Today we left Nice and drove to Cannes where the international film festival is held. We only stopped there for about 10 minutes but saw the red carpet and the building where the film festival is held every year. After a short stop in Cannes we then made our way towards Saint-Maxime. From Sainte-Maxime we took a ferry to Saint-Tropez. That town isn’t even on an island, but the proper way to arrive is apparently by boat. In the harbour of Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Tropez there were large luxurious yachts. We then went on a walking tour of Saint-Tropez. By the harbour there were some open-air shops and restaurants overlooking the water. We toured through the narrow streets up the hill towards the citadel. As we walked higher up the hill beside the citadel we could see the Mediterranean Sea and the town of Sainte-Maxime across the bay. We were above the town of Saint-Tropez and had a spectacular view. Around the opposite side of the citadel was a view of many villas on the hillside including a villa owned by the Heineken family and some other rich and famous people.
We then had some free time so my mom and I decided that we would finally try some crepes. The savoury crepes that are not sweet are actually called galettes in some places. That could be why my mom and I couldn’t find crepes for dinner last night anywhere. After the tasty crepes we decided that we would do some shopping. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closed since the workers were on their siesta for the day. In many places in Europe, workers take 2 hour lunch breaks so stores can be closed anywhere between 12-3pm in some places. The shopping was not very exciting at all. Finally we got back on the bus to make our way to Marseille.
On the way to Marseille we went on country roads in some mountains. The ride was a tad frightening because not only was the road very twisty turny, the road was so narrow that there wasn’t a guard rail around turns sometimes AND there was a cliff on the side of the road. The road was going downhill, and our 10 foot wide bus couldn’t even fit in the lane at some points, especially when we had to make tight turns. I was in the front with my mom so we definitely got a big thrill ride from that. My mom said that it reminded her of the road to Hana, Maui.
That wasn’t our only crazy driving experience today. Once we arrived in Marseille it was pretty apparent that they did not make the roads with large buses or trucks in mind. We were literally 3 minutes from our hotel going down a very one way narrow road with cars parked on each side of the street and a single lane down the middle. All of a sudden we came to a T intersection and we had to turn right. The problem was, there were cars parked everywhere along the top of the T and cars improperly parked on the inside corners of the T as well so it seemed impossible for us to make the turn. We all thought that it was an entry of no return because it would be impossible to reverse down that long narrow road.
Our bus driver, named Frank started to make the turn but he was reluctant to do so since it would be a VERY tight fit. A local noticed that we were having problems so he decided to get off his scooter and help us. He started guiding our bus driver and we were literally only centimeters away from other cars trying to make this one turn. We then were stuck, but luckily owners of a cube van just in our way came and could just squeeze past us to back their cube van out of the way. Now that we were clear at the front of the bus, our problem was a car improperly parked on the right inside corner of the T. Since I was in the front, I could see the car in the rear view mirror on the bus. I held my breath in because I thought that we would for sure hit it and at one moment we were probably just a centimeter from it. Everyone on the bus was very tense, and to the left of us was a large line up of cars forming since we were blocking the entire street. Locals were gathering around staring at our bus, and others were trying to help to get us clear of all the cars blocking us. I then heard sirens and started looking around frantically to find the emergency vehicle because if it were on the street we were blocking, that would definitely not be good. It ended up not being on the street thankfully. FINALLY, Frank worked his magic and with the help of the main guy that got off his scooter, we were free. Frank honked the bus’s horn many times and everyone on and off the bus cheered and congratulated Frank. It probably took us a good 10 minutes to make that ONE turn. It was very intense, but very entertaining at the same time. The French driver’s are crazy here, and my mom and I couldn’t believe how Frank got us out of that. He will definitely sleep well tonight after driving on that stressful twisty road in the mountains and then getting stuck making what should have been a simple turn.
We then went back to the hotel, had dinner, and a pretty relaxing night getting our Internet fix in. Tomorrow we are off to Avignon!
