Menton 24-25 Feb 2011 (Day 14-15)
An approximately one hour bus ride brought us around the coast of Nice as we were brought to the next city of France, Menton.
A name unfamiliar to me, Menton is situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco- Italian border, also commonly known as la perle de la France (' The Pearl of France').
I was told that we were here for yet another Carnival, and having seen posters and pamphlets like the below as we made our way to our hotel, I wonder what wonders Lemons could do.
Walking down the streets of Menton, lemons could be found everywhere.
These are all made of chocolates, and even so, there were lemons as display!
And of course, we bought tickets to enter the grand exhibition atrium..
Everything you see here is made from lemons.
Everything you see here is made from lemons.
There were booths selling lemons and tangerines...
After taking many pictures from the exhibition, we headed back to our hotel, not after buying this fabulous and wholesome roasted chicken!!
We sat at our balcony and dug into the pipping hot and very tasty chicken while enjoying the light breeze.
The Carnival would not start until later in the evening, and we took the time to stroll outside the lanes of Menton.
As mentioned earlier, Menton is a border across to Italy.
Ice cream!! We couldn't resist.
We visited the Basilica of Saint Michel,a beautiful church situated on the top of Menton's old town.
Here's a good view of the coastline.
Houses here looked pretty old, but the view must have been awesome.
It was also very interesting to find trailers like these along the coast, people selling food and games, just like a mini fun fair.
We got to the Carnival grand stand early, there were already crowd around but the weather was soooo cold that most of the people were handing around, either getting coffee from the nearby eateries, or walking around to beat the cold chills.
We were too lazy to walk, decided to find our seats and started taking some pictures to test the lighting from our camera, and also to keep ourselves entertained.
And then the Carnival began!
It was a pity that the movement was pretty fast, and we had 'heads' blocking our camera view when we put it on stand, photos did not turn out well...
Brave lady, it was literally freezing....
The night ended with fireworks display, the freezing weather that night was all worthwhile.
Monaco (Day 15)
World's 2nd smallest country in the world, (smallest being Vatican City), Monaco made a couple more records, country with the highest GDP per capita and the most densely populated country in the world. Here's why.
World's 2nd smallest country in the world, (smallest being Vatican City), Monaco made a couple more records, country with the highest GDP per capita and the most densely populated country in the world. Here's why.
Monte Carlo Casino
A notable building in Monaco, a familiar scene for James Bond's Casino Royale.
Expect all kinds of luxury you can ever expect, visitors are not allowed in unless you are there for its purpose, i.e. gamble.
We only took a quick peek into the place, couldn't see much.
Posh cars were parked at its porch.
From the back of the building...
The famous Formula One race tracks in Monaco!
And then, all sorts of commodity to attract the F1 fans.
We made a stop over for lunch at this cafe which served thin crust pizza.
It looked simple but it was very good.
We then stopover at this post office and dropped off our Monaco postcard.
Final of the 4 countries we have visited this Europe trip.
Back to France 26-27 (Day 15-16)
We took an overnight train back to France.
We took an overnight train back to France.
As we had to transit between trains, we got worried when our first train was late on arrival. Trains here leave on time and would not wait even for a second. It was a relief when we learnt that the 2nd train knew about our late arrival and had extended their departure time. Nevertheless, we almost missed the timing and we had to run with all our packed luggages when the first train reached the destination.
It was a long run and scary to see everybody running breathlessly for their transit trains!
We got on board though... and were glad we made it back to France...
Our final day in France was purely shopping around the vicinity.
And unfortunately, the rollers on Wen's luggage was damaged on this final day in Europe and he had to get a new luggage for all the things we had bought.
Lucky for him, Samsonite here wasn't expensive at all!
It was a long run and scary to see everybody running breathlessly for their transit trains!
We got on board though... and were glad we made it back to France...
Our final day in France was purely shopping around the vicinity.
And unfortunately, the rollers on Wen's luggage was damaged on this final day in Europe and he had to get a new luggage for all the things we had bought.
Lucky for him, Samsonite here wasn't expensive at all!
