With precision planning the four of us plus luggage crammed into the car for the 90 minute drive to coastal Antibes, thereby avoiding putting Rosey and Zoe on the train which was our back up plan.

I’m not going to say it was comfortable for anyone but me and the teal suitcase but we got there!

Luckily  the drive was mostly on motorways and we reached Antibes without incident. Our apartment for the next three days was in a pedestrian only zone so we found the closest parking area and dragged the first load up the hill toward Le Commune Libre du Safranier.

The ‘free’ commune established in the 1960s is a community which shares and celebrates annual events and traditions that it wants to protect and preserve. It covers a small area of the old town of Antibes, only a few streets, and it has the Place du Safranier at its heart. Our apartment overlooked the Place (‘square’) from the rear balcony and the front door opened onto one of the prettiest streets around.

The very friendly cleaner was happy for us to leave our luggage whilst we returned the car and Zoe and I set off to do this, arranging to meet the others in the old town thereafter. With plans going well until then it was only a matter of time before we were undone… the car had to be returned with a full tank of fuel and we very cleverly found a servo, then a second and then a third…all unmanned and not accepting any of our credit cards 🤔😢

Finally accepting defeat we returned the car about 2/3 full and were later billed the equivalent of nearly $AUD200 for the petrol and service fee! It seems that France has enthusiastically embraced the unmanned service station in recent times but they don’t like our credit cards at all.

The Italian SIM cards though were still doing their job and we were able to find Russell and Rosey amidst some sort of local festival involving colourful and minimal  Brazilian costumes and flowerpots.

It appeared to be celebrating spring and flowers but unfortunately the weather wasn’t very spring like, colour and music it did provide though and we spent some time watching the whole parade with excited children throwing carnations off of the floats.

Afterwards we strolled the harbour area and found one of my ‘must see’ attractions, the Nomade.

Nomade is one of the most intriguing structures in the town of Antibes. Sitting outside the Bastion Saint-Jaume, this gigantic white sculpture is the masterpiece of  Jaume Plensa, a Spanish sculptor and depicts a man sitting calmly looking at the sea. He is constructed of letters from the Latin alphabet and was purchased by the city of Antibes and the nearby Picasso museum, in 2007.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get a nice blue sky background but he was still pretty spectacular I thought. (We tried to get a night time view a few nights later but were disappointed to find access closed at night.)

The next day we combined a train journey to Monaco with a little side trip up the mountain to the picturesque village of Èze, a medieval village with unsurpassed views of the Cote d’Azur.

After lunch and a leisurely stroll which included Les Jardines Exotique on the site of the old castle, we realised we had a lengthy wait for the next bus down the hill to the train station. Throwing (fiscal) caution to the wind we flagged an impressive looking black van with very tinted windows and were transported in style to Monaco in the principality of Monte Carlo.

Monaco was preparing for the Grand Prix a few days later and as we alighted from our car in front of the famous Casino, our driver informed us that the man walking past my window was none other than the Mayor of Monaco. Not wanting to miss such an opportunity I said ‘Bonjour!’ to him out of my window and he turned with a very surprised expression and acknowledged my greeting 🤣

The harbour was of course full of the requisite luxury yachts, especially given the Grand Prix and the concurrent Cannes Film Festival just down the coast.

We wandered around the harbour along what would be the actual track and pit lane and eventually back to the train station for the scenic journey back toward Antibes.

The next day as the weather began to improve we decided to hike the Cap d’Antibes coastal path. This very scenic 4.8 km hike skirts some very expensive real estate and we got a flavour of the local residents as we set off and spied the very futuristic  ‘Sailing yacht A” on the horizon. Sailing yacht A is owned by a Russian billionaire and was launched in 2015 at an estimated cost of 400 million dollars! We thought it looked like something straight out of a Bond film and totally at home on this coastline.

On completion of the walk we found the bus that would return us to within a short walk of our apartment …

Tonight being our last night we began scanning TA for restaurant recommendations within walking distance and soon settled on the delightful Le Figuier de Saint-Esprit.

Special from the moment we walked in, the service, ambience, presentation and food was a fitting conclusion to a great trip ( and one which cleaned out the last of the holiday budget 🤣)

The next day we headed to Nice airport, farewelled Rosey who was heading to the UK and began the long trip home… planning for 2020 commenced 😉

Docking at 0700 and back on dry land at 8,  we were met by our delightful Rome Cabs driver, Daniela who would transport us to Rome-Fiumicino Airport in just over an hour for our after lunch flight to Nice.

We paid for Alitalia lounge access and both still feeling a bit under the weather,  managed a  reasonable snooze in the surprisingly good lounge before our flight began boarding just before 1 pm. A short and scenic flight had us touching down in busy Nice airport at 2.30 and quickly in a taxi to drop off our luggage at the hotel until our apartment was ready.

We rendezvoused with Rosey who had arrived in Nice the day before and eventually navigated our way to the train station just in time to greet Ben who arrived on the TGV from Paris.

