But Where’s the Crème Brûlée?

With our trip now completed, here are a few random observations on our experience in Provence and the French Riviera.

--There seem to be many more chiens (dogs) in France than chats (cats). People bring their dogs with them everywhere, including to restaurants. We did have a “shop cat” in our hotel at Avignon; it often slept on one of the sofas across from the registration desk. It was jet-black and so was the sofa, so it was always a good idea to look before you sat down.

--People wondered if we’d get to see Provence’s famous lavender fields in bloom. As it turns out, that doesn’t happen until late June. We did see some pretty impressive fields of poppies, though.

--Our trip director from Alumni Holidays, Fred Burke, was endlessly helpful to the travelers, and a fascinating guy to boot. Born in the U.S., he has worked all over the world, and now lives in Normandy with his French-born wife. He taught himself French and is now fluent in it. He also worked on the production of the movie Winged Migration, helping to raise and train some of the birds used in the film.

--A good expression to know in France is a simple one: “C’est bon,” meaning “It’s good.” Whenever we’d re-board the bus after a photo stop, for example, Fred would count heads and then call up to the driver, “C’est bon!” -- and off we’d go.

--For those of us who remember almost none of their high school French, another useful expression is “Où est…” -- pronounced “oo-ay” -- which means “Where is…?” We also quickly caught onto the fact that a “boulangerie” is a bakery, of which there are many in France. And if you need a beer, that’s “bière.”

--The phrase I said more than any other on the trip was, “Un verre de Coca Light avec des glaçons, s’il vous plait”: A glass of Coke Light with ice cubes, please.

--Fred would post the meal menus for the day on an easel near the hotel’s front desk, and a hobby for many of us was trying to decipher the French so we could figure out what’s for dinner. The main course one night, for example, was “joue de loup et son tajine de legumes au miel.” Anybody? Anybody?

--We ate many of the foods you might expect on a trip to France: Croissants were omnipresent at the breakfast buffet, and French bread was served at every single meal. Main courses featured fish, poultry, or occasionally lamb or veal. Wine was served not only at dinner, but at lunch too.

--We had French fries once.

--Several of the travelers had a hankering for bouillabaisse, which apparently has its origins in Marseille. As for me, I kept waiting for the crème brûlée. Alas, no bouillabaisse or crème brûlée ever materialized. Next trip!

--The French presidential election was a common topic of conversation on the tour bus. Fred told us that if you ask his daughter, who is 3, who won the election, she will declare, “Nicolas Sarkozy is the President of the Republic!”

--A piece of trivia: Pablo Picasso often gambled at the casino at Monte Carlo.

--Everyone got home safe and sound, albeit a little tired from our 12 days of adventures. We all have pictures to show off, stories to tell, and dreams of going back there someday. C’est bon.

Photos

In France, lots of people bring their dog to lunch or dinner with them.

With the French presidential election taking place on May 6, political signs for the two candidates could be found everywhere.

Fred Burke, our travel director from Alumni Holidays, handled all of the trip logistics and was on top of every detail.

Our meals and desserts were always artfully presented.

The Word for Today is “Opulence”

A highlight for many on the Penn State trip was the visit to Monaco, home of the House of Grimaldi royal family, lots of extremely wealthy people, and the legendary casino at Monte Carlo.

From our hotel in Nice, Monaco is about an hour’s bus ride along a mountainous coastal road that offers an impressive view of the Mediterranean below -- though not one that’s recommended for those with a fear of heights. The road was known as the Via Julia Augusta in ancient Roman times, and today it goes through such villages as Eze (pronounced “ess”) and La Turbie; the latter has a Roman monument called the Trophée des Alpes, or Trophy of the Alps, which was built in 6 or 7 A.D. to commemorate Augustus Caesar’s conquest of the Alps.

Monaco is its own country, or, more correctly, a principality -- a sovereign state ruled by a prince. Those who follow current events (and the tabloids) know all about Prince Albert and his often-in-the-news sisters, Caroline and Stephanie. On the bus ride we learned more about the history of the monarchy in Monaco: how in 1297, armed men disguised as monks (led by Francesco Grimaldi) conquered the country; how the Grimaldi family has ruled ever since; how Albert I (1848-1922) built an oceanographic museum and brought the Grand Prix race to Monaco; how Rainier became prince in 1949 at the age of 26; how Rainier married Philadelphia-born actress Grace Kelly in 1956; how Princess Grace was killed in a car accident in 1982 on one of the coastal roads above Monaco; and how their son, Albert I, doesn’t have a legitimate heir to the throne, because his only son was born out of wedlock to an Air France flight attendant.

