Lamastre 13th Janurary 2020

Monday, 13th January 2020

We took drive to another area of the Provence.
We are headed for Le Cheylard, a distance of 22 kms or 27 mins. It is another small village, and like most of the other villages, the town square is a hive of activity.  We again find somewhere to have a coffee, and some lunch. We seem to have the happy knack of getting to these places when most of the businesses are closed during the middle of the day.
We find a bar that does meals, and the owner, has no english at all, but keeps talking to us in her merry way. She asks us where we are from, and when Bob tells her Australia, she is absolutly amazed. I thik it is because Australia is so far away, and she asked if we were holidaying, and Bob manages to understand what she is asking and answers her as best he can. It puts smiles on all our faces.

Turesday, 14th January 2020

Rest day.

Wednesday, 15th January 2020

Today, we are going to explore Le Puy-en -Velay  or Le Puy. This is a trip of an hour and 15 mins or 70 kms. It is  famous for its Cathedral, and its lace making.
The village was estblished in the year 969. It has a Chapel, St-Michel d Aiguilhe that  is perched onto of a volcanic rock. It dates bck to the 10th century,
We find a spot to park the car, that is probably not for the general public, but we take the risk, as parking in this area is at a premium, and we have done the block a couple of times trying to get to where we wanted to be. The Old part of the city.
We make our way to the Office of Tourism, and get maps and guides. The lady behind the counter if very friendly, and we have a long conversation with her. She tells us that the Chapel on top of the volcanic rock is closed to the public at this time of the year. We are somewhat dissapointed, but she gives us a couple of good viewing spots we can drive to, to get a good view and pictures.
We wander around the streets of Le Puy, and we were told by the lady at the toursim office that there were some murals that we could walk about and view. Well, we walked and walked and walked, but no murals. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere or we were given a bum steer. But all is not lost, I have a couple of post cards that I need to send off, so we come by Le Poste, and buy the stamps and send them off.
We continue to meander around the streets, and they are like so many other streets of cities and villages we ahave been in, they are cobbled and very narrow, and yet cars still motor down them, in the way that the French do. It is very strange for us, as we have such wide roads back home, and I know that when I am driving down some of these little streets, I am not sure if I am supposed to be there, as they are so narrow.
We return to the car, to find there are workmen working on part of the road where we are parked. Bob had to manipulate a three point turn and we exit out of there. Now we are on a mission to find where the good vantage point is for the chapel. Eventualy we find the spot, and get some pics. It is unbelievable to think that this chapel has been built up so high and on top of a volcanic rock. In the back ground there is a huge statue of The Virgin Mary which was constructed in 1860. It also in on a Volcanic rock. I marvel at how all of these sites are built as we are not talking a small height. The chapel is reached by 268 steps, carved into the rock, and the plug is 85 metes high. The surface of the plug is 57 meters in diameter.
The statue of Notre-dame de France, is made in cast Iron, it was built between 1856 and 1860 from Russian cannons captured during the siege of Sevastopol. This massive statue is sitting on another volcanic plug, at 132 meters high. The total weight of this statue is estimated at 835 tonnes, and is 12.6 meters tall.
So we end the day and head back to Lamastre.

Thursday, 16th January 2020

Today is the start of a couple of exciting days.
Our first destination is Nice, via Cannes, yes you know, the place where the Film festival is. This is a journey of 4 hrs or 365 kms. We share the driving, and there are a couple of stops along the way for meals.
We take a drive through Cannes, but don't stop there for to long. But now we have been there. We continue to Nice, which is only 40 mins away. Our check in time is at 5pm, but we are a little early, and message the host to see if we can get in a little earlier. The Complex where we are going to be staying is very big. To find our entry door into the complex is like going on a hunt. Eventually, the host says that her housekeeper will let us in, and after a bit of confusion, we meet up with her, and she hands over the keys, and we are left to our own devices. We have one flight of steps to go up, and then take the lift to our apartment, which is on the 4th floor.
After we let ourselves in, and take in our surrounding, we decide to take a stroll to the beach, which is only 10 mins away. Again parking is at a premium, and its like once you find a spot, you don't dare leave it, unless it is absolutely neccessary.  Our walk to the beach is good, and the beach is a pebble beach, but it has a very wide pedestrian area where people can run, ride their bikes and do what every else is done. We walk for a while, enjoying the salt air, and watching the planes taking off, as the runway seems to end in the ocean.
 When we get back from our walk, we decide to order a Pizza that is in the building and wait for it to be cooked. We take it back to the room, and eat in. Was good.

Friday, 17th January 2020

My birthday, which is one of the reasons we are in this area. Bob wanted to take me to Monaco for the day.  So after a bit of breakfast, we head off the the country of Monacco. Monaco is a sovereign city-state, and has its own Prince, and of course the Princess Grace lived there. Its is 2.2kms squared and a population of 38,300. It is the second smallest country in the world and has the worlds shortest coastline.
It was a most picturesque drive along the coast line to Monaco and we stopped at a monument about Princess Grace. There was no border check, and we weren't really sure where the crossing was.  Driving about, there are lots of beautiful boats in teh Marina, and we find somewhere to park the car, in this part of Monaco called Monte Carlo, and find the hop on hop off stop closest to us. We cross the road, and admire the boats, and I ask a man cleaning the foot path if he knew where the stop was, but he didn't speak english, but managed to signal to me that it was no far away in the direction of where he was pointing.So Bob and I wander over in the geneal direction, and we find the stop, but the man was watching us, and I acknowledged him, that thanked him.
It is just a short wait, and we are on board the bus, to do the tour of Monaco.  Bob explains to me about the racing circut of Monte Carlo, and it is also mentioned in the audio guide of the tour for Formula one racing. It is also the home to the Monte Carlo Rally, which runs on french roads outside Monaco, but ends in Monte Carlo.
On the tour, we go up the hill, to see the Royal Palace, and the timing is great, as we get to see a bit of the changing of the guards outside the palace.
There are many high end car shops, as they don't have the luxury of yards. All of them have cars inside a shop front. There are Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Lanborghini but to name a few.
After the tour is finished, we go and stroll along the streets, and find something to have for lunch. All of the restuants are very busy, but we eventually find somewhere to eat.
After that, we walk a little more, and then head back towards the car, and we come acrros a bronze sculpture of William Glover in his Bugatti 35B of which, I get to take a picture of Bob at the sculpture.
We get back to the car, pay our parking fees and leave the city of Monte Carlo, and head back to Nice, to our unit, to relax for  while before deciding on what we are going to do for dinner.
We decide to take a walk, and there is a a little rain starting for fall, but for all the hassle of getting a park if we were to take the car out, we woud not get another park, so walking was the only real option. We don our Drizabones, and one unberella, and set off. We did consult the area online, and chinese was what I opted for for dinner. The further we walked the rain got a little heavier, but it didn't bother us but our walk was a little further than we thought,   so when we got to the designated eating place, we were very happy to have a seat and eat our dinner. It was not quiet what we were expecting, but still it was very nice. While we were sitting eating, there was a couple of heavy downfalls, and eventually they passed, and we started to walk back, but the rain was a little heavier that when we initally started. At least the drizabones kept us dry.
The end of a wonderful day, but it was good to get back to the unit, and call it a day.

Saturday,  18th January 2020

We leave this Nice this morning, after we hand back the keys to the host of the unit. and head back to Lamastre. It has been a lovely couple of days. Again the journey if about 4 hrs, but with stops it takes longer.
It is good get get back to our little house in Lamastre.

Sunday, 19th January 2020

Today is a bit of a relax and catch up day, a bit of washing is done.