Author: John

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Sunday in Ventimiglia, Italy

It’s become a bit of a tradition now, when in Nice on a Friday and not much else is planned, to take the train over to Ventimiglia, an Italian town on the coast just on the other side of the border and about a 1/2 hour from Nice. It is quite a large market that meanders along the coastal boardwalk, featuring clothing, leather goods, scarfs and shoes at one and food booths at the other. We usually always stock up on parmesan cheese (try the samples to get the one that you like best) and wonderful salami sausages. I think it’s a decent market and enjoy going. But do avoid it in the summer months, there’s just way too many people.

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Back to Auron

We returned to Auron in mid’ February of 2013, but this time to ski not just to visit. We arrived on a Monday and it had been snowing all the night before and continued all the way up. We took the bus, which was a good idea as there were a lot of cars along the side of the road, and we reached Auron in 2.5 hours. When it cleared up in the afternoon we had more than 15 cm. of new snow on the hill. We took an afternoon pass (US$20), and enjoyed fresh power and sunshine. The next day they opened the other side of the mountain; so more fresh powder and even more sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky by mid’ afternoon.

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Sunday on Isla Cuale, Puerto Vallarta

One of my favorite places to visit when in Puerto Vallarta is Isla Cuale, an island in the middle of the Rio Cuale, a river/creek (depending on the time of year you visit) that runs through Vallarta, meeting up with the sea. Although it is in the middle of the town, there is actually very little traffic on the island, it is an oasis in a city of noise and traffic, a getaway from the hustle and bustle of what has been a town in a constant state of growth for a number of years.

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Lunch in Auron, France

There had been a lot of snow coming down in the mountains behind Nice lately, so we decided to go up and check out Auron, a place we’ll be skiing at in the new year. We took the #250 bus that leaves from the Nice train station, with a stop at the airport. Amazingly, the two-hour trip cost only 1 euro each. A similar trip, roughly same distance and time, from the Vancouver airport to Whistler, costs $63 dollars each. So for two euros each our transportation was taken care of up to the hill and back.

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Sunday in St. Agnes, France

For the past three weekends we’ve been visiting difference towns close to Nice but that are up in the mountains. This weekend we headed northeast and visited three towns; Peillon, Peille, St. Agnes and nearly made it to Gorbio. The drive is amazing, with great view points, a lot of hair-pin turns as you climb and some very narrow roads hanging, barely it seems, from the mountainside. You certainly need to keep your eye on the road! These towns are a little off the beaten path of the tourism circuit, like St. Paul de Vence or Eze, so there are less people around and tens to be less “Disneylandyish” – meaning people still live and work there like they have for hundreds of years.

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Sunday walk to Monaco

I hadn’t been to Monaco in over 30 years, so I didn’t have many memories of it, other than this feeling that it was only for the wealthy and perhaps a bit pretentious. Well, we actually very much enjoyed Monaco. Visiting during low season (November)  is nice, but I’m sure the streets are just packed during the summer months. Although Monaco is very much over-built with high-rise condominium projects surrounding it, the downtown area has some wonderful architecture, making up for it. And on the “the Rock” where the palace is situated and the old part of Monaco, it is extremely pleasant, especially the garden areas and the views that follow along the cliffs looking out over the Med.

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Sunday drive to Saint Paul

We spent the past Sunday exploring the numerous small towns that are nestled in the hills behind Nice and Antibes. These hilltops towns, in many cases medieval, have been wonderfully restored, each with their unique characteristics and charm as they look out over the Mediterranean Sea. A number are part of affiliations such as the “Most Beautiful Villages of France”, and rightly deserve it. Each of these towns do not take long to walk, but they also offer many interesting shops, galleries and exhibits you should take time to explore. They are often not far from one another, so you can visit and explore a number of them in a day.

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A visit to Torino, Italy

Torino (or Turin) is surrounded by the Alps by 300 degrees, situated in the large valley of Piedmonte with the river Po runs through the middle of it. Whereas Paris and even more so in Rome, it’s easy to get lost in the streets, or find yourself walking in circles, not so in Torino. The terrain is flat and the streets are laid out in a grid, broken up by magnificent plazas ordained by beautiful buildings, and a few diagonal streets leading off from the Madama Palace. This makes it very easy to get around and certainly not get lost. There is little in the way of greenery in the central part of Torino – a lot of rock, marble and brick. It is a clean city, with numerous pedestrian streets, especially via Roma, the main street of Torino.

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