Old public building in Haut de Cagnes

Sweet and well cared for cat sits in an old fountain in the early morning

Beautiful home covered in bougainvillea

Alice and Randy at top of Castle Grimaldi with the Med in the background

Roofs of Haut de Cagnes from the top of the castle

French flag flying at the castle top

The technical wonder of the automatic parking garage carved into the mountain

Our Mercedes pops out of the mountain ready for our use

Randy with a French brewski at our picnic at the Grande Corniche park

More old buildings of Haut de Cagnes

View from the park across to Nice

Close up of the famous village Eze from the park - note that Eze is renowned for being up high and we are way higher than it!

Our hippo friend at the zoo turned over - see feet to left

Randy and Alice walking up to the Monaco "Rock"

Alice at top of the "Rock"

The best fish soup on the planet - served with garlic mayonnaise and toasted bread and grated Gruyere cheese

Alice and the soup - a very happy moment

Le Manoir, Haut de Cagnes - you must eat here!

Doorway at night to our village home, Le Refuge, owned by Willy-Maria

Finishing breakfast in our hide away in Haut de Cagnes.   You must go to this village!!  See the pictures to help convince you.  Once you learn how to navigate the logistics it is the most amazing and unusual place.  It is kind of like living in the 14th century but only in a good way.

Yesterday, we saw the Grimaldi castle museum here in town - it is a three story structure with three museums in it - an olive museum, dedicated to all things olive, a Suzy Solidor portrait museum (about 40 portraits by various artists - many famous - of this 1930's gay cabaret singer) and the collection from the Renoir house museum which is currently closed for renovation.  There were also splendid renaissance rooms and wonderful views from the tower top.  We then went into the renaissance church next door which was somber and dark and very mood evocative.

We retrieved our car magically from the mountain parking (it pops out from inside the mountain), went to the town below and got euros, water, French beer and a lot of French wine (very good prices in the supermarket).  We headed in the direction of Monaco but first went along the Grande Corniche, the highest of the roads along the coast above Nice and Monaco.  We randomly found a national park (or local park) at the highest point and ate the leftovers from breakfast along with beer (for Randy) and red wine from Bordeaux (for Alice).  The views were magnificent and the weather could not be improved upon.  Plus there were few people there and probably all locals as no guide book has this park listed - a loss because it is free and offers easy parking (maybe the only easy parking in all of France) and with views to die for.
We then followed the signs to Monaco (Clive was severely challenged in Monaco and in Cagnes sur Mer - the lower town from where we were staying) with the aim to go to the small zoo.  We actually found a parking garage without too much difficulty near the heliport (the Ecoles Parking) and walked to the zoo, about 20 minutes away.  The zoo was fine - not  a lot of animals but in a nice seaside/hillside setting and not many people.  Our favorite was the hippo who loved turning over in his pool.

We then walked up "The Rock" and took the palace tour.  This was a very well done and we enjoyed it a lot.  We got to see about a dozen of the castle rooms and the commentary on the audio set was excellent.  We bought souvenirs at a shop across where the prices were actually not bad and they had a nice assortment of quality goods (along with the typical tourist junk).  Then, we walked through the glorious gardens at the point of The Rock and saw the outside of the cathedral and walked down.

We could not find our parking garage (they are all underground and not well marked) and walked a good deal longer than we needed to, but a friendly Monegasque police officer pointed the way to us.  After figuring out how to actually pay for parking (a machine not at the exit but inside the lot), we left.  This was where the worst part of our trip occurred.  The road ran out into a one way (not at an intersection) so we had to turn left which was underground.  Thinking this was another underground road (Monaco has many) we turned in.  Big mistake.  It was a private parking garage that we not only got lost in but trapped in.  After several exceeding tight turn arounds (with Alice outside the car directing and Randy turning the wheel with all his might) we got to the locked door.  We pressed a red button which summoned an angry security guard and he opened the door and let us out.  The only good part is that we got to see a wealth (literally) of cars we could only dream about.  This was true throughout our visit to Monaco - although we were driving a small Mercedes, we were really peasants compared to the vehicles driving and parked around.
We kicked in Clive and got on the road to Nice (in rush hour) and after a few false starts in Cagnes sur Mer (Clive took us on an unexplained loop within the town in rush hour traffic) we arrived at our mountain parking.  (OK - actually Randy was pulled over by a French police officer in Cagnes sur Mer for running a red light but he took one look at Randy's Alabama driving license and said "Well, be careful in France."  He also apologized for his poor English. How nice!)



After much needed liquid refreshment and cleaning up in our airy room we ventured out to the village around 9:30 PM for dinner.  I checked all the menus (which are posted outside) and chose the one three doors from our house, Le Manoir.  It was simply wonderful.  Only one other couple was there and the food was awesome and traditional.  The waiter, who I think ran the restaurant with his wife, spoke almost no English and was truly weird but we had fish soup (see photos) which was the best thing I have eaten on this trip (and as you know I have eaten a lot of spectacular food) followed by French style lasagna (for Randy) and sauteed big shrimp in Pastis (for Alice).  We drank a bottle of local white wine and ended with ice cream with liquor (for Randy) and a cheese plate (for Alice).  Randy immediately when to bed when we stumbled back home in our darkened medieval street (see photo) and Alice completed the work needed to be done at the office by internet (it never stops).

With a few mishaps, we have truly enjoyed our stay at Haut de Cagnes.