THE FRENCH RIVIERA AND THEN SPAIN

THE FRENCH RIVIERA, VACATIONING SITE OF LA CREME OF THE WORLD

We left the Italian Riviera and headed to the Côte d'Azur, better known worldwide as the French Riviera, in the Mediterranean coast in the southeast corner of France, extending from the Italian border in the East to the Spanish border in the South West. The most important places in this area are Monaco, Nice and Cannes but the whole coastline is filled with small and beautiful resort towns which are vacationing and summer places for some of the richest people in the world. The French Riviera benefits from an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, it extends for about 120 miles (from Menton in the East, to Bandol, near Toulon in the West), of coastline with beautiful white sand beaches and literally thousands of restaurants, catering the finest food in the world.


THE MONTECARLO CASINO WHERE
THE RICH TRY THEIR LUCK

We visited Monaco (Montecarlo), one of the smallest independent states in the world, which was then governed by Prince Rainiero and his wife, former American darling and movie actress, Princess Grace (formerly Grace Kelly). Monaco is famous for its casino, where the rich and the famous regularly choose to lose (or at least risk) parts of their fortunes. Had we entered and played, we would have lost our shirts, since we had little else to lose, but we couldn’t afford to, so we passed it. We just passed by and took a couple of photos showing the Casino Palace and the beautiful gardens in the forefront. Afterwards we took a look at the circuit where a famous car race takes place every year and then we headed for Nice, which then had a population of about 400,000 and was famous for its beaches and for being home to one of the major yachting centers in the world, with many luxurious marinas along its coast. It is here, in one of the beaches near Nice that we the young men in the tour, had a real ball, watching, for the first time in our lives, a crowd of beautiful girls sunbathing topless along a beach stretch of about half of a mile. Watching this great spectacle took us about two hours and we exhausted our reserves of film for our cameras, much to the disgust of our female companions who did not enjoy much the whole thing. We told them not to be shy and do as they saw it, to not avail. Latin girls in those days were still shy, I don't believe they are as shy any more.
Manolo, our Galician driver, parked the bus, got his swimming suit on, and came along with us the boys. Manolo, who never stopped telling jokes about his countrymen, began his funny joke telling as he was lying on the beach and enthusiastically watched the topless girls. He told us about the fifty Galicians who drowned as they were trying to dig a tunnel to escape from a prison-ship; and the one about the little Galician kid who was inconsolable crying for the death of his cat. In trying to console him, his mother told him that he should not cry because the little cat was already in God’s hands. The kid shouted back, “but mom, what the hell is God going to do with a dead cat? So much for the smart Galicians!
We stayed in Nice overnight, went to a bar where we found people from all over the world and ended up having the time of our lives, singing, dancing and drinking our heads out. We were among the few who spoke both English and Spanish in a world where most people spoke only one language, be it English, French, Italian or German. We made friends with a lot of young people who spoke English, Italian and even German, not that much with French speaking people who appeared to be a bit uncomfortable with English speaking people, a perception that I have heard repeated by many English speaking travelers who have gone to France. That was a long, long night. We went to bed at five AM and asked Manolo to take it easy the next day, which he did. Most of us got up well entered the afternoon and all of us began our day with an early dinner at four PM. Our next step was Cannes, still in the French Riviera.



CANNES, AT THE HEART OF THE FRENCH RIVIERA

The city of Cannes is the "star" of the French Riviera; it is famous for the International film festival which carries its name, for its fancy hotels, luxurious cars, for its beautiful beaches and for the world famous visitors who are attracted to this place. The city is centered on the old port; with the down town part quite compact. Many of the art galleries, jewelry and exclusive clothing shops are located along the Bvd. de la Croisette where most of the exclusive hotels are located as well. The miles long white sandy beaches of Cannes run along the Rue Golfe de la Napoule, or along the Bvd. de la Croisette. Our “center of operations was located in the beach, in front of the Bvd. de la Croisette, where we were able to enjoy the view of the city, but more than anything, the view of the beautiful girls sunbathing topless everywhere we could see. Mama Mia, la vita e Bella!
We spent the day mostly at the beach playing ball and taking as many pictures as we could and, at the end of the day, my fellow companions decided to vote where to go next. Much to my disappointment, the votes favored Paris as opposed to Madrid 13-7. As a result, I had to split because I had been to Paris already and I wanted to visit Spain. This was my last day and night with the group, at night, we drank beer like Cossacks drink vodka, we danced and sang Latin songs out loud, I felt sad because we had to split, but, that is the nature of life, every one has his own plans and the next day I took a train to Madrid, I was again all by myself.
Betty and I said farewell to each other in a very affectionate but mature way. There was no tear dropping, no promises of anything but to keep in touch by writing each other, which we did for a short period of time. She and I had a beautiful time together; we kissed and wished each other the best. We kept corresponding for a few months afterwards, but, it was obvious that ours was only a summer thing which did not leave any scars in either side. It was just one more of the nice things to remember from my first vacation in Europe!
The following day I was in Madrid, Spain and as originally intended and again, I began to use my little “Europe on $20 a day” book with enormous success. I arrived at the train station and took a taxi to my hotel in “La Gran Via” only two blocks away from the Plaza de España, the site where an immense statue of both Don Quixote and his loyal assistant Sancho Panza is a great testimony to the admiration of Spain and the whole Spanish World to the greatest writer of the Spanish Language, Don Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra. That was a great place to be in Madrid. My hotel was located in a very old building, perhaps from the end of the nineteen century or even older, but my room was very nice and clean, and the cost was only $10/day. I had my own bathroom (which is a luxury in Europe at my level of a budget), with an elevator which was as slow as a turtle, therefore, in the morning, instead of taking the elevator I used to take the stairs. I had promised myself that I would eat as much Paella as possible when I arrived in Madrid, and so I did. A nice and clean restaurant where they served great Paella was only about a hundred yards away across the street, I had Paella at lunch and I had more Paella for dinner. The partying, drinking and dancing of the last two and a half weeks was over. This was time to retake the cultural and the sightseeing part of my vacations in Europe.
In my next posting, SPAIN THE BEAUTIFUL