Cannes Holiday Days 5-8

Helllooo!!! And welcome to days 5, 6, 7 & 8 of my magical mystery tour!!

I realised that there were lots and lots of landscape panoramic shots of the bays and harbours that I thought I would show you, I took several a day so am not sure what day order they come in, I hope you enjoy them just the same.

Day Five: Landscapes & Boats::

We took a train down to Juan Les Pins early in the morning in the hope of finding this bright yellow boat with a very exciting secret.

A glass bottom!!!!

Oh the excitement. We sailed out to a special little cove with beautifully clear water and then all went downstairs to the glass windows- you could see 14 metres down!!! There were hundreds of fishes and I saw two red starfish!

After the morning's excursions, we got back on our train to Cannes and hopped straight onto another boat- this time a ferry to a small island called St Marguerite.

It is mostly a kind of nature reserve now although boasts a fortress prison and the legend of the 'Man in the Iron Mask' which has been an inspiration for lots of different films.

We spent a lovely afternoon collecting seashells and sea glass, disturbing small hermit crabs and paddling in the clear water. All too soon it was time to go home on the final ferry back to Cannes.

Still, that evening there was even greater excitements planned!! The Festival d'Art Pyrotechnique!! This is basically a firework competition between several countries and is held in our very bay!! It is spread out over several weeks and our stay happened to co-incide with Greece's entry. Utterly fabulous!! The atmosphere was brilliant as it seemed the entirety of France crammed itself onto the beaches and jetties. The posh boat owners lined their boats up at the harbour entrance (you can see their lights on the right hand side of the below panoramic) and we all waited together.

When the fireworks had finished everybody clapped and cheered, the boats tooted their horns and even sent up flares!! A brilliant end to a fantastic day.

Day Six: Aqua Splash::

No photos to show you of this day I'm afraid. We went to Aqua Splash which is right next to the Marineland and played around on water slides and pretended to be pirates shooting our water cannons at unwary victims.

Day Seven: Monaco & Monte Carlo::

This day was mainly for the two other girls on the trip- I am not that interested in cars, let alone F1 (Formula One) race tracks. Still, it was a nice day out nonetheless. Basically if you have no idea what I am talking about, Monte Carlo has a very famous racetrack in its own roadway system and for most of the year it is just a regular town, but when F1 is there, the locals go on a holiday and the town is transformed into racing car heaven.

I was particularly taken with this 'hall of mirrors', otherwise known as the subway!!

We walked the entire way round this racetrack, which involves going up a steep hill, past a casino, through a hair pin bend, through a tunnel and very near to the edge of the jetty.

The architecture around the place was very glamorous. This building is the casino and outside it was parked all manner of reverently spoken about posh cars and dribblingly lustful tourists. I just liked the mosaics on the walls...

Day Eight: Our Final Day::

Our last day in Cannes, by the end of the day we would be back in England so we had to make the most of it!! We got up very early to take an hour long Dotto Train ride which went all around Palm Beach and up to the old part of Cannes where there is a tower built to ward off Pirates and a very old church surrounded by fantabulous views!!

 

The flowers were really beautiful and vibrant up there.

After learning all sorts of things about Cannes we hadn't realised during our week long stay, we headed back to the hotel to check out and then moseyed on down to the beach for a spot of sunbathing before starting our journey home. One thing I loved about Cannes was the randomness of the 'art' they had there, not only were there these antelope all along the seafront, but they were joined by small painted castles, boards with photographs taken by famous fashion photographers, sculptures made from tyres, great sheets with images on hung between trees and lots of giant plastic boiled sweets...

We spent a lot of the day just sitting around waiting for things, like the bus, the train, the bag drop at the airport, the gate number, the plane.... we did get a glorious sunset to finish the holiday off though.

So there we go! Holiday over. The tan is fading already but the memories are still very strong and sweet. Join me in tomorrow's post where I will introduce you to some felted friends who also made the trip with us and had just as big a ball!!