We learned that the residents of Monaco -- called Monegasque -- are plenty wealthy, and on top of that they don’t pay income tax. The famous casino, which was built in 1863, doesn’t bring in much money for the principality, either -- casino revenues account for only 5 percent of Monaco’s income. What does generate revenue is the Value-Added Tax, which you pay on everything from postcards to real estate -- a whopping 19.6 percent.

We Penn Staters did our part to help the local economy, paying 10 Euros each (about $17 U.S.) to get into the casino and then, once inside, pouring some more Euros into the slot machines. The most successful of our group was Janice Meyer, who won a whopping six Euros. Nobody else won a thing. I bought 10 Euros’ worth of slot-machine tokens and lost them all -- and it didn’t take long.

Incidentally, for you blackjack fans, the cheapest blackjack table at Monte Carlo is 25 Euros per game. The most expensive is 10,000 Euros!

Our stop in Monaco also included a visit to the Jardin Exotique (exotic garden), a stop at the Prince’s Palace, which was built in the 12th century as a fortress, and -- because we were only about five miles from the Italian border -- a pasta lunch.

Next it was off to another ostentatious site, the Rothschild villa and gardens along the coast. This would be our last official excursion of the trip, and Ingrid, our guide, said, “We saved the best for last.” The official name of the place is a mouthful: Jardin de la Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. The mansion and gardens belonged to the heiress Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild (1864-1934); the house has dozens of rooms, all lavishly decorated, and the grounds feature nine different gardens, ranging from a Spanish garden to a rose garden to a Japanese garden. Sculptures, fountains, and a waterfall also provide plenty of photo ops.

The town in which the Rothschild villa is located is called St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. “Cap” means “cape,” and Cap-Ferrat is a peninsula in the Mediterranean. The real estate here is quite desirable: Ingrid said that Bill Gates has a home here, as do several members of the Rolling Stones. None of them invited us over for drinks.

Our next day is devoted to exploring Nice on our own, and then we head home. I’ll send one more posting to wrap things up.

Photos

The Principality of Monaco is squeezed onto a hillside where the Alps meet the Mediterranean. It’s surrounded by France on all sides.

Monaco takes up an area no bigger than New York's Central Park, yet has 32,000 residents. Most are extremely wealthy -- and, by law, pay no income tax.

Penn Staters Donna and Bob Nicely enjoy a lovely view of Monaco from an overlook near the Prince’s Palace.

A luxury villa once belonging to the heiress Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild is now a prime tourist attraction along the Mediterranean, between Nice, France, and the Principality of Monaco.

Penn Staters Bill and Dot Kracht in the Rose Garden, one of nine different gardens at the Ephrussi de Rothschild villa and gardens in France.

Jackie and Jerry Grossman from the Penn State contingent at the Ephrussi de Rothschild villa and gardens.

Photo Ops Abound in Nice

On our first full day in Nice, we took in some postcard-perfect views of the Mediterranean, explored a museum devoted to the painter Chagall, and visited a gorgeous Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Our guide, Ingrid, arrived for work as usual on her motor scooter -- a Piaggio Granturismo -- and parked it next to our hotel for the day. She, along with our Alumni Holidays trip director (Fred Burke), and our bus driver (Rene), first took us on the bus to a fancy neighborhood overlooking the city. There Ingrid showed us lots of examples of belle époque architecture, a style that was popular from around 1860 until start of World War I in 1914 -- “a time of wealth and splendor,” Ingrid said. The architecture is a mix of styles: pointed arches, Romanesque cupolas, stucco, even some towers on a building that look like Turkish minarets. Most of the houses are either red or yellow, with orange-tiled roofs, and when set against the Mediterranean -- which is several shades of blue -- it’s just a treat for the eyes.

