Monaco and Bastille Day!

Well, we apologize for making everyone wait to hear about our funny thing....but here it is! Nice has lots of street performers and most of them are actually pretty terrible! One of their more prominant groups are Peruvian flute bands! One particular band was made up of two guys, one who had an odd resemblance to Captain Jack Sparrow and his partner who played about 10 different instruments including 3 different Peruvian flutes! There is one particular interpretive dancer that we hope to be able to post a video of very soon!

Today we went to Monaco, a principality under its own rule. The city is beautifully nestled in a bay with mountains all around. There is no room for the city to expand laterally, so they build up with apartment buildings where every tenant has flowers hanging off of their terraces.

One of our favorite stops was the Oceanography Museum and Aquarium! It had great exhibits of fish and some sharks and lots of eels! The museum part was a little creepy with hundreds of jars of preserved animals!

Here is a blowfish that seemed to like us!

Just a little side street in the old part of town! Everywhere around the city, it is evident how much they loved and still love Princess Grace Kelley. The major boulevard along the water is named after her and all over the city are posters with pictures of her and the Prince doing things around the city.

On a large hill sits the Prince's Palace, the Oceanography museum, the Cathedral, and several gardens well worth the climb. Here we were able to get a wonderful view of Monaco and the harbor full of yachts, sail boats, and speedboats!

Of course we had to go to Monte Carlo, a district of the city known for its money! It really was like walking into a movie! Here is a nice little Ferrari parked outside of a street cafe. Next to the cafe was a Cartier store and accross the street was a Prada boutique!

Every 5th car in Monte Carlo was a luxury car. We saw so many Bentleys, Porsches, Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins, and Ferraris that actually belonged to people, not just in the autoshow. And no one stops you from going up to them and taking your picture next to one or taking a look inside.

This is the Casino in Monte Carlo with beautiful gardens in front of it with several fountains and sculptures. You have to pay 10 euro just to get inside of the building. While walking around it, we passed a man that could easily have been a mob boss dressed in an all black suit and tie with a keychain made of a 1000 euro chip!

Today was Bastille Day!! It is the French equivalent to our July 4th including fireworks all over the city. The previous day's fireworks were just leadups to today.


Someone filled the main fountain in Nice with soap which made the whole fountain fill with foamy bubbles. People were all around having bubble fights, taking pictures, and swimming in the foam!