On Sunday, September 27th, we crossed over the border into France and were immediately in Menton and then Monaco. The views of the Mediterranean were great all along the way, but something about making that arc from Genoa and having the sun to the south made it even more beautiful.
We stayed 2 nights in Antibes. You may notice that we went through Nice to get to Antibes. We did not stay in Nice due to the fact that it's a bigger city and far more expensive.
So when we went to the Chagall and Miro museums in Nice, we hopped on the train for the short (less than 1/2 hour) trip each way.
On Tuesday, the 29th, we went on to Carcassonne for our 3rd night in the south of France.
These are the hills and a couple of the houses we saw as we came into Menton and Monaco. 
Somewhere along here we had another movie moment. A woman dressed in a 60's retro cream and gold outfit dripping with gold jewelry got on the train. She had matching platinum blonde hair, was by herself and had no luggage. Rich? Prostitute? Dressed for a costume party? Who knows? My vote is for the last, but she looked like no one else we saw anywhere on any mode of transportation on our trip. We were in 1st class, but if she had any money, she'd be driving a car and if she had any real money, she'd have a chauffeur.
The Mediterranean was on the other side of the train. 
These are just a few of the boats anchored out a bit from the shore.
Trout insisted I try to get some pictures of this Monaco train station.
It was very clean and super cool.
I think Trout's wondering what it would be like to have the cubic money required to live here.
We got to Antibes just fine. We got a little confused by the directions we had to get to our hotel, but we got help from people on the street. One very nice older man with a dog that looked like Cisco put up with my bad French and helped us get to where we were going, a very inexpensive hotel in the heart of town, the Modern Hotel. It was right on a major pedestrian street, but it was very quiet. They also had the best coffee I had the entire trip. We got settled in and went looking for lunch. We really only found a couple of very touristy places open by the time we started looking, but we had decent meals and good ice cream.
The major thing on my list for Antibes (besides just walking around) was the Picasso Museum. It's actually in an old castle of the Rainier (Grimaldi) family. Trout and I liked the building and location better than the particular work there, but I did have to pose with this piece. By the way, not all the works at the museum are by Picasso.
And they do have prickly pear in the south of France, too.
But what they really have is water. 
Incredible water.
I'm sure many of you have seen those exterior wiring pictures from India. I had to take one of this wiring outside our room.
Two other things on my list for this area were to go to the Matisse and Chagall museums in Nice. So we took the train as shown above. From the train station we took a trolley to the center of town and then a bus to the museums which were along the same bus line.The Miro Museum is in a park and we got a little lost at first, but we did find it. As you might imagine, we loved the colors.
Many places don't let you take pictures, so this was the best I could get. The same was true of the Chagall museum, but the website has some pretty good pictures of the exterior and of the works. 
We were on the Monaco train.
We got back to our room in time to rest a bit before going out to a fabulous dinner at Le Jardin.
They had a special that night called, "Let's go USA." It featured ribs. I couldn't resist. These were not your Texas or Kansas City ribs. They were much better! For dessert I had 3 different flavors of creme brulee. I have no clue what Trout got, but it was equally as good.
This part of France is known for its cassoulets. The literal translation is casserole, but they're not exactly like ours. The place we plopped is in the Place Marcou with some other restaurants. It's a brasserie named "Le Trouvere." If you click on the link, it's on the right side of the picture. I had to try their cassoulet. It may look odd in the picture, but it was delicious.
Our room had the smallest bathroom of any on the trip. We had no AC, but it was just the right temperature to open the tops of the doors onto the garden. The one night we were there, we partially closed them. The glassed area to the right is the breakfast room. The windows at the back are into the living quarters of the owners.
Outside the walls was this great cemetery. Except for the military cemeteries in the north of France, we saw no cemeteries like you see in the US anywhere in Europe. Land is too precious.
This was the first place on the trip that we got a taxi. The distance from the train station wasn't great, but we weren't up for walking up or down any steep hills with our packs. We also splurged on a taxi from the Cite to the closest laundry facility. After we did our laundry, we did walk to the train station, but it was flat, so it wasn't a problem.
Many places don't let you take pictures, so this was the best I could get. The same was true of the Chagall museum, but the website has some pretty good pictures of the exterior and of the works. I've never been a particular fan of Chagall, but I must admit, I loved what I saw there -- especially the biblical paintings. On the other hand, I've always loved Matisse, so seeing the collection in this museum was a thrill for me.
We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe in the park that houses the museum. We were both starving and it was the only place around to eat. In Trout's usual fashion, he at first turned up his nose because it appeared to be like a fast food joint. But remember, this is France. It was our 1st lunch in the country and it was great. No one can do "une sandwich" like the French.
So we retraced our bus, trolley and train route back to Antibes. We saw this work along the tracks.
We were on the Monaco train.
We got back to our room in time to rest a bit before going out to a fabulous dinner at Le Jardin.They had a special that night called, "Let's go USA." It featured ribs. I couldn't resist. These were not your Texas or Kansas City ribs. They were much better! For dessert I had 3 different flavors of creme brulee. I have no clue what Trout got, but it was equally as good.
The next morning we had more wonderful coffee, hot chocolate, croissants, rolls, cheese, butter and jam -- typical for a French breakfast -- got on the train and headed west. We knew we would be on the train a long time, so we got some goodies to go from a couple of bakeries a few steps from the hotel. It was quite the challenge to not buy everything we saw.
Carcassonne was our next stop. There we stayed at a small pension, L' Echappee Belle. Our room is not shown on the website due to some French rules, but you will see it below. Our hostess recommended a couple of restaurants for dinner. We walked around town (the walled city is very small), found one and plopped ourselves down for a local traditional dinner. Here's Trout toasting with some good beer.
This part of France is known for its cassoulets. The literal translation is casserole, but they're not exactly like ours. The place we plopped is in the Place Marcou with some other restaurants. It's a brasserie named "Le Trouvere." If you click on the link, it's on the right side of the picture. I had to try their cassoulet. It may look odd in the picture, but it was delicious.
Of course we walked around the Medieval Cite and out of it trying to find the famous view spot. We got lost and then found it and made our way back. The Cite is great at any time, but I think it's best at night.
Our room had the smallest bathroom of any on the trip. We had no AC, but it was just the right temperature to open the tops of the doors onto the garden. The one night we were there, we partially closed them. The glassed area to the right is the breakfast room. The windows at the back are into the living quarters of the owners.
Outside the walls was this great cemetery. Except for the military cemeteries in the north of France, we saw no cemeteries like you see in the US anywhere in Europe. Land is too precious.
This was the first place on the trip that we got a taxi. The distance from the train station wasn't great, but we weren't up for walking up or down any steep hills with our packs. We also splurged on a taxi from the Cite to the closest laundry facility. After we did our laundry, we did walk to the train station, but it was flat, so it wasn't a problem.We ran into a couple at the laundry who were also staying at our B&B. They were from South Africa. He obviously had never done a garment of laundry in his life. He watched Trout fold and pack with utter amazement while his wife did everything.
The only train out of Carcassonne for Barcelona didn't leave until about 3:00 pm and we had to check out at 11:00 am, so we had plenty of time to do laundry, walk to the station and have some lunch. Once again, we lucked into a very good place right across from the station. Or maybe, most French places are good... Anyway, we both had good meals to travel on.
On the train from Carcassonne to Narbonne where we changed trains for Barcelona, we met a very tired and hungover Irish guy on his way to another small town on the French coast. He talked and asked questions the whole 30 minutes. I was sorry it wasn't longer. That could have been fun and interesting. We did give him some Tylenol for his splitting head.
