A Duck Walks Into a Pub: Day 20, 21, & 22: Pisa and The French Riviera

After a week long stint in Italy we were on our way back into France and not being sure that what you are trying to order is actually what you are going to get when your food comes out. An hour outside of Florence we stopped in Pisa which is of course famous for only one thing, displaying how poorly Italian engineering is. After a walk through the largest baptistry in Europe and the nearby Duomo (cathedral) where Galileo used to perform his experiments on gravity, we made our way to the best vantage point for our cheesy, tourist photos of holding up the leaning tower.

We then hopped back on the bus for the rest of our trek to the southern coast of France. Home to summer houses of the rich and famous for hundreds of years it is easy to see why Europeans have been flocking here for so long. With rolling hills and cliffs butting up to the Mediterranean sea, every curve on the bus was another breathtaking view. For a brief 5 minutes we were even inside the tiny nation of Monaco, overlooking the world famous Monte Carlo Casino and multimillion dollar yachts lined up one after another in the harbor.

We continued onward to another small town where we toured a perfume factory and learned about the processes required just to make a small amount of the world renowned French aromas. Finally after another 45 minute drive from there we had passed through Nice and were staying in a small beach town just west of Cannes, where the famous film festival was just wrapping up. After a delicious Sunday dinner of McDonald's (don't judge, it was the only thing open), we walked 20 minutes to one of the nearby beaches located next to a chateau with the appearance of a castle at night to scope out the scenery.

The next morning we visited the grocery store in anticipation of an all day siting in the sun, not walking anywhere, day. After picking up a bottle or two of dirt cheap champagne, we hopped on the bus to take us to some of the more popular beaches. Little did we know that after 3 or 4 tries to get there on roads that our bus couldnt fit on that it probably would have been faster to walk. No worries though because it was definitely worth the wait. With white sand, sapphire blue water, and a ridge jutting out into the ocean in view the day couldn't get any better. After a dip in the refreshingly cold water, we proceeded to sit and do nothing for several hours, perhaps for too many hours because after the walk back to the hotel it was apparent that this was one of those sunburns that you tend to remember. Most of the group was headed to Monaco for a dinner and casino night, but the price was pretty steep for the rest of us, so instead we aloed up with some lotion that supposedly had aloe in it and passed out for the rest of the evening. This was until one of the Texas crew, Zach, had to leave to catch a plane back to the States for his brother's wedding. The trip won't be the same without him.

After two days outside of Nice, we were now headed farther west and inland to the city of Nimes, where the original cotton cloth for jeans came from (de Nimes = denim). However, along the way we stopped in Avignon where the Papal seat was located for most of the 14th century when there were hard times for the Church in Rome. After a tour of the Pope's palace and chapel and we had a look at part of another old bridge built in the 1300s.

We were back on the bus for another few hours before another stop just outside of Nimes at the Pont du Gard. It is a very significant spot, at least according to engineers like me because it was part of a 30 mile long aqueduct built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago to carry water to Nimes from a reservoir. Along this 30 mile stretch there is only a 50 foot drop in elevation, which equates to about a 0.03% slope along the whole length, mind blowing even by today's standards (contractors can barely handle 1% slopes without screwing up back home). Anyways even without all of that technical stuff, the aqueduct at this point has to cross a deep river valley and the 3 sets of arches on top of one another rise 160 feet in the air. It is the 2nd tallest thing the Romans built and another thing that today we couldn't accomplish without computers and heavy machinery.

We finally made it to our Best Western hotel with huge rooms on the outskirts of Nimes and most of us stayed behind to rest and chill by the pool while a small group went into town to visit the Roman ampitheater that resembles the Colosseum on a smaller scale and another Roman temple (picture swapping will definitely be happening at the end of the trip). We ended the night early in preparation for a long drive to Spain and a 3 day stay in Barcelona where supposedly the city never stops partying.

Adios! (so ready to use my high school level Spanish),

Josh