Villfefranche is quite scenic, but also small. Well, the old town is small; the rest is a sprawl of 1960s apartment buildings lining the hillsides. Anyway, we knew we'd have to go somewhere else as well as Villefranche or our day's exploration would only be an hour long. Nice or Monte Carlo, though? Or both?
There's a film called Monte Carlo or Bust, so we went to Nice. I'd have liked to have crossed another state off my countries-visited list, but my wife has no such interests.
The train there cost €10 return. Not bad, and certainly better than the $150 an excursion from the ship would have set me back.
Nice on the whole lives up to its name, unlike the biscuits. It's a modern, prosperous city with an old town only a twenty minute walk in scorching heat away. The old town is one of those ones with tall, narrow streets lined with shops selling the specialist local tat plus clothes that would be tat anyywhere. There's a very nice street market with a lot of quality food stalls, which was pleasant to look around. I wasn't going to carry pomegranites the size of a baby's head back to the ship, though, so we didn't buy anything.
Oh, we did buy some ice cream. Prices vary wildly round here, from €2.50 for a single-scoop cup (in La Spazia) to € 5 for one (in Portofino). We found a place in Nice that did them for €3.50, and I have to say it was the best so far. Maybe it's because Nice was almost part of Italy. I had three scoops, and the lavender flavour in particular was sensationally good.
The train back from Nice was packed, mainly with people travelling to Monaco. We had time to go there as well but my wife had been spooked by the lack of information in Nice and was worried we'd maybe get on the wrong train back and end up in Munich or something, so we fought our way off the train at Villefranche (really — I had to squash a kid who wouldn't get out of the way, then squash his mother when she wouldn't either) and looked around there instead. Then, it was back to the ship. It keeps rotating with the current, and only in one small window of directions do I have a mobile signal, so I'll upload this when we get there.
So far on this trip I've taken 5 ferry rides and two train rides and have never had to show a ticket for any of them.
There are two American sisters in the adjacent
Sister 1: The sea's so calm. It looks pixellated.
Sister 2: It's like glass.
Sister 1: It looks pixellated.
Sister 2: It's like glass.
Sister 1: I can't believe how pixellated it looks.
Sister 2: You won't see a sea that looks more like glass anywhere. Believe me: I've seen glass.