Saint Paul de Vence 15kms from Nice and Vence – 20 Kms from Nice.
About 5 kms between the 2
16,000 steps with lots of up and down.
Today's plans were to make a photography tour that is organized this afternoon in Vence. So, since Saint Paul de Vence is on the way, and a town that Andre had on his list to see off we go. This involves a tram ride, then 2 bus rides. It helps when you transfer buses if you have your GPS on walk mode instead of drive mode, but all is well we made it. Once again, we will never ever audition for Amazing Race.
Saint Paul de Vence is a beautiful small walled city. We are there around 10AM, so the masses of tourists haven't arrived yet, we basically have all the small streets to ourselves. By 11AM a huge difference, I can't even imagine what it would be like in high season. .20 Euro to use the public bathrooms here, but they clean themselves after each use, funny. Andres soap dispenser worked, but not the water dispenser to wash his hands, a bit of a sticky mess for a while. You can walk on top of the wall around the old town as long as it is not raining, so of course if there is a wall to walk we will do it. Not my favourite part of the day, but it did give us some beautiful views. I can't imagine taking kids up there, kids would love it, I had enough worries about myself. Lots and lots of artists shops here, most were open by the time we were leaving. Many restaurants are closed right now for annual leave and opening in the next month or so when more tourists will start to arrive. The photography meet up was scheduled for 3PM, we are finished at Saint Paul de Vence just after noon so decide to take the bus to Vence and have lunch there and look around before the photography meet up.
A short bus ride to Vence, and like earlier on exit we did our Merci and Au Revoir like everyone else. Arrived in Vence and it is not very pretty looking. Of course Tourist Info is closed because it is Sunday just like it was in Saint Paul de Vence. We saw signs to old town so off we went. It was pretty, but after Saint Paul de Vence I found it slightly underwhelming. Time to find some lunch, well even though though this city seems more like a normal city with normal people, not so many tourists, the prices are crazy. I am not willing to pay the prices so we head back towards the bus drop off point, there has to be more decent prices there. We did come across a Kabob place. Andres sandwich which was chicken on a baguette was huge, wish we had seen how big it was before we both ordered something. I had falafel, which was quite good. I know there will be no vampires around tonight, we both had garlic sauce which was very good and very garlicky.
Next off we are off to meet up with the photography tour. I will leave the review of the photography tour to Andre, I've heard if you don't have something nice to say ......
(Andre) Half of the people on the group were there more for the social than the photography. Wendy had nice chat with a couple of the women as I was taking pictures. Another beautiful old town where it is walking only with narrow alleys everywhere.
Bailed the tour to catch a bus back to Nice just before 5PM. Couldn't believe how many people they packed onto the bus as we moved along. One stop at a mall had to have 30 teenagers waiting to get on, somehow they all packed in, French teenagers like malls as well.
Back home at the apartment. Salad and some bread and cheese plenty for supper, oh and some wine. There is a sign on the entrance to the apartment that they are doing updates to the hot water so there will be not water from 8:30AM until 6PM. I don't trust the times so showers will be done tonight. Another full day of touring including buses and trams, but we have done part of this route already so the GPS should not be needed....
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Saint Paul de Vence from the bus
The end
nice pictures. Loved the horse structure
ReplyDeleteRollande