I have a lot to cover, so I won’t waste any time. Our last day in St Tropez was nice. We went ashore again, and this time while we were waiting, there were two couples who were talking behind us. One of the couples was from New Orleans and the other was from Toronto. The gentleman from New Orleans felt that since he was talking to Canadians, he was safe to talk about politics and started talking about the Affordable Care Act, or as he kept saying Obamacare. He was telling them about how he felt for them because, you know the Canadians are having to rush across the border to get quality healthcare, and now those days are over. His wife, at a certain point, told him that he should stop or he was going to get in trouble. He told her that he wasn’t ashamed of his political views, and had a guy he knew who voted for Obama twice, and while they didn’t speak or see each other often, he would still consider him a friend. The Canadian woman told him, at this point, that she wished she was American so she could have voted for Obama. He also told them that they should come to New Orleans because it is all better now, and then whispered, it was actually better because of lot of the bad folks who were in New Orleans have been displaced to Texas and weren’t coming back. The ugly American continues to rear it’s ugly head. It amazes me that Republicans are always saying stupid things about Canada, like recently I heard one say that because of Obamacare, he thought he would have to move to Canada to get out of this socialist country.
Folks who asked about our luggage are now finding out that it has arrived, and they seem genuinely happy for us. Two ladies at breakfast told us how we are always the best-dressed men on the cruise. It was nice to say, but I have to admit that compared to many of the men (and some of the women) that isn’t saying much.
St Tropez didn’t change much from my impression the day before. It is a cute town, but totally overrun. And not by tourists, but I guess locals. It seems that it isn’t a festival, really, but rather an entire weekend of sales because most of the shops close for the season today.
We sailed overnight to Nice, and we have been there before, and enjoyed it. In the morning we took a walk along the promenade, strolled through the antique market and then took the elevator up to the sight of the old medieval city. Lovely views, and lots of children out and about. It is still a school holiday – Claire is off these two weeks in Paris. The weather was lovely, and it was a nice stroll. When we got back to the ship, we had lunch and then I went off the ship again to mail some postcards and walk a bit more on my own. Walked along a park in the center of town that was very nice. It all looked very new, and it wasn’t until later, when I took David to stroll in the park that I discovered (and translated) that the park opened on this past Saturday. It was packed with families as well and there were some really delightful playground equipment all in the shape of sea animals – a huge whale that was a jungle gym with a slide out of the whales mouth, whales tails that had swings hanging from them and octopi that had tire swings hanging from them. All completely covered with children!
We arrived in Cannes this morning, and got out for a walk on the Criosette and through the main shopping district and then back to the ship before it began raining. We had about three hours of hazy sunshine, which was nice. Warm, but very humid. David likes Cannes better than I did. I prefer Nice. I like Nice a lot. It has an urban feel, but it very open and light. David was concerned because the sea was pretty rough, and transferring to the tender was not as easy as it has been. They carried him on and off the tender from the ship in the wheelchair. I don’t think he liked it much, and might have preferred to stay on board, but was glad that he braved it and made it ashore.
We have just pulled up anchor and are sailing to Monte Carlo and arrive there at ab out 7PM and we have a special evening at the Oceanographic Museum for the ships passengers. We hear the museum is very nice, and I am looking forward to it.