Today, Nawal and I (and to be honest it was much more my idea than hers) took the train from Villefranche to Cannes for, what I had hoped to be a fun and exciting adventure. Not to be! I hadn't really been to Cannes since 1984 and that experience had been less than successful as well. I was traveling the 3 friends and one of them, the minute we emerged from the parkade, started being harassed by some older guy. If memory serves, he actually grabbed her thigh and said she had to have dinner with him. We tried ignoring him and wandered into the old town. However, he kept following us and would not leave us alone. So, we gave up on our visit and, in a move that would have made James Bond proud, two of us retrieved the car while the other two walked along the Croisette. I slowed the car down, the two walking on the boulevard jumped in, and off we sped leaving the stalker in our rear-view mirror.
I did make a brief visit here in 2011 with Trev and Mena when we stopped for orange juice and croissants at a beach hut, used the washrooms in one of the upscale hotels and then witnessed a rear-end collision. Lovely! So, perhaps the third time would be the charm - at least that was my hope.
Okay, today nothing quite that exciting or troubling happened. However, it simply wasn't that much fun either. After our arrival and a quick visit to the tourist office for a map, we stopped for some orange juice (orange presse) at a small and very non-descript café where really our main purpose was to use "the facilities". We paid 6 Euros per glass (really??) and then when Nawal headed for the WC, the server who had been quite unfriendly hissed at her and said there was a water problem so no one could use the toilet. After that lovely experience, we meandered along the famous pedestrian street in the old town called Rue Meynadier. It was crowded and I am not sure exactly why it is that famous when shops like Claire's are on it - we can, after all, find that store in every mall at home! At least there were a couple of pretty shop fronts. From there, following the suggestion of the lovely woman at the Tourist Information office, we went to the Marche Forville which, I am sure when it is a market filled with produce and regional goods would be fun and interesting. Today, however, was the "antique" market which looked much more like a "marche aux puces" to me!
We then headed for the seafront to see the yachts, grand hotels, the upscale shops and the beach. Well, the traffic was ridiculous which made getting across the roads like taking your life in your hands; there were crowds everywhere which made walking impossible; construction along the seafront added to the noise and prevented anyone from seeing anything at all scenic. Nawal and I looked at each other and at exactly the same time said let's get out of here. We walked a little further along giving not even a nod to Michael Kors, Prada, Breitling, etc. and headed up a side street where we found an oasis of quiet in a little square and a lovely restaurant called Cannelle (cinnamon). It was a haven from all the insanity. We lingered there for a couple of hours and, again totally simpatico, we agreed to call it a day and head for the next train outta here! We only had to wait about 1/2 hour for the train and 1 hour later we were back in our charming village.
As this is our last night in Villefranche, when we got back, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on our balcony savouring the view and looking forward to whatever adventure tomorrow brings - hopefully, it will be a lot more pleasant and enjoyable than our day in Cannes! I doubt I will ever go back there but . . . as I have learned, never say never.
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| Looking down on the swimmers and beach goers from our balcony. I am going to miss this view. |
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| And this one as well! |
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