Depositing our luggage and Russell into the apartment Rosey, Ben and I strolled the streets of Nice until dinner.

The following morning Russell and I picked up our rental car whilst Rosey and Ben caught a cab to the airport to pick up Ben’s lease car. France is I think the only country to offer the option of leasing a car as an alternative to renting one and is a great option if you’re renting for more than 21 days which Ben was.

(In France, the purchase tax on a slightly used car is much less than on a new vehicle. By leasing new vehicles to tourists at cheap rates, French car companies create a supply of almost-new, reduced-VAT cars that can be sold to European citizens and rental firms at highly competitive prices.)

We were also really excited to be meeting Inês, her baby Leonor and partner Miguel after their flight from Portugal. Inês had stayed with us in Australia whilst doing vintage at Chapel Hill in 2017 and her family were joining us for the next week in our rental in Cotignac.

Against all odds we found each other and after a happy reunion with Inês, introductions to her family and with the ultimate destination plugged in to respective GPS’s, we headed off to Cotignac, about 90 minutes drive away.

The first glimpse of the village didn’t disappoint and we met the local manager of the property and followed her up a somewhat challenging dirt track a little outside of the village to our home for the next week.

It was beautifully situated in an isolated spot with not another house in sight and had a gorgeous infinity pool which would turn out to be a better ‘relaxing by’ than ‘swimming in’ spot given the cool weather we had for the following week although a couple of hardy souls did have one quick dip 😉

The next day Rosey and I drove to Marseille to collect Zoe, recovering from her Sail Croatia adventure, we had a quick lunch in the nearby and very windy, coastal village of Martigues and our house party was complete.

In the following week we visited the stunning Gorges du Verdon, the local Cotignac market, picturesque Moustiers-Ste Marie and generally explored this beautiful and verdant countryside.

We drove north to the village of Les Mées, known for its unique “puddingstone” stacks said to resemble monks in their robes and known as Les Pénitents following stories involving monks and indecent doings with young ladies (who would have thought?)

We started off on what we thought was a short walk to a lookout which turned out to be a 5km plus hike straight up and then pretty much straight down… with our variously unsuitable footwear, a baby in a sling, no water and questionable fitness ( of some members of the group anyway) we were lucky not to have needed rescuing but enjoyed some great views 🤣

The next day with good weather forecast again we headed south to the coast and lively St. Tropez. Fortuitously, St Tropez was celebrating Les  Bravades…

Les Bravades is a very long-standing traditional festival which happens annually in May to celebrate the Patron Saint of Saint Tropez.

It also celebrates the formation of the army created in the mid 16th century. Expect traditional music, dancing, food and drinking plus stalls and parades in the street. Saint Tropez is dressed in white and red, the colours of the Pirate City, to applaud its military parades. They remind everyone that the inhabitants of the city were always ready to take up the arms to defend themselves against Barbarians and those who threatened the peace and prosperity of their city. Every year, fifes and drums precede the sailors and other Musketeers in a peaceful parade.

We had great fun watching the parades, blocking our ears from the very authentic blunderbuss explosions, shopping and exploring the lovely port area.

And just like that it was our last day….Ben had already left on his long drive west, the weather was grim but we decided to visit a couple of villages a short drive away and ended up having a nice lunch in Tourtour.

Tomorrow Inês and her family would fly home to Portugal and the rest of us ( and luggage!) would attempt to cram into the Toyota for the drive to Antibes 😊

Next stop was the small port of Gaeta where our original shore excursion had been cancelled and I hadn’t rebooked, thinking we might want a down day by now. We had a leisurely breakfast and then caught the shuttle into town…. and then out again fairly quickly. We spoke to others that had taken shore excursions further afield that were very good but we didn’t feel we had missed out.

Gaeta in fact looked most scenic as we left it 😊

Our next scheduled stop was Livorno, jumping off point for Tuscany and many people had excursions booked to visit Florence. Russell and I were going our separate ways here as I really wanted to visit Cinque Terre and he had a date with another cooking excursion in Tuscany.

The weather was not really cooperating once again and as I contemplated  the two hour bus trip to get there I hoped that it would be worth it.

Of course it was, it would have been even better with sunshine but still managed to get some nice shots and see this area that has become overrun with tourists, in the quiet time.

The tour actually visited Manarola and Corniglia but whilst in the former I jumped on a train for the five minute back track to Riomaggiore for the requisite harbour pics, very worthwhile.

The local vineyards are gravity defying and since the late 1970s many properties  have installed  a little monorail type train to assist with transporting grapes during harvest. The system consists of a rack supported by steel poles driven into the ground along which a tractor with a powerful internal combustion engine.
The trains can go through slopes with 100% gradient carrying 300 kg, including the driver and the monorail can have a length of up to 1,000 metres. I had a sit on one at the top but not sure I’d feel safe going down a 100% gradient!

It was a long day but I can cross Cinque Terre off my bucket list ( for now ) and Russell had also enjoyed his cooking day so we slept  well that night, looking forward to pretty Portofino tomorrow, our last stop.

