace. Everything in Monaco is clean, the buildings, the streets, and even the Sea gulls much more Majestic than their French or Italian cousins. After wandering the streets we headed to Monte Carlo and stopped for a look in their fancy Casino. But after finding out that we needed to Pay a cover charge just to go in we decided not to bother. They probably have a cover charge because the rich people don't want us commoners ogling them, their plan worked perfectly.

Next we stopped in Menton, which is right on the border of France and Italy. We strolled up the beach before heading back on to italy.

On the drive back Norm was clever enough to figure out how to get us around Milan instead of straight through the middle, however it wasn't easy.

Here is a video of our trip... It's mostly a montage of all of the video of waves we took, mostly...