Au revoir Saint Laurent du Var

Unfortunately last day here today – I have a 4pm flight, but since I couldn’t organize a later checkout and have nowhere to stash my luggage, find am a bit limited as to sight seeing.

So, I just went for a wander down the beach, past the Port du Saint Laurent and into Cagnes sur Mer which is only about a kilometer down the way. Is just early spring here so although quite sunny still a bit chilly, definitely not swimming weather… but relaxing being by the beach all the same.

Oh and I also had a bash at doing a panorama of the beach at Cagnes sur Mer… not bad I reckon !!!

(Click on the image to open as a panorama)

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Panorama of Nice

Put a panorama up on Photosynth… turned out pretty nicely I think, and considering this is with only three 18 MP photo’s… I wish I’d taken a few more shots !!!

(Click on the image above to view as a Panorama)

Sight seeing in Nice

Well, today I jumped on the train and headed into Nice… about a 10 minute ride away.

I didn’t have anything definite planned – just spent the day wandering around “the old town” as well as going up to the ruins of the Ancien Chateau. The panorama from the top was very impressive, and the colour of the water was a stunning contrasting to the red tile roofs everywhere.

Walking around I’d spotted a sign about an Historic Rally on in Nice next weekend, and on my way back through town I realized there was something going on in the main square. Altho I’m here a week early really, it turned out the field comes in this weekend and competes nearby during this week, with the special stages next weekend. Some absolutely gorgeoues machines in there, including an all girl team in a classic Merc, but my heart of course went to the few Porsche 356’s competing… one in particular sounded AWESOME, and judging by the rubber marbles stuck onto it was used to being driven hard… exactly what they’re made for !!!

Woohoo – work’s done for the week !!!

The biggest problem with travelling for work is, well, the working part… and today being Friday means I’m done for this trip.

So it’s au revoir Carros office… or perhaps abientot… now just a bit of chilling and sight-seeing before heading back home !!!

Saint Laurent du Var – staying awake

So getting out in the sunshine is meant to help the body clock, and it’s also a good way to see what’s around. It’s spring here, and altho nice and sunny it’s not all that warm (high teen’s C) and quite windy, but still nice to get out and about.

My hotel – from the outside

The marina just next door…

… and some kite and wind surfers at play.

Now to organize something about dinner and an early night methinks…

Saint Laurent (Nice) – Arrivee

Guess what… another work trip overseas… woohoo !!!

I’ve actually had 2 more trips to China since my last post – 2 weeks in Oct 2011 and 3 weeks in March 2012, but The Great Firewall was blocking access to WordPress so no blogging sorry.

Anyway – back to Saint Laurent, Nice, France… this will be a real quick trip this time. Arrive Wednesday, deliver some internal training Thu and Fri then fly back to Brissie Sunday arvo. Still… it’s France !!!

Flight in was VERY long, and for a change I went Emirates through Dubai rather than Singapore Airlines through Singapore. Dubai airport is over-the-top impressive… more like an upmarketing shopping mall than an airport, but very packed and after a 14.5 hour flight on top of a normal day in Brissie and almost zero sleep… I was over it as far as photo taking went.

Now in my hotel in Saint Laurent after another 8 hours in a plane, and yeah – Cote d’Azure seems pretty cool. It’s 5:30 pm local time – done my brief e-mail catchup and since there’s still plenty of daylight I’m off to check out the beach… after all it’s only about 100 meters from my hotel room !!!

😉

My hotel room – complete with little French style balcony…

… that has a pretty Nice view !!! (excuse the pun)

Sight seeing Day 2 – Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame and Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

Monday morning I seemed to be over my tummy troubles, so headed out what I thought was bright and early in an attempt to see the Musee du Louvre. It wasn’t to be unfortunately… altho I got there about 15 minutes after it opened, there was already a 3 hr long queue formed.

Oh well – onto Plan B: – a brief wander through Jardin du Tuilieres followed by Notre Dame, an open-top-bus ride and Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise following Nic’s suggestion.

All went pretty well – I seem to be somehow magnetically drawn to the Pyramide du Louvre, but somehow managed to draw myself away from it and get on with things. Notre Dame is amazing… I’d seen it from the outside before but not been inside… the architecture, the history and the spirtual’ness (is that a word?) of the place really hits you.

An arch at the Louvre and some of the abundant “scenery”

Jim Morrison’s grave (lead singer from The Doors if you’re unsure)

Jardin, Boulevard Pereire

It seems that something I ate during Saturday didn’t quite agree with me, so Saturday evening had a fairly quiet one and stayed pretty close to the hotel (no need for details I say).

It gets dark VERY late in Paris in the summer… like after 10pm… so I just went for a bit of wander down the nearby Boulevard Pereire and the Garden they’ve setup down the middle of it. Pretty clever really… the rail system has been mostly put underground, and the area above can’t have buildings put on it… so they’ve covered over with parks and garden’s instead. Why couldn’t they think to do that in cities in Australia ???

Hmm – bit overgrown looking when first come through the gate…

… but inside is nice and orderly.

Toying with Macro mode on the camera.

I know someone who could have a ton of fun on this !!!

Sight seeing – La Basilique du Sacré-Couer de Montmarte

(look Nic – spelled correctly this time…)

Sunday morning decided to go and see Sacre-Couer, as it was one of the places I hadn’t been before and fairly close by… just a brief Metro ride away.

Something I didn’t realize was that they had some French daredevil do some record breaking rollerblade jump there last night.. 54m apparently… which meant there was scaffolding etc. holding the jump getting in the way when trying to take photos. Oh well – next time – but still picturesque I reckon !!!

Playing with Miniature Mode on the camera again…

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… and this one is in Toy Camera mode.

Just pretend the scaffolding, tarps etc. aren’t there…

If this was Venice I’d be worried !!!

At least it’s not soul-less, modern plastic cars everywhere !!! Looked to be in pretty good shape too…

Soaking up the atmosphere en Paris

Sat evening went for a bit of a wander around the place… not a serious sight-seeing outing, but just to soak up the atmosphere.

Hotel Amarante Arc de Triomphe where I’m staying. My room is directly above the open window.

And a close-up of touch parking Paris style I actually saw a demo first hand where a little Renault didn’t have room to get out, so he bumped into and then physically pushed the van behind backwards to get out.

My corner Tobacconist

Such a gorgeous car… wouldn’t you think they could polish it ??? 😉 I’ve noticed that the nicer cars are always parked illegally on corners… presumably happy to risk a ticket to avoid the other bump parkers.

Arc de Triomphe… these cars are all doing 40+ km/h, so a still photo doesn’t quite capture the mayhem !!!

Big American Metal in Paris… but why can’t we get them in Australia !?!?

Le Tour Eiffel. Note the colour people.

Again… nice car… parked illegally on a corner. Think I’d still prefer the Bentley tho…