Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

Nestled almost halfway between Monaco and Nice and very close to the Italian border, Villefranche-sur-Mer is a quaint little French town in the south of France. There's a bit of history there with a citadel and claim to one of the deepest ports, which means large ships can safely traverse in and out. But as a cruise port, it's wise to plan to go to either Nice or Monaco. We chose the latter.

Here are some pics of this French provincial town. The first 4 are from our tender location upon arrival, hence the grayish early morning cast. The last 2 are from this afternoon, in what-turned-out-to-be a beautiful sunny day.

The train to Monaco was 10 euro each and we could ride it all day between Nice and Monaco. As you may know the trains in Europe are clean, efficient, on time and reasonably priced. I highly recommend them.

On the way there, we met up with Jen, Paul, Miguel and Luly, folks we have a pleasant banter with. On a cruise like this, you'll of course become friends with some people but with the majority, you'll develop a pleasant banter. You may or not remember their names and that's OK. No one gets offended if you don't. As long as you're going the same place and doing the same thing, you group up till it no longer makes sense to stay a group. It's very fluid.

On the train, we learned that the Rolex tennis masters tournament was in town. We almost changed all our plans to attend the tennis tournament but we heard it was sold out. 😞. But we did see our favorite players sign.

We made it to Monaco quickly and found the HOHO. Everyone wanted to do that, and had the same plan as experienced travelers. Ride the HOHO one full loop (about 60 min), then on the second loop, get off at the palace in time for the changing of the guards, tour the palace afterwards, and then get back on the HOHO. BTW, the HOHO was 23 euro each and the palace tour was 10 euro each. It all worked without a hitch. After the palace tour and before hopping back on the bus, we got hot paninis from a small pastisserie, 7 euro each. Ours was large enough to split. Prosciutto and brie. It was delicious.

Here are the Monte Carlo harbor pics. You may notice a few pics with the beginning of set up for the Grand Prix in May.

Here are the palace pics:

Notice the bottom left pic. That's Grace Kelly aka Princess Grace of Monaco with her husband and children. We all love a good princess story. As princess stories go, most people would reference the Princess Diana storybook romance until ... well.... it wasn't. But many reading this won't know about the Monaco Princess story.

Grace Patricia Kelly (1929 – 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. The academy award winning actress retired from acting at age 26 to marry Rainier and began her duties as Princess of Monaco. The couple had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Her charity work focused on young children and the arts. In 1964, she established the Princess Grace Foundation to support local artisans. Unfortunately, she died in 1982 at the age of 52 from injuries sustained in a car crash the previous day. While similar in so many ways to the Princess Diana courtship and death, Princess Grace's story was far more storybook. I remember my mother crying when we learned of her death.

But I digress. We got off next at the casino adjacent to the hotel du Paris, a 5-star hotel I actually stayed at in 1984. I had just finished my study abroad in Spain and a college buddy, Chuck, whose dad was a high roller, was going to be there as part of a graduation gift. I met him and his parent at the Nice/Antibes airport and for the next 5 days, they treated my like gold. I loved his parents and I'm blessed to have maintained a great friendship with them throughout the years till they passed. I still see Chuck, a fraternity brother, every year and he was in my wedding.

I don't remember the hotel room, except it was nice. I DO remember the casino and restaurant. Most people don't know, behind the casino is a restaurant, behind that restaurant is the high roller's casino and behind that is the high roller's restaurant. One evening, Mr. W ordered a whole chateaubriand for the two of us, rare, and we split it. After eating leather-like meat in Spain for 6 months, the chateaubriand put me into a meat coma. All those memories came rushing back as we exited the HOHO and stood in the plaza out front.

All over Monte Carlo, but especially here, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Lamborghini's, Maybachs and such were in large supply. Here's a pic of mine.

At this point, our friends wanted to go into the casino and have a drink. It cost 18 euro pp for that "privilege" and we decided that wasn't worth it for us. Mr W. would have rolled over in his grave. I decided to leave my memory in tact and not update it. We decided to head back to Villefranche-sur-Mer since we wanted to walk around the town a bit.

It was a quick ride back and a nice stroll. Here are some pics of that part of our day.

And that's about it. We're extremely tired. Surprising amount of walking and STAIRS. I'm feeling it now. Dinner was light and I fell asleep at the show. I'll be 60 soon, don't judge 😉. Tomorrow is another port in France. Marseille.