Leaving France, Arriving in Italy

As I ate my chocolate croissant at breakfast, I started to get a little sad we were leaving France so soon. As we packed up our bags, I would pause and look out over the city of Cannes. I actually got a little teary-eyed. Three nights wasn't quite long enough there. We really loved it. But we signed the guest book and got in our car (has that been sitting there all this time?) and said goodbye to France (and Bianca's swimsuit that she had left hanging in the bathroom to dry and forgot).

Then we began feeding the toll booths most of the Euros we had. At one, it wouldn't take our paper money and we were sitting there, unsure what to do. There was no one to help. Finally, when the car behind us started getting so anxious they opened the doors, Bianca ran back with a ten-Euro bill and asked them "S'il vous plait" for change. Thankfully, they had some and we were able to get out of France without anymore trouble. We drove to Genova (Genoa) and went to the Aquarium (which is supposed to be the second largest aquarium in all of Europe). I guess there are some things that don't change much between countries and that's fish. They looked just the fish we're used to seeing. They do share an ocean after all.

They had a pretty awesome shark display

Portia pretending to be a dolphin

We spent several hours at the aquarium, had some focaccia pizza bread for lunch, and then got back in the car to finish our journey. To be honest, I did not love Genova and didn't need to go back there again. Give me my small villages any day.

We made it to Carro (up in the mountains and the windy roads to get there actually made me a little queasy) near the end of the afternoon and were met by Carlo, the owner of the house. He showed us where to park and showed us around the apartment. It was surprising the conversation that ensured when he asked us where we were from. When we said Utah, he asked us if we were Mormon (which surprised me). We said yes. He said his textile company had been commissioned to provide fabrics for the Mexico City and Rome temples that were being built. Kind of cool, really.

Carro

We settled in for the last time at our La Paganina House, unpacking our bags. Bianca did bring her viola along and practiced about every other day, which I thought was good considering where we were. She would just set up her music books wherever she could that was a good height, like on top of this mantel.

I loved how Italian this little village is. The main street is called Via Nicolo Paganini because this is the hometown to the famous composer and violinist Paganini's paternal grandparents and he used to visit here as a child. It's wonderfully old.

Mom and Bianca on the main street in Carro, called Via Nicolo Paganini

Bianca posing by the picture of Paganini in the house where we stayed

The walkway to our parking lot in Carro

We didn't have much planned for the rest of the day, so we walked to dinner at the only restaurant in Carro, a pizzeria, for dinner. They spoke no English so we got by with our little bit of Italian. The pizza was quite good. Just be warned, if you order "pepperoni" from the menu, you're going to get pepperoncini peppers. And we learned to order the water "naturale," and "non frizzante," although Bianca started liking the fizzy water by the end. 

There are a lot of villages who just sit out by their front door steps, visiting with each other, and they're always so friendly to us, with their "buon giorno"s every day. Everyone keeps fresh flowers by their front doors as well. It's such a pretty little village.  

I have to mention this blown-up portrait that hangs out in the living room. The house is filled with pictures and family heirlooms of our friend Carlo. And we couldn't quite get over the fact that this portrait (from the 1500s) looked just like our host, but the really strange part is the name of the man, Moroni. Is it a coincidence that the name is the same unusual name of the angel that stands atop the spire on all of our LDS temples? Probably, but cool nonetheless.

DOORS OF THE DAY

A door in Carro

A door in Carro

Cannes, day two

Our second day in Cannes started out like the first, with fresh farmer's market fruit, more French pastries, and leftover Swiss hot chocolate. Oh, how I loved my breakfasts here!  From our view of Cannes, I could see a banner for the Musee (museum) de la Castre (castle). We decided to check things out there. I kind of loved just exploring the streets as we tried to find places. Eric liked to stop at restaurants along the streets and see their menus, as we were planning a nice dinner that nice for just the two of us. Mom graciously volunteered to stay home with the kids and get them to bed.

