Continued from French Riviera Day 1, Nice.

Woke up bright and early today at 8ish. The blinds are useless in my room, so the sun woke me up pretty early. This works out well because I have a lot to do today. I did some last minute research on what I wanted to do today and checked some train schedules.

Time to get going out the door.

My whimsical hotel had these Tintin posters all along the stairs. I am really looking forward to the Tintin movie that’s supposed to come out later this year. Too bad none of my friends even know who Tintin is. What a shame, because I grew up on that stuff.

Whimsical hotel lobby.

Streets are still very much empty. It’s Sunday, so I’d imagine it’s even more empty than usual.

I bet this person sleeps in the car. Wonder what kind of adventure he/she has had.

That’s a tight parking job.

Same car. Not going to get out for a while.

A lot of buildings have shutters on the windows. I wonder if they are also partly used for protection against intrusion? They almost look to be metal to me.

Common theme today, closed for business.

My first snag for the day. The ticket kiosks only took credit cards with embedded chips(I need to get one for my next Euro trip damnit. I said that last year too.) so I had to wait in this line. It didn’t seem that long at first, but it was moving so slowly that I waited here for 40 minutes. This broke the record as the longest line I’ve waited this entire trip.

Finally!

Fuck me. It took me so long to get my train tickets that I had missed an earlier train, and the next one won’t come for another hour. I just wasted 2 hours trying to get a stupid train ticket. My early start to the day got erased just like that.

Trying to sooth my anger with chocolate, butter, carbs and Orangina. I need to remember to drink more of this stuff again when I get back to the States.

I had so much time to kill, decided to just make a short random walk around the train station.

Strange, all guys, and they don’t look French.

Same case here.

I walked around for maybe 4 blocks and saw all middle aged men. I wonder what country they are from and is this their big hangout spot on Sunday mornings?

Oh yeah, I am by the ocean. I need to remember to try some seafood when I get a chance.

That penthouse looks awesome.

Sex Sex Sex.

The shitty ass machine that wouldn’t take my credit card.

Finally waiting at the platforms.

How French of them to fill the tracks full of cigarette butts. It was filthy.

Lots of people going the same way as me.

My train arrives, and I don’t remember the last time I saw something like this. They’ve managed to graffiti on the sunshade inside the train.

I made sure to sit on the left side, which faces the ocean. Beautiful view during the ride since the tracks run parallel close to the ocean front.

Lots of RV campers here.

I’ve reached Cannes! You know, the place where they have the big film festival every year. It was a pretty quick train ride of about 40 minutes. Before showing up in France, I was unsure of the correct pronunciation for Cannes. Different people told me different things, so I finally asked my hotel front desk. It’s pronounced like Can. Example, I just opened a can of whoop ass.

I didn’t have a train stations map, so I took a photo of the map inside the train station so I could keep on referring to it on my camera.

Many places are still closed, including this paid public bathroom.

Closed. Even LV won’t take your money away from you today.

In Cannes, they have actual sandy beaches unlike Nice where it’s just large pebbles.

It is true what they say about topless beaches in France. I saw plenty of people wearing just bikini bottoms and no tops. 99.5% were of men wearing Speedos. I’d say 98% of the women here, at least what I saw, still had their tops on.

Those steps are where they lay down the red carpet for Cannes Film Festival. Didn’t look very glamorous today. They were setting up for some sort of event so I wasn’t even able to get a closer look.

More matte vinyl wrap. If you look closely, you’ll see how he bottomed out the nose and part of the vinyl has peeled off revealing the original Rosso Corsa paint.

Plenty of nice yachts here. Remember, I am in Côte d’Azur, billionaire’s playground.

Nice.

Golf R.

First business in Cannes is to board a ferry that will take me to Sainte Marguerite island. There is a prison fort on the island, and it was here that the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned. Yup, the fictional character is based on this actual prisoner.

How cute. The family who sat next to me had 3 really small puppies with them. Though, I don’t think you are supposed to take puppies that young out into public because it’s so easy for them to catch a serious disease.

Leaving Cannes behind us.

About to dock. Lots of boats docked here with people just chilling.

Very picturesque.

Up the hill I go towards the fortress.

Since I got such a late start, I haven’t had lunch yet. This will do. The 2 hours wasted trying to catch a train shall haunt me for the rest of the day. My planned leisure stroll through this island has been reduced to just an hour long affair. I need to be back to the dock in time to catch the next ferry back because I’ve got plenty more to do and see today. Stupid ticket kiosk.

I think the menu picked for me. Americano it is.

Time to contemplate in paradise and write down my world changing thoughts. Fuck, I left my pen in the hotel. Another day where I can’t save the world then.

Forgettable food.

Unforgettable view, seen from my table. I was hungry so even the forgettable food hit the spot. I had a wonderful time just sitting here wolfing down my food and drinking my beer. Good times can’t last forever as I had to get going so I could see the fort and catch the next ferry.

Inside the fort, there were just a lot of old buildings.

Steps leading up the the perimeter walls of the fortress.

This is where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned. Today it is Museum of the Sea.

Big picnic. The whole atmosphere of the island was very park like. Many people came here just to enjoy it as a day in the park.

More stairs. Let me see if I can find a vantage point.

Very nice.

Here’s the panoramic version.

That’s about all the time I have for this island. Time to head back down to catch my ferry.

Burnt bbq.

Speaking of being burnt. My German friends told me about these Orange People(very tan people), and that I’ll see many of them here in South France.

That’s a nice yacht.

Cruise ship tenders, get the fuck out of my dock, I am running late!

Jeff, can you say Need for Speed II?

Bocce ball court. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a bocce ball court.

Good, no line at the ticket booth in Cannes. I had hauled ass walking all the way from the dock to the train station expecting a long waiting line for tickets.

Ticket to Eze, then ticket from Eze back to Nice at the end of the day. The train leaves soon, I can relax a little now. Originally I was going to see couple more things in Cannes, but since I am running 2 hours late, those will just have to be cut out. Sigh. I’m sorry, I just can’t get over that I lost 2 hours today!

I don’t want to know what’s in that water bottle.

I was so tired during this train ride that I fell asleep.

To be continued at French Riviera Day 2, Cannes, Eze and Nice Part 2.