Up in that neighborhood, we stopped at an overlook for a fine view of the port and beach. A huge cruise ship, the Astoria, was docked in port, along with a ferry offering trips to the island of Corsica; the side of the ferry read, “Corse-Nice en 2h 55.”

After the overlook stop, our bus worked its way back down the hill and through the narrow streets of Nice. At one point we turned a corner and suddenly saw our next stop: an unbelievably beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral with green and gold onion domes against a pure blue sky. It looked like someone had airlifted the thing in from Moscow or St. Petersburg and plunked it into this old French city. Officially called the Cathédrale Orthodoxe Russe St-Nicolas, it was built by Tsar Nicolas II in 1912 and is still used for Sunday services today. It’s extremely picturesque inside and out -- colorful tile work on the outside and ornate woodwork and gold leaf inside. (No photos are allowed inside, alas.) It features more than 250 religious icons, including the Virgin Mary, Alexander the Martyr, the Archangel Michael, and others. Plus, of course, a gift shop.

Next it was off to the Chagall Museum, or in French, Musée Chagall. Ingrid, our guide, told us that Marc Chagall was a Russian Jew who fled his home country and lived in France for a number of years in the 1920s, then came to the French coast in 1948. He eventually settled in St-Paul-de-Vence -- the town we visited the previous day -- where he was neighbors with Henri Matisse. (Not that they were best buddies, however; Chagall reportedly was intensely jealous of the attention that both Matisse and Picasso were getting for their work.) The museum is full of works that Chagall donated in 1966 -- huge paintings, mostly, but other media as well. When Chagall was in his 60s he started to do mosaics, and when he was 70 he took up stained glass windows. We saw a wall-sized mosaic of the prophet Elijah, and stained-glass windows depicting the seven days of Creation.

To no one’s surprise, the Chagall Museum also features a gift shop. Many of the Penn State travelers bought books, postcards, or other items there.

After a lunch of salad Niçoise assiette (sort of like a salad Niçoise with accessories), we set off to explore Nice on our own for the afternoon. Before we left, Ingrid gave us some advice about getting into the good graces of the French shopkeepers. Always say “Bonjour, monsieur” or “Bonjour, madame,” and then ask, “Parlez-vous anglais?” People in France, she said, really appreciate it if you make an attempt to speak their language.

And a good number of French people don’t speak much English. On the one hand, we’re all a little surprised at this, but on the other, we’re very mindful -- and a little embarrassed -- that most of us Americans speak only English. (Two passengers in our group, Margaret Smith and Monica Shumann, do speak French, and we often go to them for help. Fred Burke, our AHI trip director, was born in the U.S. but is fluent in French, and having him around helps enormously.)

I had a frustrating but comical conversation a day earlier with the clerk at the Internet café, where I had gone to retrieve an adaptor I had accidentally left there the night before. The clerk had no idea whatsoever what I was trying to say, as I held the adaptor and pointed to myself to try to convey that it belonged to me -- and I had no idea what she was trying to explain to me in response. Finally, when she was distracted by another customer, I put the adaptor in my pocket. When she saw me leaving, she said something in French in an apologetic tone of voice, and I shrugged graciously, as if to say, “It’s OK -- don’t be too sorry. I have my adaptor back.”

Tomorrow we have a road trip to Monaco, including a visit to the fabled casino at Monte Carlo. Will any of the Penn Staters actually win some money at the slot machines? Stay tuned.

Photos

Our guide in Nice, Ingrid, showed up at the hotel each morning on her scooter -- a Piaggio Granturismo.

Penn State travelers, including Bob Nicely (shown here), were treated to a fine view of Nice from an overlook above the city.

A view of Nice’s waterfront from one of the city’s hillside neighborhoods. The arched structure on the right is a memorial to the French who died in the World Wars.

A cruise ship docked in the port of Nice.

The city of Nice has a gorgeous Russian Orthodox cathedral, built in 1912.

Penn State travelers Alvin and Pat Levin admire the Cathedrale St-Nicholas, the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice.

Ingrid, our guide in Nice, explains Chagall's “La creation de l’Homme” (The Creation of Man) at the Chagall Museum.

Surprisingly, the Chagall museum allows picture-taking. This is Monica Shumann snapping a shot of “Adam et Eve chasses du Paradis” (Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise).