There was no blog yesterday (Monday Oct 14/2024) as we were busy with trying to get my foot attended to yet again at not one, but two hospitals and then finally a private clinic. Ah the joys of a foot infection on vacation in France! I think we are finally on the right track after finding a private walk in clinic on-line where I booked an appointment within the hour, took an UBER to get to the clinic, walked in and the doctor saw me right away. I now have new antibiotics, probiotics, latex free bandaids, antibiotic cream and biseptine antiseptic spray. I seem to be on the mend now which was my goal of seeking further treatment yesterday as I do not want to go on our River Cruise on Sunday with an infected foot!
Yesterday we walked around Old Nice and saw the flea and antique market which only happens on Mondays in Nice.
Must be scarves I’m looking at!
Still trying to find the right scarf!
Flea and Antique Market in Old Nice every Monday
Flea and Antique Market Nice
Centenary Monument which commemorates a century since the first annexation of Nice by France during the French Revolution. The area around this statue is used for the Christmas market in Nice.
Tourist Train on the Promenade des Anglais
Jardin Albert 1er, Nice, France
There was a lot of stuff for sale but nothing appealed to us so we left the market to walk around, only to have it start raining as we were half way home. That’s when I thought I had better get my foot attended to and that took at least until 9pm last night!
I will spare you the full details of our 3 UBER rides but if you’re ever in France call your Out of Country Medical provider and have them authorize a visit to a health care provider and then find a Private Clinic online. For 80 euros I was in and out of the doctor’s office in 10 minutes!
This morning I was feeling a bit better and with all of the meds and creams etc I thought we could take the SNCF train to Villefranche-sur-Mer which was only 3.7km away but easier and quicker to get to by train…or so we thought.
Gare de Nice
We walked to the Gare de Nice and purchased our tickets from the SNCF machine for 5 euros for 2- one way tickets. This is the same train route that we had taken to Menton the other day and the train would be located on Platform D in about 5 minutes. We made our way to the platform only to wait for about 20 minutes. By now the platform was pretty jammed with everyone heading east on the train for the day.
I found a seat on the train, but Richard did not. We only had to go to the 2nd stop and then we would be exiting the train at Villefranche-sur-Mer. The train was completely packed and the next stop in Nice, more people got on the train. Right in front of me was a guy with an electric scooter and a guy with an large mountain bike was trying to get by the guy with the scooter to get off the train and also get by a lady with a dog who had told her dog to sit so both she and the dog were taking up the entire walkway area of the train. The train was standing room only! I kept saying to Richard he should make his way closer to me because I could see the guy with the scooter was taking up so much space and would be difficult to pass by when the train finally came to our stop, much less we also had to get by the lady with the dog who was also taking up so much space. Anyway, the train finally got to our stop and I stood up only to have no where to go because no one would move or back up to get off the train to let people out. I had to keep saying “Scuse”, “Scuse”, “Scuse” and just charge through people. I wasn’t sure if Richard was behind me or not but I just kept pushing through people until I finally got to the Villefranche-sur-Mer train platform. OMG! I turned around and Richard was right behind me. I said “NO WAY ARE WE DOING THAT AGAIN!“. It was 11am on a Tuesday and it was unbelievable that the train could be so packed! For a ride that was supposed to take 6 minutes on the train, I think with buying tickets, waiting for the train and the actual train ride, the whole trip probably took 40 minutes!
We knew there was a cruise ship in Villefranche-sur-Mer today as I had checked the CruiseMapper website last night to see if there was a ship in port since the port is the most visited cruise ship port in all of France! Villefranche-sur-Mer is one of the deepest natural harbour of any port in the Mediterranean Sea and provides safe anchorage for large ships from easterly winds. The harbour depth is 320 feet but there is a 1,700 foot abyss known as the undersea Canyon of Villefranche about 1 nautical mile off the coastline. It was better to visit Villefranche-sur-Mer today rather than tomorrow when 2 cruise ships would be anchored off the very small town!
Villefranche-sur-Mer train station which was under construction
As we exited from the train station we could see the entire harbour from Villefranche-sur-Mer (VSM) over to Cap Ferrat and the TUI cruise ship was anchored off the town of VSM. Walking down the steep walk way into town was a photographer’s dream.
Walking from the SNCF train in Villefranch-sur-Mer to town
Beautiful narrow passageways heading into town
There were so many beautiful things to photograph as we walked down the steep path overlooking the bay.
