Europe - Nice/St. Tropez - Day 6

Monday July 31, 2006

Venice and Florence wore us down, because there was a lot of walking to be done. So, we were looking forward to spending some time on the beaches of Nice and St. Tropez. We drove into Nice late at night overlooking the lit French Riviera of Nice and Monte Carlo. We had high hopes of this just being the beginning of great times on the coast of Southern France.

As we strolled into Nice, we quickly realized that we were on the wrong part of town. After driving around for a while, we realized that there wasn't any right part of town. Nice is dirty, the people are dirty, and the way they look at you and your possessions is, well, dirty. The only clean and exciting thing going on in Nice is on the multi-million dollar yachts. There weren't any public tours of these gorgeous yachts, so we were S.O.L on seeing the best part of Nice.

Ok, I just described to you how we initially felt about Nice after checking in and walking around the town for the first time. Nice does get a little bit better, but not much.

We decided to take an hour drive to St. Tropez to see more multi-million dollar yachts and hit up our first French Riviera beach. We left Nice with lots of water, sun tan lotion, and baguettes. By the way, I know I haven't said it, but we've been buying a lot of baguettes and pastries while in France. The baguettes are extremely fresh and only cost .70 euro. It's great, if you like French bread. The Pilsbury dough boy gots nothin' on these baguettes. Mmm-mmmmm

I digress.

St. Tropez is straight out of a music video. There are beautiful people every where. There are more multi-million dollar yachts anchored to the main street that everyone cruises to check out the expensive clothing boutiques and skin care boutiques. There is a lot of money being thrown around. Miguel and I watched a delivery of 4 Dom Perignon cases being delivered to one yacht. That's about 9 bottles per case. Unbelievable money in this town.

We cut to the chase and decided to do the free tourist attraction. We went swimming. However, there are no sandy beaches in St. Tropez. A bunch of gravel, rocks and short cliffs. This wasn't looking good. We did spot a few people tanning on a solid concrete dock that extended into the Sea where people could dive off of. We found our spot for the rest of our time in St. Tropez.

The water was warmer than a swimming pool. The sun was brutally hot, but this was a great combination. We were finally spending time tanning and swimming in St. Tropez. Honestly though, we got over it quickly and were ready to leave after a full afternoon of sun. Once you are done with the beaches of St. Tropez, you are done with the whole city.

On another note, I forgot to mention that we saw 15+ Ferraris, 5+ Bentley Continental GTs, and a boat load of Mercedes Benz/BMW. We were completely de-sensitized to luxury cars after a day in St. Tropez.

In the end, we enjoyed the initial rush of seeing the town and eyeing the extravagant luxuries that money can afford. Miguel tanned quickly and I turned a nice lobster red. What can I say, it was a loooong winter since the last time my body saw the sun.

Tomorrow will be good though. It's Miguel's birthday and we will be hitting up the beaches of Nice and then a night in Monaco to check out the Monte Carlo!