We arrived in Monaco by passing three customs officers just standing there. I guess we looked OK to them. They probably keep out the riff-raff, though. Not that the riff-raff can cause much of a problem because Monaco was filled with police officers. The police were everywhere. It may be because Monaco was hosting the Grand Prix Historique--an event like the Grand Prix but with vintage cars. It was good that there were lots of police because we used them as tourist information. I guess they don't have much else to do anyway. While I'm sure Monaco is home to criminals, they are white collar criminals committing violations against civil law with the help of the governments of France, Switzerland, and Italy.
We parked and headed up to the castle. I got a bunch of cool pictures of cannons.
Here are some cars lined up for the Grand Prix Historique.
This is a supposedly accurate sundial--certainly hard to use though.
We wandered around Monaco for a while, had a panini and a beer, and then watched the changing of the guard at the palace. It would be more accurate to say that we watched the crowd watching the changing of the guard. There was a band and pomp and ceremony. But I'll never get the whole changing of the guard ceremony.
After Monaco, we went to see a Greek style villa and then a Rothschild villa. I only did the Greek villa. It was interesting. It was made by a guy who had an unhealthy fixation on all things Greek.
Then when we got to Vence, a traffic jam--even worse than your typical Seattle or Houston traffic jam. This time it was a fire in an apartment building. But we got a flyer from a guy who makes pizza right there by the traffic jam--a place called Le Tournebroche de Provence. After making it back to the hotel, we decided to get pizza from him. We ordered 4 pizzas for only 31,00 euros! Then with 2 bottles of wine, we were able to feed 5 people. Very good pricing for dinner. Much cheaper than a restaurant.
Then off to bed. The next morning, we woke up and went to Saint Paul de Vence. It is another small village of old charming buildings--but each charming old building is not an art store or studio. If you win the lottery and want to buy some art, St Paul de Vence is the place to come. There are dozens.
On the way out, I noticed this fan driven by an inverter made by Toshiba. I wonder if it was designed by the people I used to work with...
Here I am thinking. What am I thinking?
Then we headed home. On the way, we suddenly hit a traffic jam. It turned out to be an accident. Wow, I've seen a lot of accidents in France. And it doesn't surprise me because the French leave much smaller margins for error when they drive. They follow too close and change lanes too close, do everything too close. There were signs on the highway all over explaining that you should be 2 dotted lines behind the car in front of you--basically the 2 second rule. But the French ignore them. I guess that's why they have so many of these signs. Anyway, the accident seemed to involve a bus which was empty and a car which was overturned, facing backwards, and had 2 men trying to help someone by going into the back window.
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