Throw Mama from the Train!: More Nice plus Monte Carlo

Tuesday we took the 15 minute train ride to Monte Carlo, Monaco. No, I didn't see Prince Albert (in a can, or out of a can), nor Princess Stephanie... but we did visit the very cool Oceanographic Museum there. It's up on the rock, above Port Hercule. We took escalators and stairs down from the train station, then walked along the port, admiring the mega yachts. There were yachts so big I had to ask if they were mini-cruise ships or yachts... turns out they were yachts. At the end is the cruise terminal and a sea wall... you go out along the seawall then duck into a parking garage, to catch an elevator up to Monaco-vieux... the part up on the hill with the museum and palace. At the oceanographic museum, one of the exhibits promoting saving sharks suggested that mosquitoes kill far more people than sharks each year. Interesting given the fact that we've YET to encounter a window screen in any of the vacation rentals in our travel and have lots of mosquito bites. Perhaps they should mitigate against mosquitoes by promoting window screens.

After the museum and lunch we took a bus to the public beach, Plage du Larvatto. Rather than the large stones at Nice's beaches - it's small gravel stones... much easier on the feet. The water wasn't as blue. The people were more fabulous though - perfect bodies, some obviously augmented.

About the beaches... I am noticing that they do not have the same concern about skin cancer... there are a lot of very dark tans - and very leathery skin. I find myself humming the ad-song from my youth.... "Bandosoleil for the St. Tropez tan...." I'm also noticing that here in Nice, the topless thing seems to be generational... women of 40 or more are more likely to be topless than women in their 20's. In Monaco, there were perfect bodied young women topless.... but I didn't see many older women on the beach.

We decided not to do more touring after our visit to Monaco. The kids are done with museums... stick a fork in them. So we're staying local at the local beach here in Nice. Nice has beautiful water, but no sand. As mentioned previously it's these large cobble stones called "galets". The Nice folks are proud of their galets - there is a 38 euro fine for stealing one. The beach is also semi-terraced... there's a flat section, then a slope, then a smaller flat section, then a step slope into the water. Traversing the slopes is treacherous as the galets slip and slide under your feet. It can be painful. Some folks wear sandles or water shoes into the water, others hobble in and hobble out. I wore my shoes into and out of the first day - but am determined to master getting in and out of the water without my croc flip-flops. I'm amazed to see people going in with shoes that aren't designed for ocean going - leather/bejeweled sandels, espadrilles, etc...

Some pics: