Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

On Monday we visited the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, which is a large estate on the isthmus of Cap-Ferrat that was constructed for Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild in the early 1900s.

Here's a nice view of the harbor below...

It is now a historical site and well known for its nine gardens, each with its own theme (Florentine, Spanish, Garden à la française, exotic, stone, Japanese, rose and a garden de Sèvres). I’m not much into flowers, but the gardens and general views allowed for some very nice pictures.




















Here are close-ups of some flowers...



















And the inside of the house itself was pretty incredible as well...





























***

Around noon we had to leave for the airport and this led to a bit of an adventure. Given that we didn’t want to drive through downtown Nice, we backtracked towards Menton in order to reach the motorway that leads directly to the airport. However, after nearly a half hour of driving and a couple of turns of “faith” (we didn’t have a map or GPS) we had yet to find the motorway.

As a quick aside, I’ve come to learn that there are two schools of thought when it comes to arriving at the airport prior to a flight. One group – which includes me – likes to arrive with ample time in order to clear security, etc. and relax before the flight. The other group – which includes Emilie – views every minute spent sitting at the airport as a complete waste of time and prefers to arrive as late as is feasibly possible (albeit with no margin for error – such as getting lost on the drive to the airport).

To make a long story short, we ultimately found the road and made the flight with no issues (in all honesty it wasn’t even that close). Nonetheless, there were moments during the drive where we all thought that missing the flight was at least a possibility. And, no, I have not been converted and maintain my preference for early airport arrivals (at least in unfamiliar environments).

***

One last thing…The carrier that we took was Easyjet, which is more or less the Southwest Airlines of Europe. The flights are generally relatively cheap (provided they’re booked far enough in advance), but you get what you pay for in terms of service, etc.

A major pain is that they have (by far) the most restrictive carry-on policy that I’ve ever experienced. Only one piece of luggage is allowed and the dimension limitations exclude pretty much any roller bag in existence. Unless you bag was purchased from the children’s department and has cartoon characters on it, it’s probably not compliant with the carry-on size restrictions.

And to make matters worse they charge you to check a bag…any bag. Thus the seemingly cheap ticket that you bought typically goes up around 20% once you check your bag. And oh yeah, they also charge an additional amount if you pay by credit card. So basically that’s a guaranteed add-on charge (another 10% of so) as well since there’s effectively no way to get out of that one (when’s the last time that you bought anything online with cash or check?).

An afternoon hike

In the afternoon we joined Emilie’s family for a walk along the coast past Cap-Martin towards Monaco. By this time it was very hot as the afternoon sun was baking the rock beaches. We were able to benefit from some shade along the way as we passed under trees and through thicker foliage, but for the most part we were completely exposed.

The coastline was absolutely beautiful, as can be seen from the pictures, and it was nice to be completely surrounded by nature (aside from the giant mansions nestled naturally into the terrain, of course).



















After a while we got to a nice beach and stopped for a while to relax our legs and cool off.










And before I forget...speaking of completely exposed, all the stories that I’d heard while growing up about the topless beaches along the French Riviera were true…at least in the sense of there being topless women on them. However, it appears that the fantasy created in my head that all of these women were supermodels was just that – pure fantasy.

In reality, most of them resembled Magda from There’s Something About Mary (and in some cases that’s being generous).

But, hey, at least they’re comfortable in their skin. And no, I won’t be sporting the thong Speedos that many of the (primarily 50+) men were wearing…

Given the length of the walk (a couple of hours one-way), we took the bus back along the coast towards the hotel. Here are some pictures when we got to the bus stop.










Since there was still some daylight left when we got back to Menton, Emilie and I decided to test out the water and go for a swim. The water was cold but the rocks were what really proved to be the challenge since it was difficult to get a proper footing and the rate for stubbed toes was about ten per minute. But once you dove in and started swimming, it was very nice.

Vieux Menton

On Sunday Emilie and I headed off on our own to explore Menton. We started off along the water and then walked towards the harbor. Unlike Manhattan Beach and its abundant sand, these beaches were entirely rocky, though in some areas the rocks were more like pebbles. As can be seen from the pictures, the water was a brilliant blue although it was a bit cold.

But it wasn't too cold for this guy...

Before heading up to vieux Menton, we stumbled upon the Musee Jean Cocteau. To be honest, I didn’t know who Cocteau was, but Emilie did so we decided to take a quick look inside. The location was very interesting – a bastion that was part of a maritime fort from the 1600s – and the art alone was well worth the visit.










Here's a nice picture of vieux Menton from the harbor...

The city itself is very nice, with narrow – almost entirely pedestrian – streets and beautiful views overlooking the coast and Italy in the distance. In particular I liked the basilica of Saint-Michel-Archange, which was built in 1619 and has a nice bell tower.



















Here are some pictures of the view towards Italy from the plaza in front of the church.










At the top of vieux Menton is the Cimetière du Vieux Chateau that also offers incredible views...











As we were walking up to the cemetery, there was a small dog that was following us. Perhaps it knew that dogs weren’t allowed in the cemetery (at least according to the sign -- see below), because it turned around right before the entrance. But on the way back down the hill I found were it had retreated to – a nice shady spot in the entryway to someone’s house.










Here are some pictures that I took during the walk back down towards the harbor. The majority of the "streets" were like those below.