Unfortunately, the next morning Captain Serena’s announcement once again informed us that conditions were too unsafe to attempt tendering and Portofino was cancelled 😏 Nearby Genoa however, had a berth available and that’s where we eventually docked. Our original shore excursion had been “cruising the Italian riviera” but was now converted to “bussing some of the original itinerary” 🤣

Russell’s lurgy was getting the better of him by now and he decided to stay on the ship so I set off along with our new cruise friends Barb and Bob, for the short bus ride to scenic Camogli. Of course being our last day, the sun was out in force, perfect blue skies and seas contrasting with beautiful Mediterranean pastel buildings.

Comiglia was a pleasant wander around which I did largely independently before running into Barb for a final water side glass of wine.

We arrived back on board early afternoon to start the onerous task of packing up… all in all our first cruise experience was a good one, the weather slightly uncooperative ( we were to hear later from the Captain that it was the worst May weather for 62 years in the Med) but not bad enough to stop us to booking another cruise in 2020😉

We woke to the news that the swell left over from the previous storm was still significant enough to compromise the safety of tendering so once again our port was changed from (what I imagine was) picturesque Sorrento to big bustling Naples.

Our excursion today was to Pompeii, the easiest one of our excursions to choose as we were both pretty keen to see and we had paid the small surcharge to part of a ‘small group’ tour which turned out to be a wise choice. Our group of 13 managed to cover a lot more ground than the bus loads who were constantly waiting for the stragglers to catch up.

We had a very knowledgeable guide and the weather cooperated just long enough, threatening clouds were building on the horizon but held off until the afternoon.

Our guide explained how archaeologists have made plaster casts of those people who died during the eruption by injecting resin into cavities left in the ash by decomposed bodies and the detail is remarkable. This is still a working site and new rooms and buildings are being excavated and displayed on a regular basis. Of particular interest were the brothels that had contained detailed erotic paintings, most of which have been removed to museums now and were for many years only open to male visitors!

As we would say many times on this trip, whilst the weather was somewhat unpredictable coming to Europe this early in the year had major crowd benefits… I can only imagine what Pompeii and many other sites we were yet to visit would be like in ‘high’ season.

Having gotten our fill of Pompeii it was on to the bus and past Mt Vesuvius (still grumbling) and back to the extremely busy port of Naples. Russell has another cooking class this afternoon so I decided to walk into Naples. And walk I did… ended up catching the metro funicular and then walking a couple of kilometres to the Castel Sant’ Elmo, one of Naples seven castles which afforded stunning views out to the bay of Naples.

So we didn’t get to see Sorrento but still visited Pompeii and Naples itself was interesting,  I was happy to board the ship just before the heavens opened!

Our next port of call was Corfu. Our initial excursion involving a market tour and cooking class was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of numbers so Russell made up for it by booking an extra onboard cooking class and we decided to simply catch the shuttle into Corfu and do our own thing.

 

Corfu had a faded charm with numerous limoncello shops occasionally punctuated by jewellery stores and restaurants and didn’t take us that long to cover.

The forecast had been for threatening weather by the afternoon and as we waited with other Regent passengers for the shuttle it became bitterly cold and windy and we were happy to spend the rest of the afternoon onboard exploring Explorer 😊

Later in the afternoon our Captain Serena came on over the public address to warn us that we would face some heavy seas later in the evening and overnight and warned us that if we were “susceptible to the ship’s movement we should take the necessary precautions.” Prepared as we were, I took the anti-emetic that we had brought with us and was dismayed to start feeling queasy as the evening wore on and put myself to bed at 8pm, definitely feeling susceptible to the ships movement! Once asleep though I had no issues and apart from a couple of bathroom trips with the resultant sideways stagger, all was well.

We awoke to blue skies and as the island of Sicily came into view with the picturesque town of Taormina perched on the hill we were excited about our trip today to Mt Etna.

We watched the lifeboats being lowered and were eagerly anticipating our first tender transfer (which happens when the ship is anchored at sea, not tied up at dock for you landlubbers) until Captain Serena come on again to inform us that there was too much swell from yesterday’s storm to safely use the tender platform 😏

There was no docking space available anywhere close by so sadly we loaded the lifeboats up again and headed back to sea.

Russell and I weren’t devastated as we had been to Taormina previously for Lyndon’s wedding but many people were quite disappointed. As they say on board, “ship happens!” We decided to use the day at sea ( which this cruise initially had none of) to sit in on bingo, play some trivia and generally check out what else was on offer.

Our course took us through the narrow Strait of Messina (between Sicily and mainland Italy) and then past an impressive Mt. Stromboli, albeit partly obscured by rain and cloud.

We also discovered that ondansetron ( the anti-emetic that we had brought with us) is not very effective for sea sickness, so with more rough seas ahead we went to reception and happily took the Meclizine they were handing out which worked a treat!

Next stop, Sorrento.