4th of July and Provence

The 4th of July is not quite the same in Switzerland, or Europe, compared to traditions of the US.  For one, everyone works, but there are also no fireworks.  The Americans in the area still celebrated and I BBQ'ed with some friends at a local park where we all brought food to pass and we had a fun experience celebrating with one another.  I tried to be festive and carved my first bowl from a watermelon to serve a fruit salad.

On Friday, two friends that ran the Berlin Marathon Lisa and Josh) came to Geneva for the evening before we started a small France road trip over the weekend.

On Saturday, we started our drive mid morning to Les Rousses to see the 8th leg of the Tour de France.  We over estimated slightly and had about 2 hours to kill prior to when the racers arrived although the caravan of cars and small parade prior to the riders is quite large!  When originally planning a trip we had misinterpreted the route thinking the start was the end and vice versa leading to a later start following the race than expected.

During our drive, we stopped and had dinner in Avignon; a random stop, but a very pretty city with a huge old town and castle within the original city walls.  Following dinner, we continued the drive and finally arrived in Nice at 2am!

While in Nice, we toured around the city our first day visiting the promenade, beach, and hiking the old city fort.  Pretty city with very blue water!

Notice the beach can be rocky!

On our second day, we visited Monaco; the country and city did feel slightly different from Nice as the architecture differed.  We walked around the city (and country as it's only 2.5 miles large), had lunch near the palace and attempted to enter the casino; however, the dress code was no open-toed shoes, no shorts after 7, and required suit and tie after 10.  Needless to say we were unsuccessful...

The 3rd day, Josh flew home and Lisa and I spent the day in Cannes seeing the red carpet of the film festival and walking the promenade before heading back to Nice for the night and one last meal before she flew out the next day and I then drove home.  During my drive home, I took the long, scenic route and was able to drive through the lavender fields of Provence.

Great long weekend trip and would recommend going back for the blue water and great seafood although will definitely dress up next time to be able to experience all of Monaco!