From Paris, we flew south to Nice, France aboard an easyJet airliner. easyJet is a rapidly growing "no-frills" airlines based in London. They really mean "no-frills." If you want soda and peanuts, you have to pay for them. But I didn't complain. After all, I only paid 12 euros (which is roughly $12), plus tax for the one-way fare from Paris to Nice. The plane was a nice Boeing 737. At the end of the flight, the cabin steward made the following statement. "We thank you for flying with us today. If you enjoyed your flight, please tell your friends. If you didn't enjoy flight, let's just keep that our little secret." We met an English couple later in Switzerland who often take easyJet flights. They said that easyJet sometimes has promotions like one-penny fares (plus tax) from London to Stockholm. It's quite amazing that they can keep fares so cheap. You can book easyJet through its web site, easyJet.com.

Nice

We took a cab from the airport to the harbor where our cruise ship awaited us. Along the long curved beachfront, a promenade and jogging trail hugged the wide boulevard crowded with cars. The palm trees, people jogging, roller-blading, and bicycling reminded me of the beach communities in Southern California. As we approached the harbor area and old town district nearby, the resemblance to Southern California disappeared. The old town had a bustling open-air farmer's market. On both sides of the market were restaurants and sidewalk cafes, crowded with tourists and natives. We were quite hungry, since we didn't eat on board the morning flight. Unfortunately, the restaurant we stopped at was positively horrid. Since we were still hungry after the unappetizing and mostly uneaten food, we got some french fries at a very small McDonald's stand. The cruise ship was still not ready for us. So we hiked up Castle Hill from where we saw many panoramic views of Nice. The skies were overcast, and the views were not as beautiful as they could have been. There are remnants of a castle and surprisingly a rather large city park at the top of the hill.

Windsurf Cruise Ship

We were looking forward to relaxing on the cruise after the unnerving experiences with pickpockets on the Paris subway. The Windsurf is the largest ship in the fleet of the Windstar Cruises with a passenger capacity of over 300, plus half that number of crew members, which is actually very small compared to the mega-cruise ships that hold over 2,000 passengers. The Windstar ships are actually multiple mast sailing ships, assisted by diesel-electric engines. The Windstar ships were once owned by the cruise line operated by Club Med. During our cruise, there was so little wind that I never got a chance to see the sails unfurled.

Windstar Cruises is the higher-end division of the Holland America cruise line. There were aspects that we liked. But being veterans of several cruises and different cruise lines, we were not very impressed with Windstar.

We chose Windstar, because the itinerary seemed to the best one with no days at sea. Everyday there was a port of call. We also liked the fact that the dress code was "casual elegant" meaning that we wouldn't have to bring along suits, ties, or evening gowns for dress-up nights. That was particularly important, because we had both pre- and post-cruise itineraries, and we didn't want to lug a lot of luggage. The more casual dress code didn't deter some of the passengers from dressing to the "nines." We also liked the ample size (155 sq. ft) of the standard cabin we stayed in. Here's what we didn't like so much. We thought that the smaller size of the ship and the lack of Las Vegas-style entertainment shows would encourage more interaction with the other passengers aboard ship. On other cruises we've been on, we've really enjoyed meeting other passengers from different parts of the U.S. and the world. On the Windsurf, we didn't get the opportunity to meet many people. Each night at dinner, the maitre' d would seat the four of us on a table by ourselves. There were no shipboard activities that encouraged interaction. The only things to do onboard were gambling in their small casino, going to a smoky lounge where they played "elevator music," or viewing VCR movies (mostly old titles) in your cabin. The food was OK, but in our opinion, the variety and quality of the fare wasn't as good as we've had aboard Celebrity and Royal Caribbean ships. The physical condition of the ship could have been better as well. There were rust spots on the bathroom door of our otherwise very nice cabin.

Monte Carlo

Next day we set out to explore the city of Monte Carlo and the rest of Monaco, which is a very small, but independent principality. The Garibaldi family headed by Prince Rainier is the titular head of Monaco. Of course, most people know that the Prince was married to the famous American Hollywood actress, Grace Kelly, until she died in a tragic car accident in 1982. While Monaco is a sovereign and independent state, it is a protectorate of France. There is an agreement that if the head of Monaco dies without leaving any male heirs, Monaco will become part of France. That could happen if Prince Albert, son of Prince Rainier, who is currently unmarried, has no sons. We visited the royal palace where Prince Rainier resides. There are tours throughout the palace where people are provided headsets with recorded tour guides in several languages. Later, I visited the cathedral where Prince Rainier and Princess Grace were married and where she is now buried. That night I watched the movie "High Noon" which starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.

Monte Carlo has many modern high-rise buildings that seemed to be carved into the hills and extending down to the sea. There is a yacht harbor where there are many luxurious yachts that hail from places such as Grand Cayman. Walking about Monte Carlo and Monaco, it was difficult to know where the city of Monte Carlo ends and the rest of Monaco begins. Perhaps, there is no such demarcation. Looking at a map, it appeared we were only a few blocks away from anywhere in Monaco to the French border. I don't know how to speak French. But I noticed a small difference in the written word for "pull" which is on the entrance doors to the shops. In Paris, the word tirez is used. In Italy, the word tirar is used. In Monaco, the word is tirer, which seems to be something in between.

