"And then ... I'll wake up"

I'm officially on my last 24 hours in Paris. By this time tomorrow (if everything's running on time) I should be en route to Heathrow Airport in London, then from there on to Chicago and finally home to Madison. I'm a mix of feelings - sad to be leaving behind all of the beautiful buildings and pedestrian walks and flowers and markets and food, but also very much looking forward to having my familiar places and faces and language back around me like a cozy blanket. Everytime I feel lost or confused or scared to ask someone for something (not knowing how much English they speak) I start counting the hours until I can get on a plane and go back home ... and then when that moment passes and I realize that I'm surrounded by perfect blue skies and the gorgeous Mediterranean and bright pastel buildings and peaceful pedestrian plazas I regret that I have to say good-bye to it so soon.

Tuesday was my day in Antibes. LOVED Antibes. LOVED LOVED LOVED Antibes. It's a medium-sized town, just the right size for me - big enough that there's plenty to walk around and see and do, not so big that it feels dirtied by an overpopulation of people and cars and conveniences. I walked past the port to the wonderful covered market in the middle of town (did some tasting - and some shopping), then along the shore and around to the lighthouse hill at the edge of the bay, for a fantastic view of the city and the sea. Weather was bright and sunny, but very VERY WINDY! Made for some fantastic waves on the sea - and for the kite-surfers. I spent quite awhile watching half a dozen very skilled kite-surfers. It is what it sounds like - a person on a surfboard using a giant airfoil-shaped kite to catch the wind and go soaring over the waves. Seriously, soaring - when they caught the wind just right, they'd launch off the waves and be airborne for several seconds. I kept trying to guesstimate how high they were over the water - I'd say twenty feet easily, maybe even 25 or 30. I started using my watch to time their hang-time - longest I recorded was 4.5 seconds. Think about it - that's a long time to be coasting in the air, hanging on to just a kite. Also toured the Picasso museum (worth seeing, but, eh - I just don't get gushy about most Picasso stuff, though here and there I'll see something of his that I geniunely like) and did a LOT of just walking around town.

Yesterday was my day to tour Monaco. It was decidedly less lovely, for all of the following reasons:
*I lost my beloved jacket, the one I found in Paris. I set it down on a railing to check a map, then forgot to pick it up when I was back on my way. By the time I ran back for it, it was gone. Couldn't have been there for more than 10 minutes. Oh well - somewhere in Monaco, "The Sunny Place for Shady People", someone is either wearing or selling my genuine leather woman's small beige jacket. Hope they like it.
*I bit the bullet and paid the 13Euro admission to the Musee Oceana... something, the big fancy schmancy aquarium/museum helmed for over thirty years by Jacques Cousteau. This year is the museum's 100th anniversary, so I thought I might be treated to some special exhibits or something. I was close ... something big definitely was/is going on, but I caught the museum during its ugly moment of transition, and was treated to a 13Euro view of scaffolding, black scrim curtains, and lots of construction workers making noise and taking their merry time.
*Weather was all over the place - too warm in the morning (when I took the jacket off), then the clouds came in, it got breezy, and I could've used that one lost article.
*Monaco in general is just ... eh. I suppose it's a tourist must (I would hate to leave the Riviera and say I *didn't* see the Monaco palace, the aquarium, the Grand Prix, or the Monte Carlo casino), but that's really all there is to the city. The rest of the city is elbow-to-elbow condos after condos, all probably very nice, but a very cookie-cutter kind of nice. Most of them probably vacant too - apparently it's popular for the millionaire crowd to have an address in Monaco, for the sake of avoiding income tax, but very few people actually spend any considerable time living in Monaco. Restaurants, walkways, etc are all pretty much just for the tourists.

I will say that my favorite pleasant surprise of Monaco was finding half a dozen photographs around the city of Princess Grace Kelly's appearance at each monument/attraction (there's a wedding photo of her outside the cathedral, a photo of her and Jacques Cousteau outside the aquarium, etc - oddly enough didn't see any photos of her outside the Monte Carlo, I wonder if she ever visited it). The town loves her, and for good reason - she looks like her perfectly photogenic and impossibly beautiful self in each and every one. I also did enjoy seeing the interior of the Monte Carlo (lots of dark green faux marble, gilding, and chandeliers - it actually does feel almost as James Bond-ish as you'd expect, even in the tourist-accessible foyer) and the palace-y interior of the ocean aquarium/museum, with even more gilding and chandeliers. Pretty sure I've never been in an aquarium with chandeliers and gilding before. (Actually the aquarium is in the basement, the gilding and chandeliers surround the marine exhibits on the upper floors - still, crystal and gold under the same roof as eels and sharks is not something you see every day).

Well, I guess I've been online enough - and I finally have a beautiful sunny day in Nice to enjoy the beach! I think that's where I will be for the rest of the afternoon. I'll be back home and have pictures on Facebook before you know it! Au revoir!

PS - Stacy - I searched the largest grocery store in town for Crispie M&Ms, and all they had was peanut! Boo! I'll keep my eye out, though - maybe they'll turn up at a random convenience store at the airport or something.