Cannes and Monaco

(more pics of Cannes and Monaco)

The day we arrived in Grasse was the first day they'd had a rail link with anywhere for 20 years. Accordingly, the train was packed with shrieking teenagers when we took it from Cannes to Grasse that day. We also used the train for a couple of day trips to Cannes and to Monaco. The day we took it to Monaco, the train was a bit delayed leaving the station and when it finally did leave (about fifteen minutes behind schedule), several people cheered.

I preferred Monaco to Cannes. As bizarre as it may sound, Monaco feels more like somewhere I could imagine myself living. Cannes just feels like a tourist trap suburban shopping mall, filled with shops where I couldn't afford to buy anything. Vicki described it to her parents as a cheap seaside resort for rich people.

Of course, maybe I just like Monaco because within my chest beats the heart of a poodle-clutching multi-millionaire. Plus, it has hills. I like hills. Monaco goes a bit overboard on as far as hilliness goes, but at least the roads are wide enough that your chauffeur wouldn't have any trouble getting the Bentley down them.

Grasse is equally hilly but the town planners thought they were anticipating future needs by making sure the roads could fit a pregnant donkey instead of just your standard chaste beast of burden. I'm glad we didn't rent a car while we were there. We managed to get lost enough just walking around the place. The map we bought in London turned out to be largely a work of fiction. It did have one minor benefit over the map from the tourist bureau in that it showed the location of the train station.

Of course, if the hills in Monaco are too much for you, you could take the approach of one local resident and live on a yacht big enough to have its own helicopter, but then parking might be a problem. Even in Monte Carlo, life isn't perfect.