Saint-Tropez

The next stop was Saint-Tropez (pronounced san tro-pay). St. Tropez is a resort town where the rich and famous used to hang out. The most famous resident is the 1950's movie star Bridget Bardot, who has in recent years endeared her to anti-animal fur and animal protection groups. We walked along the very large yacht marina lined with gift shops and artists, who were offering their wares to tourists.

Later in the day, we visited the beaches of Pampelonne by taxi cab, which were located about 7 kilometers away from the city of St. Tropez. In early October, the beaches were fairly empty. The water was crystal clear.The sand grains were rather course, and the beach was littered with bits of driftwood and seaweed. We've seen nicer beaches elsewhere in the world. Although we had entreated the taxicab driver to just stay and wait while we took some photos of the beach, he refused to wait. We didn't have our cell phones with us. Even if we had, we didn't speak enough French to be able to describe where to pick us up. So, we had the problem of how to get back to the city. We started to walk back. The cab driver had mentioned there were buses that ran along the main highway. We hoped to catch a ride back on the bus. There were two young men walking along the road. We asked, "parle vous Anglais?" They spoke English, because they were British. They apparently knew the area very well. They said there were no buses that ran on this road, contrary to what the cab driver had told us. They told us that this road, along with many of the crossroads, all led back to St. Tropez. The 7-kilometer walk did not seem difficult for me. But we could tell it was going to be a bit much for my mother-in-law. We tried to hitchhike. No cars picked us up, perhaps, because there were four of us. The weather was warm. The shoulders of the road were very narrow, making walking rather dangerous. We took it slow and made a lot of rest stops. We were worried about being able to make it back to ship on time. It took us nearly 2 hours, but we made it back in time.

Corsica

From Saint-Tropez, we sailed to the Italian ports of call of Portofino and Porto Venere. Our last port of call, prior to disembarking in Civitavecchia near Rome, was Porto Vecchio on the island of Corsica. Corsica is a rather large island just North of the still larger Italian island of Sardinia. Corsica is closer to the Italian mainland than to France. But it is actually a province of France. In fact, Corsica is best known as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous French conqueror of Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Corsica has both French and Italian heritages. Both French and Italian languages are spoken. The names of most of the towns and places have Italian-sounding names like Ajaccio, Bonifacio, and Santa Giulia. We understand that Corsicans like to think of themselves as being independent of France.

Porto Vecchio is a lovely and quaint little city up on top of a hill, about a kilometer away from the harbor. However, it seemed to us that there was very little to do there other than to shop at a few gift shops. The cafes were mostly closed on the Saturday that we visited there. The most frustrating thing was that there were no public restrooms available anywhere in town, not even the pay toilets that we were by now accustomed to. The only thing we could do was to go back to the cruise ship to use the bathrooms.

The Corsican Miracle

In some tourist brochures we saw photos of the beautiful beaches along the Southern coast of Corsica. The woman at the tourist office suggested two beaches, Santa Julia and Palombaggia that were fairly close to Porto Vecchio. Gail, who loves beaches, wanted to go there. The problem was how to get there. There were no buses. We were forewarned on the ship there were very few taxis available, particularly on a Saturday. Our only choices were to try to find a taxi or rent a car. After having lunch aboard the cruise ship, we set out to go to the beaches. We went to a nearby Hertz office to rent a car. But as is customary in much of Southern Europe, the office was closed for a two and half-hour mid-day break until 3:30. Our cruise was departing at 5:00. So, renting a car seemed impractical, especially if we had to allow for time to find our way to the beaches and back. We decided to go back to town to try to find a cab. One person suggested that we go to the one of main hotels in town to try to catch one. Since I hadn't seen any taxicabs in town while we were there in the morning, I wasn't hopeful of finding one. Gail said a faith prayer to the Lord about helping us to find a taxi. Just then, I saw a taxi stand in the distance. When we got there, there were no taxis. In fact, there was a barrier to stop taxis from going into the waiting area. We walked through the barrier a few yards. Something prompted me to look back. Behind us there was a nice Mercedes taxi parked. The driver spoke very little English. But we were able to tell him where we wanted to go by pointing on a map.

It's a good thing we didn't rent a car for another reason. I don't think I would have been able to find these beaches if I were driving on my own, especially with the limited amount of time that we had. The directions on the main roads were well marked. But once you got off the main road, it would have been challenging to figure out where to turn next. Our first stop was the beach at Santa Julia. Now this was a beautiful beach, rivaling any that we've seen before in Bermuda or in the Caribbean. Brilliant and clear light turquoise water lapped gently upon the fine white sandy beach that circled a nearly enclosed bay. We took a few snapshots and headed back to the taxi. We would have loved to spend a few hours there. But the taxi was waiting. Off we went to Palombaggia. This more half moon shaped beach was nice too, but in my opinion not as nice as Santa Julia.

A Taxi Joke

When we got back to the ship, we told another passenger about how we had found a taxi when none seemed to be available. The other passenger told us a story about a cruise passenger's experience with a taxi. This passenger was out somewhere in town and wanted to go back to the cruise ship. She hailed a cab and tried to explain that she wanted to go back to the cruise ship. The driver didn't understand any English. So she pulled out a postcard with a photo of the cruise ship and pointed to it. The driver nodded affirmatively and prompted her to get into the cab. The cab driver took her to the post office. I don't know whether was a true story or not. But, we thought it was hilarious.