The Madness of the Riviera

What were we thinking!  I had forgotten how crowded and hectic the Riviera is, but since Lance had not yet been to Cannes we thought it was worth a visit.    In order to arrive at a reasonable hour we opted for the autoroute which was a stressful experience not only dealing with the whizzing high speed cars that fly by at undetectable speeds, but the challenge of paying at the toll booth proved to be difficult.  The autoroutes are run by commercial entities and it seems that each major autoroute is run by a different company with different payment options.  To make matters worse the new chips that are embeed in the US credit cards don't seem to be universally accepted.  So at each toll booth we braced ourselves for a new challenge. 

Once we got off the autoroute, we had to wind our way up the narrow and twisting streets to Mougins where our hotel was located.  It was nearly impossible to find our way with a map so fortunately the GPS decided to behave.  Had it not been for the GPS we'd probably still be driving around looking for our hotel!

During our first day we opted to wake up early to drive into Cannes and have breakfast along the Croissette.  That proved to be a good strategy as parking was ample (ah...the parking garages...those may be even more of a challenge than the autoroute!) and the traffic not yet too chaotic.

The waterfront is filled with enormous yachts and every so often a yacht with lots of character.

Fortunately there are still small fishing boats docked in the harbor and they tied the landscape back to its past.  

The afternoon was spent in St. Paul de Vence.

After a relaxing meal at La Petite Chapelle, we strolled through the town and then visited the Foundation Maeght which is reknown for its modern art sculpture garden.

In the evening we retreated back to the Hotel de Mougins which was a terrific respite from the hectic coastline.