cannes and le verdon (provence), france

we headed next to the riviera, cannes and the mountainous region called le verdon,in provence, north of cannes. i'll pick up on that later...done for now. here's where i left off..

we left remoulins to make our way to cannes. originally we were going to stay in nice, some of my friends had been there and loved it, but we couldn'
t find reasonable accommodations. so as we widened our search we found what seemed like a great guest house in cannes. we were not familiar with the area, other than what we've heard about the film festival, but it looked like a good location, and was on the Mediterranean, so...why not. we arrived about mid afternoon, and soon found our place. it really is a beautiful old, big house turned into guest quarters. very nice, not far from the beach..but kind of a strange neighbourhood. surrounded by a lot of modern apartment buildings and on a street that was a major route to somewhere...in the evening we heard a lot of cars and motorbikes make their way up the street next to us,,,there was a sign that pointed to "super cannes"...whatever that was, i didn't check that out yet. we weren't there much, so it didn't really matter.
we went down towards the sea after we settled in, by foot a 20 min walk through the city. and it is a city, not a quaint village. during our walk it kept getting denser and more commercial as we headed towards the fabled croisette, the beach and boulevard at the sea. when we finally arrived we were not exactly thrilled. noisy, crowded,luxury's shops and hotels, traffic. not exactly the peacefulness we were used to. i guess it was ok for a medium large city by the sea, but after some days where the only sounds we heard were cicadas, it was a little jarring. i was slowly morphing away from the city vibe. we took in the beach, got a sandwich and split back to our place.
we consulted our maps and decided to take a ride north, into the hills and mountains around grasse, which is the perfume center of france, and therefore i would say the world. the french make the best colognes and perfumes, i have a cabinet full of them, i'm a huge fan. as it was late afternoon, the tours of the perfumeries had closed, so we kept heading north. soon we were in the kind of country we like, winding mountain roads, small villages every 10km or so. we had to take a detour off the route Napoleon we are on , there was a festival going on in one of the towns. after deciding to continue, we were soon very high up in the mountains.after exploring the back roads and catching the sunset from on high, we came across a village, st valliers du theiy, and stopped for dinner. there were several choices, all looked good, but we opted for one with outdoor seating. next to a big green meadow, and looking up at mountains. it was very quiet and serene, as we ate our dinner...except for the little dutch kids with their parents, running around as bored kids are wont to do. did i tell you the dutch were everywhere? literally, there wasn't a town, or highway where we didn't see a car with nl plates, usually trailering a camper of some sort. after dinner is was completely dark, and it gets dark late there, 10pm or so...so we headed back to cannes and sleep. before going to bed we checked out the maps and decided we would go back in the general direction, only more east and see some lakes in the area.
the next morning we awoke to crisp sunshine, pure blue skies and great weather..as usual. we so lucked out on weather, we did not have one cloudy or rainy day in the two weeks we were on the road. after breakfast, we headed out to the mountains again. these areas, or departments (similar to parishes or counties)are part Provence, part alpes maritimes, part var...officially known as "Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur (P.A.C.A.), check out this link and map
...http://www.provenceweb.fr/cartes/ukindex.
we headed toward lac st croix, the largest of the verdon lakes in north var. http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/groupes/verdon/lac3.htm
driving through the countryside we again slowly rose in elevation and arrived at lac de Saint-Cassien. we stopped along the shore at a roadside stand and truck, the truck was selling snacks amercaine..hot dogs, fries, and such, and the stand had fresh fruit, vegetables and tiny saucisson. we bought some peaches, plums and suasages for the ride. the plums were out of this world, literally bursting with juice, running down our faces...so good. continuing on, with the top down and the sun beating down upon us, we enjoyed the scenery as we climbed ever higher. the light in Europe in general is remarkable. i don't know if it was because it was new to my eyes, but everything was just so crisp and clear.look at the photos and see if you agree.
eventually we were very high up and came across a small village,baudinard sur verdon. we almost drove past, but as we got to the end of town, we noticed a overlook parking area. we stopped and figured this would be a good place for lunch. there was a cafe/restaurant adjacent to the overlook where we had coffee after our alfresco lunch. we saw that we were only a few kilometers away from lac st croix, and we soon drove over a hill where the lake revealed itself to us. driving along the road that followed the contour of the lake, it was hard to keep my eyes on the road, it was so beautiful. we came to a parking area where we stopped and took some pictures, and scouted out a place to swim. we drove a few more kilometers and came upon a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road, so we figured this would be a good spot. there was no formal beach where we entered the lake shore, just small areas along the shore where people dropped their towels and swam. which is exactly what we did. it was a pretty hot day, and just about 2pm so the water was just what we needed. we hung out there for a few hours, pretty much by ourselves enjoying this impossibly gorgeous scene.
afterwards we stopped in the next seaside town, bauduen, and got some cold water and ice cream. we then set out to make our way back to cannes in the golden afternoon light, taking our time as we descended the hills, stopping at any and all overlooks to take in the countryside. it was one of our best days out and we savored every moment.
arriving back in cannes about 8pm, we were hungry but didn't want to go out, so we got some Chinese food and ate it at the hotel in the garden. Chinese food in Europe was not very good..we also had some in freiburg. they are very timid with the spices and seasoning...don't do it! the next day we were going to leave for italy..our next stop would be reggio nell emilia, just past parma and just before modena...looking forward to eating in italy!