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Monday, September 22nd, Villefranche, France
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I
don't often complain when I write my updates for
zialater. Our daily lives on Zia usually include a
smattering of difficult, unpleasant and frustrating
events. I'm not just talking about the normal
challenges of navigating through a relationship with a
spouse or child. Challenges which are certainly
exacerbated by our constant togetherness, our limited
ability to escape from each other, and the general lack
of privacy in such a small environment. The trials
and frustrations inherent to traveling also crop up
regularly, including the constant need for information
and directions, the occasional encounter with a surly
local, and the general feeling of uncertainty as you
figure out your way around in yet another new town.
Somehow, however, I don't feel that my audience is very
sympathetic to my complaints. I usually try to
keep them to myself, or only relate the most amusing
incidents in a light-hearted tone. I plan to make
an exception with this update so stop reading right now
(Çois and Lisa) if you think you might get mad at me for
my transgression.
Will it ever, please, stop raining in the south of
France? Actually, it started raining while we were
still in Varazze. At first I was thrilled because
we hadn't seen rain on the boat since April.
Although we had given Zia a good scouring at the marina,
the dirt up high on the mast and rigging was still caked
on pretty thickly. Our first good hard rain washed
all of it down onto the decks, which were easily cleaned
up with a quick hose off. But now, a week later,
with only one consistently warm, sunny day in the
interim, I've had enough of the rain. While the
mere mention of the Côte d'Azur elicits images of
elegant shops, beautiful, sophisticated people, high
class hotels, three star restaurants, fast, expensive
cars and long glamorous beach promenades, all drenched
in the warm rays of the Mediterranean sun, the picture
turns dull, gray and uninviting with the endless rain.
Okay, I might be exaggerating for dramatic effect, but
the truth is, the cruising life just wasn't meant to be
lived in a rainy climate.
Hoping to find an anchorage in Monaco, we left Varazze
on Tuesday, after an unsuccessful attempt to repair the
screen on our GPS, which suddenly stopped lighting up
when we arrived at the marina. It still obtains
the positioning data from the satellites, but we just
can't see the read out on the screen. It is
transmitted by serial cable to our computer, and
interfaces normally with our navigation software so it
is ninety percent functional, but it would be nice to
get it one hundred percent. We have a backup GPS,
but it only interfaces with our computer and not
the rest of our instruments so course-over-ground and
speed-over-ground information is not available while
sitting at the helm station. This is unacceptable
to our speed obsessed captain! We figured it was
the screen itself, but when the replacement we had
ordered arrived that morning, swapping the screens
didn't fix the problem. With sixty miles to go to
Monaco, and not pulling up anchor until noon, we had to
find an interim anchorage to spend the night before
continuing on the next day.
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The Principality of Monaco, covering a mere 473 acres
along the coast near the French/Italian border, stands
out in sharp contrast to the surrounding landscape.
Building codes along the French and Italian Rivieras
have kept high rises at bay, although a certain amount
of sprawl is evident. In Monaco, dozens of tall
buildings intersperse with densely packed modern,
low rises and classical baroque palaces along the coast.
Unfortunately, the only areas that were seemingly open
to anchoring were far too deep for Zia to comfortably
stay given the amount of chain we carry, about 280 feet.
We usually put out five-to-one scope on our anchor, so
in the 100 foot depths in Monaco, we would need 500 feet
of chain in order to feel comfortable leaving the boat
to explore the city. We had a nice cruise along
the waterfront, nonetheless, and continued on less than
five miles to Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint Jean Cap
Ferrat.
We
spent some time in this area
two years ago
when Joe's sister and brother-in-law, Juliana and Mike,
met up with us for part of their vacation in France.
Anchored in the bay that their hotel had overlooked, we
reminisced about our time with them and marveled at the
fact that we were here again nearly two years later.
Unfortunately, Joe was feeling a little
under-the-weather with a cold, so we spent a couple of
mellow days and nights close to home. The girls
and I took advantage of a break in the rain to go out
for lunch and enjoyed the novelty of having just the
three of us together. Why don't we do that more
often, I wonder?
With the wind switching from southwest to northeast on
Friday, we moved around to the other side of the
peninsula near Villefranche. We wound up in the
exact same spot as we had anchored before. We are
a little far away from the city, but the nice shallow
sandy patches and relative lack of boats make it an
ideal anchorage. We just have to time our dinghy
rides into town around the threatening clouds.
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The sun came out on Saturday and we ventured into Nice
via the local #80 bus service. Switching to the #7
at the train station, we got off at the western edge of
the old city at Place Grimaldi. The public spaces
in Nice are magnificent, with countless fountains
(pictured above), public gardens and huge
pedestrian-only squares. Virtually the entire area
of Vieux Nice is
off limits to motorized vehicles. We meandered
slowly, with the vague goal of finding our favorite
restaurant on the other side of the old city,
Bistrot d'Antoine,
which we remembered so fondly from
our last visit to
Nice. With only a little trouble, we quickly
recognized the maroon awnings and were thrilled to see
that the restaurant that was newly opened two years ago,
was clearly thriving. The owners, after we
reminded them of our previous meals there, kindly
squeezed us in for a 1:30 lunch which lived up to our
high expectations.
Sunday dawned, the sun barely discernable behind the
rain clouds. We had made a date to meet a friend
of a friend, a resident of Monaco, for a stroll through
the old city and a coffee at 2:30, and we weren't going
to let a little rain get in the way. With three
cruise ships anchored in the bay of Villefranche, the
buses and trains into both Nice and Monaco were packed
with tourists. We squeezed onto the #100 bus for
the thirty minute ride into the Principality of Monaco,
disembarking at the famous Casino of Monte Carlo.
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The city was crawling with tourists and the port was a
beehive of activity in preparation for the annual Monaco
Boat Show scheduled for the following weekend.
With a few hours to kill before our date, Joe
immediately directed us towards the port where we found
a nice café for lunch and he was able to get in a little
ogling at the super yachts. We also happened by
the local Ferrari dealership and had a chance to ogle
the cars as well.
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We
met Laurent and Isabelle, and their girls Eva and Luci
just up the street from the port at Place D'Arme.
Our long time friend from Washington DC, Hadrian, had
gone to law school with Laurent in Nice. Hadrian
is a native of Arkansas, whose mother is French.
He told us about Laurent when we saw him on our last
visit home and we promised to try to connect with him if
we made it back to the area. Laurent and his
family were kind enough to take several hours out of
their weekend to befriend us and show us around their
city.
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Although I neglected to make a note of his official
title, Laurent is basically the General Counsel for the
Principality of Monaco. His office is right
beneath Prince Albert's. He sees him on a daily
basis and is involved in all the legal affairs for the
country and Parliament. It was fascinating to
listen to his stories and get a deeper understanding of
this tiny country, which is the most densely populated
in Europe. Although there are 35,000 residents,
only 8,000 are Monegasque citizens. To qualify for
citizenship you must have a parent who is a native.
You may also apply for citizenship with the Prince, but
these naturalizations are limited to about 30 a year.
There is no income tax in Monaco. They raise money
through a hefty sales tax, as well as taxes on
businesses based in the country. It is governed by
a Constitutional Monarchy with the Prince sharing power
with a 27 seat Parliament.
We
toured the old city and palace grounds, enjoying the
magnificent views from the many public spaces.
Yachting is popular in Monaco and there are several
marinas in town, with plans to build another.
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I
wish it had been easier for our girls to make friends
with theirs, but shyness and the language barrier
intervened. It was a wonderful interlude and we
are especially grateful to Laurent, Isabelle, Eva and
Luci for taking the time with us, and to Hadrian for the
introduction. If Laurent weren't perpetually
seasick, and it weren't so rainy and cold, we would have
loved to invite them for an afternoon on Zia!
Since I have opened the can of worms already, I'm going
to go ahead and lodge one more complaint. You
would think in the middle of all this sophistication,
luxury and wealth, a little free wifi wouldn't be too
much to ask! Even with our enhanced ability to
connect, we have found no useful, reliable internet
connections since arriving in the Côte d'Azur.
Luckily, there is a very friendly internet café with a
great connection. We just have to brave the
weather to get there!
Next Entry
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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