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France 2007

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Saturday July 14,2007
Day 18 - Arles

Sunday July 15, 2007
Day 19 - Arles to Villefranche-sur-Mer

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Monday July 16, 2007
Day 20 - Villefranche-sur-Mer

Sunday morning we slept in, then Dusty and CJ decided to return to Nîmes to see the sites. Traffic and parking were much easier to deal with Sunday morning than on a weekday afternoon. Nîmes has a nice pedestrian center and is overall a less 'rustic' town than Arles. We wandered the town, seeing the Castellum, Fountain Garden with the Temple of Diana, the Maison Carrée, and the Arena.

Nîmes - Castellum

Nîmes - Castellum
This was the end of the Pont du Gard aquadect
One of the two remaining castellum from Roman times - the other is in Pompeii

Nîmes - Temple of Diana

Nîmes - Temple of Diana
They think now it was actually a library

Nîmes - Fountain Garden

Nîmes - Fountain Garden

Nîmes - canal

Nîmes - canal

Nîmes - Maison Carrée

Nîmes - Maison Carrée with CJ
 The Maison Carrée was in fantastic condition for a 2000 year old building, but there’s nothing to see that we didn’t see on the quick drive by 4 days previous.

Nîmes Arena

Nîmes Arena

Nîmes Arena

Nîmes Arena

The Arena is supposed to be the best preserved arena from Roman times, so we paid to get in, skipping the audioguide (we had by now determined that an audioguide is an almost sure way to ruin an attraction). The Nîmes Arena may be well preserved, but it was also full of steel seating structures which ruin the effect, making it perhaps one of the uglier arenas. We headed back to Arles, picked up Kathy, Robby, and the luggage, and drove on to Villefranche-Sur-Mer. We reached Nice in around 2 hours, and got off to drive through the airport to locate the rental car return, since we’d be leaving before dawn Thursday. We continued on, taking the freeway around Nice, then dropped into town near the port on the east end of Nice,  ending up on the Middle Corniche. We stopped to take pictures once we reached an overlook of Villefranche-Sur-Mer, then dropped into town, found Hotel de la Darse, and eventually found out a place to park.

Click here for a panoramic picture from our room at Hotel de la Darse in Villefranche-sur-Mer
Cap Ferrat from the Middle Cornice

Cap Ferrat from the Middle Cornice
Villefranche-sur-Mer has one of the few deep water ports in sourthern France,
so it often has one or two tour boats in the harbor.
Cap Ferrat, like much of the Riviera, is filled with mansions for the rich and famous

Villefrance-sur-Mer from the Middle Cornice

Villefranche-sur-Mer from the Middle Cornice

Villefranche-sur-Mer was formed in 1295 when the Duke of Provence created the 'tax free village by the sea' as a first line of defence for Nice against the Turks.  Today is a more of a real town than most Riviera locales since many locals actually live and work there, as opposed to being filled with second homes and mansions.

Our view of the bay from our room was partially blocked by trees and the harbor walls, but we still had quite a nice room with a terrace and cold A/C. The hotel exterior was a bit old, but the rooms appearred to have been recently remodelled.  Dusty went out the find the beaches and old town. We had nice dinner at Les Palmiers in Old Town, right on the main square overlooking the bay. Our waiter was quite a character who spoke just enough English to get by. We saw two massive cruise ships in the harbor and watched one of them leave. According to the schedule printed out at our hotel Villefranche-Sur-Mer averages one cruise ship every day or so.
Villefrance-sur-Mer - the rocky beach outside the harbor walls

Villefranche-sur-Mer - the rocky beach outside the harbor walls
The water was cleaner here than the other beach, since it is more esposed.
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Prev
Saturday July 14,2007
Day 18 - Arles

Sunday July 15, 2007
Day 19 - Arles to Villefranche-sur-Mer

Next
Monday July 16, 2007
Day 20 - Villefranche-sur-Mer