Villefranche & Antibes

Next we went to Villefranche. It is a very small place between Nice and Monaco. Most tourists don't visit Villefranche like they would other places because there really isn't much to do here. It is very peaceful and quiet, but there isn't much to see. We saw lots of boats...lots of boats...and that was good enough for David. We also found some decent places to eat, but it took us a really long time to find them. It didn't take long to see all of Villefranche, thus, we only stayed for 1 night. Then we headed toward Antibes. BUT, check out the gare in Villefranche. It's really neat because it is so close to the water. Most of the time that you travel by train around the south of France this is the kind of view that you have...darn.

We then arrived in Antibes. Although very touristy Antibes was wonderful! We finally saw some sandy beaches (the others were rock beaches) and we found a really good restaurant that we went to twice during our stay there. Our hotel was really nice too. It was the only hotel we had that did not have air conditioning, but it was the nicest looking room with the most comfortable bed.

We also had a really nice view of a playground. The first day that we were in Antibes it was a little later so we went to one of the playgrounds to talk and watch kids play for a little while. While we were there we saw a rat that was hunting for food. Someone had thrown out some very large chunks of left-over baguette that pigeons were picking at until the rat found them. It was hilarious! He would jump into the crowd of pigeons, scare them away, steal their bread, and hop off towards his little hole. The funniest part was watching this small rat trying to run with a huge piece of baguette in his mouth...it occupied us for a while.

Also while we were there we met an American girl who was working in an ice cream shop. It was very strange how we met her. David was ordering our ice cream by speaking french...then the girl looked at him a little funny and said (in English) "So, that is 2 cones with one scoop of chocolate each?" We were blown away...we weren't expecting her to say that. Then David asked her where she was from and she said Atlanta!! Weird huh? She said her mom was French and they moved back to France about 3 years ago. She said that she had met someone else from Atlanta a little earlier that day - it's a small world.

The most exciting thing we did while we were in Antibes was watch a group of old folks play Botchy (although it has another name here). It was neat because while we were watching, one of the men started talking to David and when we told him we were American he said very well: "Oh, do you speak English?" then laughed - we think it is because that is the only English he knew. But we talked to him about living in Antibes, which seems a lot like Florida in terms of a good place for the elderly to retire, etc. It was neat...they were very competitive in their playing and it was cute to see the little old lady's sticky out their tongues at their husbands when they made a better shot.

So that wraps up our vacation!