Freedom of the Sea - Villefranche (Nice)

So in the last blog I gave you the different tours that were available in Villefranche and a bit about how a tender port works. So the tour that my mother and I chose to do was Nice & Monaco on Your Own. We boarded a bus just outside the Citadel with an awesome tour guide. She started the tour right away while we drove to Nice so we learned about all the little towns. Once we arrived in Nice we also took a quick tour around on the bus showing us some of the major sites that we may want to look closer at. We were then dropped off and given two hours to tour on our own.
My mother suffers from sciatica and her pain has been kept at bay for quite some time but with the long flight to Europe it decided to flare back up. Of course there was no down time between our arrival and first port day so she was suffering, but we decided to try and make the most of it and see as much as we could. Thankfully this tour is mostly on your own so we did not have to worry about holding up anyone else.

View of Villefranche from the ferry boat

 Fontaine du soliel

 Place Massena Heart of Nice

This is where the bus tour let us off. If you went down the streets behind the famous Apollo fountain you could tour the market. If you tour in front of the statue you will find all the high end stores such as Rolex etc.. But you will also find hotels and a natural park/fountain not quite sure how to describe it.

 There are two of these on each side of the square. All of sudden the water will start jumping and flowing it is awesome to watch

 One of the hotels

Modern art piece

So because mom just could not walk we sat and enjoyed watching the traffic and people going by. There was a lot to do and watching the fountains go off was relaxing as well.

You can see the fountains going off behind us

We shared this awesome baguette sandwich for lunch

Fresh made bread, fresh goat cheese, tomato and lettuce

 Transportation through the shopping district and some of the art

 close up of the art

 Taxi's

You can also rent electric bikes and tour around as well

Once the tour hours was up we met up with the square and we were headed off to our next detisnation which was Monaco

.I took this picture from the bus and wish I had been able to get a better shot. This is the library. The base is a head and this is where the library itself. A box sits on the head and this is where the offices of the Library administration are. Apparently it is even more fascinating at night when the box windows are lit up.

Somewhere at the top of this cliff is Elton Jon's house it is yellow. The tour guide pointed it out several times both as we drove into and out of Nice but to be honest I could not make it out. Apparently Bono and his family also have a home in Nice along with many other celebrities.

I definitely wish my mother had been in better shape for a walking tour because there was so much that we did miss out in Nice. We did see the Promenade des Anglais which is a nice beachfront property and unfortunately the place that suffered a terror attack in the summer of 2016. We weer shown the new barriers and palm trees that have been added to the promenade to prevent attacks in the future. We did also see some of the Casinos and Famous Hotels via the bus but it would have been nice to explore them. I am definitely thinking another trip to Nice may be required in my future.

However a day would probably be sufficient for a visit so it would be an add on to another vacation.

Military is everywhere and they are carrying assault riffles

Shortly before our trip there was a terror attack in Barcelona so most of the countries were on heightened alert. My mother talked of cancelling but I felt safer travelling because of the heightened security and I am glad that we did not let fear rule us.

I will move on to Monaco and Monte Carlo in my next blog.

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slough@exclusivetoyoutravel.com