Walking by the walls of the Citadel in VSM
Entrance to the Citadel VSM
Inside the Citadel
The outside of the Citadel in VSM I loved all teh details and architecture of this old fort
Stunning views over the deep bay at VSM
The Citadel which was built in 1557 seemed to be the place we wanted to go, to be able to get great photos of the bay, so we figured out how to walk up to the Citadel which now houses the Town Hall, three museums, a convention centre and an open-air theatre.
Steep steps of VSM which is built on the side of a steep cliff
VSM has been the backdrop for many movies done over the years including James Bond’s “Never Say Never Again” with Sean Connery (where the motorbike chase scene was shot in the narrow streets of VSM), “The Jewel of the Nile” with Michael Douglas”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” with Steve Martin and Michael Caine and “The Bourne Identity” with Richard Chamberlain. Tina Turner had a home in VSM from 1992-2010 until her plans to expand her home were challenged by local authorities.
We wandered around looking at the beautiful cobblestone streets and decided that we wanted to have lunch in VSM. All of the waterfront restaurants with their million dollar views also had $$$$ price tags on their lunch specials and nothing was really appealing to either of us. We decided to try and get out of the main touristy area by the port and walk up to where the locals lived and as we did, we found a laundromat.
Well sort of a laundromat. This is an outdoor laundry area for residents to use. Hand washing only!
At the top of the very steep hill we found a restaurant with nice daily specials and we decided to eat there since we had a view of the water and it was not too busy either.
Richard loved the pork that he had for lunch.
My zucchini and red pesto pasta was simple, but very tasty.
And the tarte limon was delicious too!
After we had finished lunch Richard asked our server which way to the 15 bus to Cap Ferrat? We knew that our Nice bus passes that we had purchased last week would work on the bus and if we went to the end of the line in Cap Ferrat, we would be at the harbour.
We walked up the sidewalk to easily find the #15 bus stop by a small park.
We waited for the bus and then hopped on for the 20 minute ride over to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The public transportation system sure is great in France! We got great views along the trip and also went through the small town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the bus where the SNCF train stops on the same train route that we had been on this morning.
Cap Ferrat was named in 2012 as the 2nd most expensive residential location in the world after Monaco! Andrew Lloyd Webber has a home in Cap and Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild bought a 7 hectare hillside property overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and from 1905-1912 she crafted an impressive Villa inspired by the Italian Renaissance style with a Spanish influence. The gardens of the Villa are open to the public but we did not have time to see the gardens today before they closed for the day.
Looking out to the lighthouse at Cap Ferrat
Surfing anyone?
A windy day with a gorgeous view
What a stunning coastline!
Cap Ferrat was quite a bit windier and cooler than the VSM! The waves were crashing at the beach as a bunch of kids were trying to learn how to surf. A motorboat was having a very difficult time in the rough seas getting out of the harbour and I couldn’t imagine it was much fun sitting in that boat as a passenger, with the sea swells looking like they were 5 feet high!
There were quite a few expensive boats in the Yacht club at Cap Ferrat!
There were quite a few half empty cafes today in this sleepy expensive town
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat celebrates it 120th anniversary in 2024. Before 1904 it formed part of neighbouring Villefranche-sur-Mer. The Cap as it is known fetches some of the highest residential prices on the Côte d’Azur. Waterfront properties fetch upwards of 80,000 euros per square metre! We saw properties listed for sale up to 42 million euros!
We wandered around Cap Ferrat for about an hour but I was feeling quite tired and a bit nauseated from the antibiotics I was taking for my foot so Richard bought me a Coke Zero and we went back to the 15 bus stop at Port de Saint Jean which was the last stop on the line, or the first stop on our way back to Nice.
Luckily there were not too many people waiting to board the bus when we arrived at the bus stop, so we were able to grab the first two single seats on opposite sides of the bus. The bus ride was supposed to take 41 minutes back to Nice Promenade des Arts stop.
The bus sure got crowded around 4:25pm or so. We were very glad we had seats as the bus was standing room only for quite a bit of the trip back to Nice. As we got off in Nice, the trip had actually taken 41 minutes. We still had about a 25 minute walk home to our apartment after the trip, but all in all, the bus was a much more pleasant experience than our SNCF train ride this morning on our way to VSM.
After relaxing at home for a couple of hours to get off our feet, we decided dinner this evening would be at home, so we grabbed our trundle buggy which came with the condo, and walked to the Lidl grocery store about a 10 minute walk down our street. Chicken Cordon Bleu, Salad, and vegetable risotto hit the spot after a busy day exploring the gorgeous towns which the rich and famous make their playgrounds!
Hopefully we will find some time to go back to the gardens in Cap Ferrat as they do look magnificent online. We’ve got some other towns we also want to explore this week but that will be weather dependent as tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. So we will see where we get to tomorrow based on the weather!
Comments