My Travel Blog
We woke up to trouble in paradise… it was raining! Actually, it was overcast but turned in to a sideways, torrential downpour. Our original plan of getting to the beach by 9:30 a.m. was discarded (although we could’ve sat anywhere we wanted to!) and we thought it was an excellent excuse to laze around in bed for another hour or so. 
We were thankful to have a decent selection of food in our fridge, because our rumbling tummies combined with insane rain would’ve left us in quite the quandary. Instead, we took store-bought crêpes, filled them with caramel sauce, rolled them up, and dipped them in whipped cream! Add on a side of melon and a coffee (also covered in whipped cream) and we have the breakfast of champions!
The rain started to clear and so we hopped in the car for a 45 minute drive to the neighbouring seaside town of Sainte Maxime. The drive was beautiful, and we were quite lucky because the rain kept the people away and so we had beautiful vistas and very few cars. As we approached Ste. Maxime we found ourselves in very heavy traffic with very little parking to be found. We doubled back and parked on the outskirts of the town which meant we had about a 1 km walk on a pretty seaside sidewalk. The weather was perfect for walking as it was still warming up after the storm. We encountered a cute little Italian restaurant overhanging the water and were drawn in by its beautiful windows overlooking the harbour. 
Within 10 minutes of sitting down a fighter jet started swooping and circling over the water – it was loud (and a little confusing), but very entertaining. Then a whole troop of them started flying in formation and we found ourselves watching an airshow from an excellent vantage point! We discovered that the real airshow is actually in two days and they were just practicing; if this is practice I can only imagine what the real show will be like!
Our main reason for visiting Ste. Maxime was to catch a ‘little green boat’ over to St. Tropez. I had read on Trip Advisor that it’s a good way to get in to St. Tropez to avoid the crazy traffic and parking. The green boats leave every 15 minutes, and it’s a very reasonable price for the 15-20 minute trip across the water. On that short jaunt you are literally manoeuvering around cruise ships, yachts, and various water taxis. It’s fascinating!
The only reason I wanted to see St. Tropez is because it’s constantly in the tabloids as one of the playgrounds of the rich and famous. What makes it so special? I needed to know. We saw our fair share of expensive boutiques (if anyone wants a pair of €695 olive green Christian Dior hightop sneakers I can point you in the right direction). 
It was crowded, very crowded, and it was way too chaotic for our tastes. It was interesting to see for the short time we were there, but I feel no need to go back. The harbour we entered was funny because we were surrounded by huge yachts and yet encountered buildings that reminded me of a small Italian village. When we left we were stuck in a yacht superhighway traffic jam - it’s not every day that you encounter that!
By the time we returned to Ste. Maxime and took the walk back to our car the temperature had increased drastically and the walk seemed about twice as long. We couldn’t believe the amount of traffic still driving in to the town – it was even more than when we had arrived. That’s always a good time to leave… and so home it was; the kids were anxious to hit the beach and jump some waves. I think these last two days of driving and exploring has tuckered us out a bit and tomorrow may be a beach day. The other 3 members of my family could do that all day, every day – but I get a bit antsy. We will see what plays out. :)
Dinner tonight was at a delicious little place called 1st. The food was excellent, and even better was the waiter, Ben, who was fantastic. We have become accustomed to strangely erratic service with random people doing random things – this attributes (or stems from) the no-tipping policy around here. Chicken or the egg? Not sure, but this guy tonight was so dedicated and interesting, and he really added to our evening. Julia ate her entire pot of mussels, and the waiter was so impressed we thought she should win a t-shirt saying, “I ate my mussels, look at my muscles!”
Addendum/Note: I posted yesterday’s blog before we went for dinner, but I’d like to add a picture of the salad I ordered. It was described as a buffalo mozzarella, ‘heart of the beef’ tomato, and arugula salad. I imagined a regular type Caprese salad and assumed that ‘heart of the beef’ loosely translated to beefsteak – a large heirloom tomato. The picture doesn’t do justice to the size of the salad – it could’ve fed my entire family! Wowzers, they weren’t messing around! And yes, it was delicious. And no, I didn’t finish it. (PS – that’s a giant slice of grilled eggplant in case you couldn’t quite place it.)