One of the flower displays

There must have been some sort of flower festival that weekend because fresh flower displays were already going up, on all the windy side streets we took to get up there. We got to watch people designer their spaces as we climbed up to the castle museum.

The museum had ancient artifacts from all around the world. I particularly liked that it was located inside a castle. They had a really awesome collection of ancient musical instruments and a couple forefathers to the violin and viola, as well as mummies, heiroglyphics, and lots and lots of other stuff.

We were able to climb the tower to get an awesome view of the city and the harbor. This awesome view just reminded Portia that she hadn't been swimming yet and wasn't that what we were supposed to do while we were in Cannes?

The harbor from the view of the Musee de la Castre tower

So, we made our way back down to the beach for a hour swimming. While at the beach, a friendly man wearing a stack of about 20 hats came by trying to sell his wares. Eric picked up this fedora that I still have mixed thoughts on. Don't worry, I was able to get him back for this by the end of the trip (See last day of Italy blog.)

We were searching for a place where we could all have crepes for lunch since this was our last day in Cannes (that went fast!). We found a little place finally that was pretty decent. I had an artichoke chicken crepe that was okay. I wished I had ordered the crepe mom got that had a cream sauce on it. We had a chocolate crepe for dessert though.

Having crepes for lunch

We spent the rest of the afternoon going in and out of little shops. We bought some macaroons and isn't this little shop just lovely with all its beautiful colors of macaroons? I picked a green mojito macaroon. Mmmm. So good.

The Cannes Film Festival had been only a couple of weeks before, so a lot of the posters were still hanging up all over the city. Bianca got in the spirit of Cannes.

Eric and I then went on our much-anticipated date. Eric ordered the seven-course meal, while mine was only three courses. Still, once you sit down at a table, you're there for the night. Our meal took well over four hours. My back even started hurting near the end. Still, it was a nice night of food and it's a good thing we had enough to talk about over such a long dinner!

DOORS OF THE DAY

Cannes, day one

Eric at Marche Forville market

Before I woke up on our first morning in Cannes, Eric returned home from the farmer's market with fresh fruit (blueberries the size of golf balls) and chocolate croissants. This became a morning ritual for Eric while we were in France. I think he liked going to the market early on his own and bringing back treats. And we all liked eating said treats.

We didn't have a plan for our time spent here. We knew we could see the water from our window and that we could walk to it. So our one goal for the day was the beach. We had warned the kids beforehand that they would most likely see some women not wearing tops at the beach (which they did) and just to pretend like they didn't see it. We Americans sure look at nudity in a much different light than our European counterparts. Still, a beach is a beach and that means water and that meant our kids had a morning filled with splashing in the beautiful Mediterranean.

Ah, the sheer joy of running to the water for the first time

I love how blue the Mediterranean is

Bianca giving Portia a mermaid's tail in sand

It became sort of a mini tradition of sorts to have some gelato every day. After all, we always just stumbled upon lunch (and were trying to have our big meal in the middle of the day, which sometimes meant we didn't eat until well into the afternoon).

Portia and Bianca having our daily gelato on La Croisette promenade along the beach

We walked around Cannes a little bit and did a little bit of shopping (this was the best shopping we did the whole time we were in Europe). I got a really cute dress here at the Desigual shop, and it was funny because they just kept throwing free stuff into my bag. Oh, and they gave the kids these balloons which pretty much kept Portia occupied during our three-hour lunch.

We sat out on the street and had our lunch. I had a filo-wrapped salmon that I can still remember as one of my favorites things I ate on the trip. A nice English couple sitting next to us helped us a little with the menu. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the streets of Cannes, shopping a little.

Bianca and Portia in Cannes

Cannes

Looking for the toilette led us through some pretty interesting streets

We made it back to our French house, where Portia chased kitties and played with her French friends for the rest of the evening.

DOORS OF THE DAY

Goodbye Switzerland, Hello Italy? Wait, Hello France!

