Visiting Fontvielle, Monaco, Dreamin of France Meme .....

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us.


Other than going to the Grand Prix ,

we wanted to fit in as much

as possible , seeing the fabulous

areas in Monaco.

 

Linda and I walked

alot on our own, venturing to

new things each day , time permitting.

 

This day we went to

 

Port Fontvieille
Monaco



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Only fifty years ago Fontvieille was nothing
 more than a narrow stretch of sand where the rock plunged into the sea

 

We took a peek at the

The Museum of Stamps and Coins of Monaco

 

A

walk round the port ,,

the little boats you can see are the boats that

take the guests to the private yachts , there is no other way!!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the other side to the sundial and it says

Cadran Solaire De Fontvielle ,,

 

I cannot find a link for it .. I will keep looking.

 

 

 

 

They have lots of statues around this area , so more to come!!



My Birthday ...

What a day it has been ...

 

Big thank you to everyone for their

birthday wishes ♥

 

Cards and pictures made by Olivia (and from Amelia) ♥

We love you Nanny mug with fun photos - Olivia and Amelia.

Lovely heart from Aidan ..♥

 

and the postcard from Cupar :-) Aidan is from there.

 

A lovely plate painted and decorated by Lily (from Thomas too)

 

Café and croissant with Sarah ♥

Beautiful angel from Sarah

 

and the dragonfly 

 

Beautiful cards from everyone .

 

and scarf ♥

 

and the surprise relaxing pj bottoms

from my bruv!! and on time LOL

 

(look the Eiffel Tower)!!

 

 

 

and I had my great super trip to Monaco

and off to Paris soon ..thoroughly spoilt.

(Euros from my eldest son and wife too and money towards my next trip)

♥♥♥

 

BIG BIG Thank you to all. ♥♥♥

My finished painted bowl ....

Remember this ..

 

 

Ceramics ... My next piece of work

 

here is the finished bowl,

all painted and fired ♥

 

 

♥♥♥♥♥

I know I am meant to be doing our trip
I will get it done, but with grandchildren coming
helping my friend , finding it hard to concentrate
with my blog , our holiday seems such a long
time ago and when I look at the photos,
I long to be back there..

You will see the photos ♥
 

 



The first night in Nice ..

We were staying in Carros ,

which is about 10kms

from Nice , so a little far out

but as we were on a Tour with

an excellent Tour Manager

it was not a problem.

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The hotel we stayed at was brilliant and the
staff were really good , friendly and helpful,

 

The company we used to travel with

have used this place before and they know the staff.

 

After arriving there at between 7 and 8 pm ,,

and travelling all day  from Chaumont,



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we were given the choice

of staying in the hotel and sorting ourselves out

or going into Nice and getting picked up at 11.30 pm ..

 

What do you think we did???

 

 

Of course we went to Nice !!!,

We went to Nice Flower Market

Cours Seleya.

which is
Flowers by day and restaurants by Night!!

 

We didn't sample the fabulous Seafood dish

but doesn't it look tasty??

 

Linda unfortunately doesn't like fish but it's fine

I got to try some later in the week .

 

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Whose for Nougat??

As we were making our way down to

Chaumont, for our overnight stop,

we took a break at the delightful services!!

(I mean that sincerely not in a sarcastic way)

We stopped at one that had the most fabulous shop

 it was filled with NOUGAT , bags of it , slabs of it,

all delightful flavours too!!

 

 

 

 

Chabert & Guillot

 

 

 

The words  "nougat" and Montélimar have gone together

since the end of the 17th century, when the first almonds were

introduced in the region by Olivier de Serre, some years earlier.
 

Nougat has always been made with honey, almonds and spices and in  the 17th century Provence became the only place to make it,  also  during this time Olivier de Serres planted the first almond trees near Montélimar, and they started adding the nut to the recipe.

Have you read or heard about the 13 desserts (Nougat being one of them)

of Christmas in the Provence??

 

Can you imagine it at all!!

 

 

The history of Diane de Poytiers can be found on here

, it is a very interesting read.

 

 

Love the tin , there were lots more designs but this one caught my eye.

 

 

I have been reading about Montelimar since I got back and

I WANT to go ,, my list is getting longer and longer ..

 

(I must take the date thing off my camera!!!)

Sorry there is not much write up, I did a

post earlier and blogger decided not to play!!

 

♥♥♥♥♥

 

 

 



The start of our adventure to Monaco.

 

 

On Tuesday 21st May ,

Linda and I, left my mother-in-laws house in

North London at 05.40 to make our way

 

 

to Victoria Coach station to catch our coach

to Nice.

 

 

We arrived at 06.30am  ready to board at 07.30

after starting the day with a Cafe and Apricot croissant!

The coach was taking us from London to Dover
to catch the ferry to Calais!

 

Linda and I were going to the Monaco Grand Prix

Linda's first grand prix and my first to Monaco, we

were so excited.

 

 

 

 

I booked this trip with Select Motor Racing,

which is owned and run by Kevin.

I had not used this company before
but WE WILL be using them again. 

I did have a recommendation

which is great.

  

Along with Kevin , there was Louise and Darren (our driver)

who were both brilliant too.

 

Select Motor Racing is

 

Run by Fans for Fans

 

and they look after their clients

just like they would like to be looked after

on a tour ... Not just taken from A to B !!!

 

We were looked after from start to finish, 

 nothing was too much trouble!!

 

Here is a map of a route ...

 

=

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After leaving the ferry  at Calais ,
we made our way to Chaumont, where we were
making an overnight stop , with a 3 course dinner , wine and sleep !!
We stayed at  the Hotel Le Grand Val, who were very friendly,
we also stayed here on the return trip!!

 

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I have never been on such a long coach journey ,

and to be honest , it was not bad, We had

quite a few leg stretch stops, lunch stops and then the

overnight stop , and with such good company,

I really enjoyed it (and so did Linda)

My trip with Linda to the Monaco Grandprix 2013 ...

 

 Waiting for the train from Nice St Augustin

into Monaco on the first day,

 

 

 

Motor Racing

Ooh La La

Nice

Awesome

Cars Cars Cars

Oui Oui Oui

 

YOU have to go!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

I have lots and lots of photos so I think will be posting for a while !