TRAVEL THERE: DAY TWO ON THE FABULOUS RIVERA
Confession first! I was of two minds about Cannes. A part of me thought it might be a good day to just take it easy, to do nothing, to hang out on the boat, to go to the beach. This was only a 7 day cruise and we were hitting 7 ports. There was only 1 day at sea and that was going to be our vow renewal, so not much in the way of relaxing offered. At the same time, Cannes had the most intriguing and most affordable shore excursions on the Celebrity cruise. What would we do?
What I Wanted
As is often the case, I wanted a clone. The clone would go visit all the places on the possibilities list. I‘d spend the day on the beach and then my clone could tell me all about it after my facial in the spa. There was a relaxing little trip to Provence Lavender fields and rustic little town squares. Another trip offered an industrial view of the perfumeries in the area. One seemed more like a perfume shopping trip.
And I was serious about the beach day. I was exhausted just planning this whirlwind tour of the Mediterranean. I knew we’d be interested in a break come Day 6.
What I Considered
Then I thought about the day we visited Atlantis, a resort in the Bahamas, on another cruise. It was one of those DIY tours. Atlantis is the biggest thing there, but it wasn’t at the port and once we got there we stomped all over the place without gaining access to the places I really wanted to go. It was a fun day overall and we got some great pictures, but it wasn’t a complete success.
As to Cannes, I couldn’t find out exactly how one got from the boat to the beach and if the beach was accessible or we’d have to be associated with some hotel. Sometimes the most relaxing thing you can do is just go with the flow. My thoughts flowed to a bus trip which would take us around the French Rivera.
What I Booked
Cap d’Antibes, Cote de Azur and Nice. You hear them in the movies and read about them in books. Cannes is all about the Film Festival and celebrities. The others seem to float out of the Jazz Age and tempt you out of the every day. So I booked the bus trip. After the flurry of booking was over to get the shore excursion specials which were to be short-lived, I almost thought I might have made a mistake. The bus trip Bill wanted in Monaco seemed to overlap in Nice with the Cannes bus trip, but some voice inside me warned me to leave well enough alone.
Good thing that voice. When we changed the Monaco bus trip for the Monte Carlo Yacht Club event, it created a need to see something of the French Rivera than the cruise port cities. The selection was perfection itself. Want to know why? Well then you have to keep coming back. Next week we’ll plan our visit to Palma de Mallorca.
jane sadek 