In March/April 2004 we flew to Paris, France. Our goal for the 2 1/2 weeks was to primarily get to the French Riviera. Before getting there, we went to the Principality of Andorra and also Spain. After the French Riviera we went to the Principality of Monaco, with a little detour through Italy and Switzerland to get back to Paris. That's my kind of detour.
Sandwiched between France and Spain is the Principality of Andorra. Since it's in The Pyrenees, it has a very dramatic backdrop and the scenery is spectacular. Even though it's a small country we still spent a couple days there. The few towns this little country has were very crowded with skiers this time of year. This explained the difficulty we had getting a hotel room.
Since we were focusing around the Mediterranean we were able to see the northeast part of Spain, including Barcelona. The Pyrenees spill over into this region of Spain and the rolling hills seem to go on forever. It had beautiful scenery and red soil similar to the Arizona landscape. We were surprised by how much industry and business there was in the area surrounding Barcelona. But, we were really impressed the 3 days we spent in the city of Barcelona. The city was immaculately clean with tree-lined streets, beautiful buildings, friendly people, a lot to see and do, and a great metro system. Overall, it was just a pleasant atmosphere throughout the city. We plan on going back there again and spending more time in the rest of Spain as well.
Driving along the Mediterranean in France and the French Riviera we saw all the 'hot spots' such as Marseille, Cannes, Nice, St. Tropez, and more. This was where you are supposed to 'be seen', however it was not as scenic as we would have hoped. A lot of the beaches are private, but generally you could walk along the shore in some places. If it was summer the weather would have been warmer, but from what I heard the crowds would be unbearable. Since we like to see and do things, not just lie on the beach, it was a good time of year for us to go. We had perfect weather, sunny and nearly 70°F (21°C) during the day. We planned to spend 4 days in this region but only spent 3 and added an extra day in Italy. We saw 'the spots', we were seen at 'the spots', took some pictures of 'the spots', and moved on out of 'the spots'.
As you cross into the Principality of Monaco the coastline changes. It turns rocky with very dramatic cliffs and crashing waves. This was really neat to see. Even though it wasn't a beach area, Monaco had a really nice park like setting along the water and near the palace. Monaco was very clean and had police on what seemed like every other corner. As you might expect, we didn't win anything in the Monte Carlo Casino.
At this point we needed a way to get back to Paris. One option was to go back through more of France (ho, hum...). The other option was through Italy and Switzerland (yee, haa!!!).
With the time we had left, we were able to see the western top part of the 'boot' of Italy (more like a 'boot strap' actually). Even though we didn't see the touristy spots like Rome or Venice (sounds like another trip), we were able to see a part of Italy that may be overlooked by many tourists. Besides, we like to go all over the place anyway. One of the towns we stayed at in the foot of the mountains, Cuneo, wasn't even in the travel book I had. In this really nice town, we had our first taste of Italian pizza. Between gelato, pizza, gelato, pasta, and gelato we ate good in Italy. In Torino, a much larger city, we walked through the square and down the main pedestrian shopping district. In the more northern town of Aosta, we saw some Roman walls, arches, and the ruins of a small coliseum. The 'peak' of the Italian portion of the trip was going to Cervinia and seeing The Matterhorn. From there we continued in Italy to Courmayeur, before taking a 7-mile long tunnel under Mount Blanc on our way toward Switzerland.
Unfortunately, the 1-day we had in Geneva, Switzerland was cloudy. This was only bad for pictures. Geneva is a modern town with only a small old town area. We've been to big cities that have more of an old town area. It just felt too modern, but I'm glad we went to see it. There are a lot more sights we want to see away from the city along Lake Geneva but we didn't have time this trip. We'll go back eventually (and another trip is born).
We spent our last afternoon and evening going into Paris. We had packed everything up the night before so we had the last day free. We just spent that time roaming around the Eiffel Tower area again.
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