We were sad to say goodbye to Switzerland. Honestly, we loved it so much and I just stared out the windows and wondered how anything could possibly be so beautiful! But our four days were up (it was no secret that mom wished we had just spent the whole week in Switzerland and forgot France altogether), we packed up our bags and packed up the car. It was about a five-six hour drive to Cannes. But about an hour into our drive (we were still in Switzerland), we stopped at a gas station, and all the writing had somehow changed from familiar German to Italian. I wasn't prepared. I racked my brain for the bit of Italian we had prepared ourselves with (Dov'e il bagno, per favore?), and we spent all our remaining francs on the gas station's selection of Swiss chocolate. (Hello, Lindt Cayenne Pepper dark chocolate!!!) Before we left Switzerland, we saw some ruins off a small exit and thought, Why not? We spent the next hour exploring Castello di Mesocco. It  was our last chance to stop, look around us before leaving the country, and may have been one of my favorite things we did in Switzerland!

Yes, that's a waterfall right behind us!

Bianca and Portia

If we were dressed differently, this could be our Christmas card for next year!

Looks precarious, but she's safe!

Bianca loved the castello

Too bad we couldn't go up in the tower

We spent the rest of the day driving through some pretty awful parts of Italy to get to France. I was starting to regret leaving Switzerland at all. We stopped every couple miles (it seemed) at the vast amount of toll booths. When we needed to stop to eat, it was seriously a lot of work and embarrassingly, we ended up stopping at McDonald's. We tried several different places but the cucina (kitchen) was always closed! I'd later find out that it's very normal in Italy for a restaurant not to be open during lunch hours. I was just so happy to find a bathroom and sustenance to get us to France. And wow, do the Italian people LOVE McDonald's. It was crawling with people. Eric and I are wondering if we shouldn't just move to Italy and open up a McDonald's!

Yes, we came all the way to Italy to eat at McDonald's

Things didn't look up when we entered France. Still, way too many tolls (I don't even want to think how much money we spent on toll roads alone) and there was a huge traffic jam through Nice. As we were driving through Nice, I was very grateful I had decided not to stay there. I don't think I would have liked it as much as we ended up loving Cannes. We stopped on our endless search to find an ATM machine and Portia had to go to the bathroom. Halt--enter French! Mom took some French in high school, so I told her she was in charge of getting us through France. We ended up at a boulangerie (bakery) buying cookies in the hopes that the woman would take pity on us when we asked her for a toilette. She didn't. She pretended like she didn't know what a toilette was. Fortunately, some motorcyclist succumbed to the pleas of grandma begging in broken French ("Enfant, toilette "s'il vous plait?), and he let them use the bathroom in his motorcycle shop. (Merci! Merci! Merci! Merci! they all thanked him after the fact). Still, we got some pretty decent cookies to tide us over until we reached Cannes.

We found this little hair salon entertaining at the end of our drive:

Anyone else see the problem with naming a salon Oops!!!?

We parked our car in Cannes and didn't think about it again for the next several days, as we could walk everywhere! The man Michel who rented us the place also lived in a different section of the house where we stayed and had his daughter there (Portia's age) and a cousin, plus four cats! This gave Portia a French-speaking playmates (but isn't play a universal thing?) and cats to seek.

Portia and her French friends

We loved how extremely French this old house was, although the stairs were very creaky.

Our dining room was lovely with lovely fresh flowers and antique tiles

Our French house

Bianca had a loft above the kitchen for her private sleeping quarters.

Bianca's sleeping arrangements in Cannes

Eric and I had the most amazing view of Cannes and the Mediterranean from our bedroom window:

Ahh, we made it to Cannes

Michel gave us a caddy for grocery shopping and sent us to the grocer before things closed for the evening. Thank heavens most people were more than willing to speak English with us (not the rude French people I was expecting). Thus begins our adventures in France. . .

DOORS OF THE DAY

So it's not exactly a door per se, but I'm guessing there used to be one there

A door in Cannes