July 29: One Day, Three Countries!

So that was a mixed sleep experience! Most of us slept pretty well with the open air exposure. Beth was the exception - she was aware of every noise, every light passing by the window in the night. And the mosquito repellent only partially worked - some itching and scratching in our group today.

Today was an ambitious travel day. Our plan, in order, was to:

• do breakfast in Cannes, France

• Lunch in Ventimiglia, Italy

• Evening stop in Monaco

Cannes, of course, is the site of arguably the most prestigious film festival on the planet. It takes place in the spring, so there wasn’t any festival activity today we could take in. But it was still neat, especially for our budding filmmaker Thane, to visit the red carpet and walk of fame. We had a harder time picking a suitable cafe for brunch, however, especially since my empty stomach and the heat were impairing my ability to decide. The meal ultimately helped my disposition. The highlight of the meal was the extra-fluffy pancakes, ordered by Luke & Faith, that took the kitchen over 30 minutes to prepare.

Ventimiglia is the nearest coastal city to the French-Italian border. Faith’s expressed desire, and the chief reason for this leg of the trip, was to have the opportunity to eat pasta in the country where it was invented. Ventimiglia also has a pop-up market on Fridays, and today being Friday, we tried to time our visit with that too.

Traffic crossing the border was nuts, though, and we spent an additional half hour trying to find a parking spot. We arrived at the waterfront market stalls just as they were mostly closing up, in part due to the first rain we had received the entire trip. It was approaching 5 p.m., so we thought perhaps to find our pasta restaurant. However, after awhile we learned most restaurants in the area close for a few afternoon hours between lunch and dinner. We were too early for dinner, but too late to get to Monaco in time for seeing a particular garden Faith had picked out. This was NOT going according to plan; tensions were high, and there were even a couple of tears.

After some deep breaths, we made the call to get some snacks at Italian McDonald’s (making it 4 nations represented at McD’s), then touch foot in Monaco, see the main sights of expensive yachts and the famous Monte Carlo casino, and come back in the later evening again to Ventimiglia for Italian noodles. This turned out to be a good call. Monaco is the world’s second smallest country, and is an example of a city state. It is a very wealthy part of the world too; the Amazing Race told us there are more millionaires per capita here than anywhere else! We spent about as much time as we would want in Monaco; while it’s nice to have money to be able to visit, it’s also OK not to have so much money you run out of ideas on how to use it. Fast cars, haute couture brand names, massive yachts, and fancy gambling are not really our scene. However, I found driving the tight and narrow switchbacks in and out of Monaco REALLY fun!

Getting into Ventimiglia and finding parking the second time was a relative breeze. The restaurant (called Pasta & Basta) served fresh-made noodles with choice of sauce, in a lovely setting overlooking the waterfront. Just what the daughter ordered! We topped off the day with authentic gelato, feeling pretty grateful and pretty accomplished.

A bit of a downer was getting back late, around midnight, to our non-air conditioned flat in Pégomas, and Luke finding a large multi-legged insect on the wall near his & Faith’s room. But after killing it, all seemed to be exhausted enough to sleep.