COTE D'AZUR - EZE, NICE, MONACO

COTE D'AZUR - EZE, NICE, MONACO

Had breakfast in our room as we had such an early start to the day. We were docked in MonteCarlo, Monaco. Our shore excursion "Jewels of the Cote D'Azur" began with a drive to the medieval mountain town of Eze where we enjoyed a walking tour of this enchanting place. The town had been abandoned in the 1950s and was reinhabited by artists who were taken with its location. Two people arrived back at the bus 15 minutes later than the appointed time.
From here we drive to Nice where we had another walking tour and some free time on our own to explore the farmers' market - much like the Byward Market at home. Flowers, food specialties of the region, fruits and vegetables were available. We decided to head to the seashore for our lunch. The day was cool but not a cloud in the sky. We enjoyed eating our lunch and people watching on a bench on the promenade. We headed back to the market to our meeting place. Six people never showed up. We stood around in the sun - nowhere to sit - for half an hour before the guide decided to leave them to make their own way back to the ship and take the rest of the group to our next destination. To say the group was unhappy about this state of affairs was an understatement.
We drove back to Monaco and had a visit of the old town with its royal residences, gardens, and Cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Ranier were married and are now buried. Once again, after our free time, we had to wait another 20 minutes for some tardy inconsiderate guests to return to the meeting spot.
We then drove to Monte Carlo, which is a neighbourhood in Monaco where the second oldest Casino in the world is located and which featured in some James Bond movie with Sean Connery. (By the way, we also saw his villa in Nice.) We also walked part of the route where the Formula One Race takes place. We were supposed to have over an hour of free time here but because of all the waiting around we had to do, only had 10 minutes. We managed a quick peak into the Casino - I had to pull Norma back - she wanted to walk right in and there is a charge of 10 Euros. We did see the first lobby area. Believe it or not, we had to wait again for some tardy people who cannot tell time. We thought that since we left six people behind in Nice, others would have learned. But No.
Our 8-hour tour took 10 hours. We fell into bed, woke from a deep sleep, to an alarm, to dress for our dinner at Prime 7, our speciality restaurant treat, at 8. I was too tired to be hungry so we just ordered the appetizer and main courses skipping the soup, salad, and sorbet courses. We did manage dessert - a molten chocolate cake for me. For once, we didn't close the restaurant and got to be around 10:30.