Thursday, 3 June 2010

Monegasque bank holidays and national parks

Today, Monaco very kindly declared a bank holiday to mark my dad's birthday, so I have been temporarily freed from the world of employment. Which is nice.

Rather than do what we usually do and waste our days off lying in the sun drinking coffee and beer, we decided to go somewhere. After lots of looking at bus timetables and realising we were limited in where we could go, we decided to go up to the Plateau de la Justice, up in the mountains behind Eze, and look round the national park up there. Since we hadn't planned this very much in advance (read: at all) we didn't have a picnic lunch with us. Which is a shame, since the park is perfect for picnics, and we will have to go back to take advantage of this fact.

We went back down to Eze to get some lunch (their supermarket sells sushi! And quinoa salad! I feel our Casino is letting us down a bit, now...) and ate in the church courtyard. Eze was, predictably, packed full of tourists. Our plan was to go into the gardens, since it was cloudy last time we went there, but as we were eating lunch, it clouded over a bit, and we decided to leave it til next time. There's no point going somewhere you're only going to go once when the weather's a bit off - it's not like we don't have months of guaranteed sunshine coming up, after all.

So, some photos...
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This hotel is stunningly pretty - I'm going to stay here one day, if it's not too expensive!:
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9 comments:

  1. You got a couple nice shots of bono's chateau. If he still owns it.

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  2. I wondered who owned it. If I win the lottery, I'm going to stay in that hotel on the side of the mountain, the Chevre d'Or - it looks stunning, and it must have incredible views.

    Every time I think things like this, I then look out the window and realise I do too. So maybe I wouldn't stay there if I won the lottery. Maybe I'd buy this house...

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  3. Do you have a clue how lucky your are to be living in what appears to be paradise? Close to sea; within striking distance of the mountains?

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  4. so lucky to have a holiday today! Even luckier to have lots of lovely places to visit nearby!

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  5. Actually, I was thinking exactly that while we were walking to the bus stop to go home Heidemarie. So you can no doubt expect misery in equal proportions when I have to move back to the UK...

    And yes, May is good for bank holidays - it's even nicer when the Monegasque and French holidays don't match up, because it means we can go places and things are still open here. Always a bonus!

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  6. But, but . . . I thought that was based on you're not finding work! And you are working now, right?

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  7. Temping. It's not enough to keep me here, sadly.

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  8. No say it aint so? It will be weird if you are gone by the time I move there. You'll be coming to my blog and looking at pictures being jealous. :)

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  9. Well, something might come up. I might win the lottery. Someone I know might win the lottery. I might discover an inheritance somewhere from a relative previously unknown to me. Who knows?

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