Mountain goats – that’s what we felt like today! Today’s destination was the principality of Monaco – the second smallest, most densely populated country with the lowest poverty rate in the world, and the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita. This explains the harbour full of huge, shiny yachts!
Our GPS led us to Monaco and, after a slightly harrowing toll experience, we made it relatively unscathed. (We had to throw €3 in a little bucket and for an unknown reason it wouldn’t accept our €1 coin. It also wouldn’t accept our credit cards and the line-up was getting longer and the horns were getting louder! This was very stressful and Jeff repeatedly tossing the coin in didn’t help. I eventually ignored the signs about staying in your car and grabbed it and ran to the car behind me where I somehow - in a panicky manner - told the lady about my broken euro. She traded me, it worked, and off we went.) Not going to lie, we did not enjoy that experience. Every toll station after that caused us a little bit of nervousness, but we eventually made it through them all and arrived in Monaco. (Why do they have people sitting in a booth outside of public bathrooms to take your 40 cents, but they don't have real people sitting in the toll booths??)
We did not have a tourist map, or any map to speak of, so after parking on a random hill we used our spidey senses to lead us in the right direction. It was really hot, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so we did the most natural thing we could think of and sat down in a shady spot for a drink – plus the little café had wi-fi! We looked up some maps and made a plan. By this point we had already walked down the equivalent of about 5 stories, and then used a parking garage elevator to go down another 14. (Did I mention how hilly it is?!?!). We saw a bunch of people with cameras and backpacks coming out of a little cement box… this was another elevator which would save us 5 more floors of switchback roads/crazy stairs. Finally – the harbour! This was filled with yachts of all sizes – small, medium, big, and massive. Even the small ones were huge, but they looked like runts next to the ones with hot tubs, dance floors, and spiral staircases. If you so desired, you could have a simple fish plate at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the harbour for a mere €27 (about $42). (I hadn’t mentioned that we ate a homemade cheese and butter baguette in the car on the way there. There are places to spend, and places not to spend. We opted for €3 ice cream cones instead.)
One of the main reasons the kids were interested in going to Monaco was because of the Selena Gomez movie ‘Monte Carlo’. I think they have watched it about 10 times and they really wanted to see the Hotel de Paris where the movie was filmed and based out of. Jeff and I were willing to give up on our destination way before the kids were – the heat and sun didn’t seem to bother them today as they tromped up gigantic hills to the top of the city where the real rich and famous hang out. The casino is right across from the Hotel de Paris and all the jammed streets were full of Range Rovers, Bentleys, Ferraris, Rolls Royces… it was quite the sight to see. The kids cared nothing about the cars, but the hotel… well… that was exciting. As we walked in the lobby they were talking about what scene took place in what hallway – and we of course took a picture outside of the revolving doors that Selena used all the time in the movie. Fait accompli!!
After the hotel we had the interesting task of returning to our car. We were like Hansel and Gretel and, instead of bread crumbs, we had taken pictures with my iPhone of landmarks so that we could remember our route back. 
Up some hills, elevators, more hills… we made it! We were all so happy to have our cooler bag with ice packs in the car so we had cold water, juice, and Perrier ready to re-hydrate us. I think we each lost about 2 L of sweat today – who needs a gym membership?
After coming back to our apartment both Jeff and I spent considerable time reading about Monaco – what an interesting little piece of history there. I could cut and paste Wikipedia, but if you have any interest in the history I will avoid plagiarism rules and encourage you to read about it yourself.
All four of us really enjoyed ourselves today despite the heat, sweat, and excessive climbing. The city had a fun and vibrant energy, and it’s a place I wouldn’t mind going back to someday – but with a platinum American Express card. ;)
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