From Bastia we caught an early morning ferry back to Nice and the inevitable though not well anticipated, wanted end to our French adventure....the ferry was a lovely calm sail across the Mediterranean, of course the weather was typically gorgeous and we gained some colour languishing pool-side with cold drinks in hand! Arriving some 6 hours later in the harbour at Nice more beauteous coastline reared before us! Nice is without a doubt pretty, its pink cliffs lined with icing on the cake buildings of elaborate and ornate design present a larger than life picture. But just like icing Nice can seem too much, too sweet, too much trying to impress! Our Hotel was perhaps the grandest looking of our trip and whilst grateful for its easy access and multitudinous parking spaces we certainly enjoyed the humbler more rustic abodes of our stay a wee bit more! But we made the most of a day in Nice and walked the Promenade, took pictures of the glorious views and finally ate Gnocchi at a little Italian restaurant overlooking the sea.
Then, next day we made our slightly sobered way to the domestic airport for our flight back to Charles de Gaul Airport and the long haul home to Brisbane. We successfully returned our Trojan of a hire car and felt as if we had lost an important limb! Our plane was delayed, we sat in the stuffy domestic airport for too long and spirits sagged.....the domestic staff of Air France were brusque and matronly in their attitude and did nothing to appease this! In fact of all the time spent in France and of all the folk we begged for help with direction needs and of all the lovely hand signal part English, part French conversations we enjoyed, the Air France check in Lady was the only individual I did not feel at ease with! I am being kind, she was a bit of a b#@$ and was not impressed with the Etihad sticker still on my suitcase,the fact that we had not sorted our boarding passes via the too few available computers first or my peculiar brand of French!
At Charles de Gaul the plane was also delayed so after much waiting around we eventually began the trip home.....although France could so easily be home, sigh ...it was such a magical place for us overall and the people by and large were fantastic!! So many smiles go to the lady who drove in front of us to the Chalet at St Emilion, the waiter at la terrace on the Champs de Mars whose sense of humour made breakfast so much more, the guys at Hotel Splendid Tour de Eiffel and their warmth and patience with our small bit of French, the wonderful hosts at Ciboure and Algajola neither of whom spoke any English but all of whom we some how conversed with happily, and whose big raucous laughter I can still feel in a warm place in my belly, the very very helpful and vegetarian accommodating staff at the Le Muton Blanc Mont st Michel whose directions made getting to Carnac the easiest leg of our road trip, the reception staff at Biarritz and their broad smiles and the help with hiring a surf board and the lovely young guy who hired it to Mike every day and with whom we connected straight away, the Lovely lady from Beziers we met at Rodin's Musee, the man at Carcasonne who gave us unexpected 5am brekky and directions, the guys at the road stop who brought our Frites out because we were too stupid to wait for them... the taxi driver Lady who went so far out of her way to sort out the Hire car for us and help us carry our too much baggage...... and the list goes on and on .....! I officially love France and the very different but sensory pulling Corsica!
And now normal life.........Yamba is a gem sparkling and surrounded by a delightful amount of water.....but oh the predictable....first job rearrange the furniture ha ha !!!
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