But sure enough, two buses later we arrived in Eze. Incidentally, the trip cost a couple of euros and was pretty much the same trip we paid 25 euros for the day before when it was pouring rain. Oh well. Here's a photo taken from the bus ride.
It's from my "Shots of The Mediterranean from High Places" collection. You will be seeing many more of those. I didn't have access to a helicopter so I pinched this one from the internet.
You can probably see that it's an ancient village perched high on a hill. Annie and I spent a pleasant hour or so wandering around the narrow passages in the is village, which looks to be completely hewn from rock. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.
Once we'd had our fill of tiny little shops carved out of rock, we headed back to the more modern part of Eze and had a cafe/wine and waited for the bus, which took us to the closest train station. From there, it was on to Monte Carlo. Try not think of one of these things for the next few minutes.
We left the station and wandered around for about half an hour in Monte Carlo/Monaco. Being Sunday, everything was closed and to be perfectly honest, Monte Carlo didn't appear to have much going it for it. Lots of ugly office buildings and closed shops. We figured we might be in the wrong part of Monte Carlo so we retraced our steps and headed off in the other direction. Eventually we came to the harbour area and we started to see what the place was all about. Monaco (of which Monte Carlo is the capital) is a tiny principality surrounded by France on three sides, and the Mediterranean on the other. It has no income tax, and extremely low company tax, which is why lots of rich people live there/spend their time there. Check some of the boats in the harbour.
We had been walking around for quite some time now, and it was well past our lunchtime. When reading this blog, you will probably get the impression that there is an over emphasis on food and eating. And you would be correct - there is.
So we saw what looked to be a very nice place perched high on the hill overlooking the harbour and thought "Why not?" We weren't that confident that they would let two sweaty Australians in, but lo and behold, they greeted us warmly and showed us to a table. It soon became apparent that everyone around us was either terribly wealthy, or trying very hard to give that impression. This was a fun place to watch people, The combined amount of money that the clientele had spent on bling, designer gear, and cosmetic surgery would be enough to run a small country (but probably not the one we were in).
As you can see, I was dressed to impress. A local chanteuse is belting out tunes in the background. Some of her translations are not quite how I remember the lyrics, but she's trying.
Here's our table. I think the blonde might be watching me. Either that, or she's just used to posing for photos.
We decided to go for the set menu. First up was about half a dozen dishes which were supposedly the starters. Easily enough to feed four people, so we had a crack but had no chance of finishing it. We sent more than half of it back - it didn't seem like the sort of place where we should ask for a doggie bag.
Next the obligatory seafood platter and if you look carefully you will see the goose barnacles which have become a facebook sensation.
Here's a closeup
I honestly had no idea whether you were supposed to eat them or use them to scare small children. I asked the waiter what they were called - he didn't know the english name - so then I asked whether you could eat them. The woman on the next table who was enjoying our confusion then piped up:
I took her word for it and tucked in. Here's how it's done.
Following that, there was the matter of cheeses and a few small dessert items.
Very nice.
We then staggered back to the train station and headed back to Nice. Our last night there was a quiet one. No need for dinner.
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