Sunday, February 1, 2009

Soiree

            There are several small islands off the coast of Cannes that are worth a day trip.  For 9 Euros, you can visit the old jail cell where Louis XIV sent his twin brother who was nicknamed “The Man in the Iron Mask” (I need to see that movie again to refresh my memory).  An island just across from it has a gorgeous monastery where the monks make wine (strange combo, but I guess if you need the blood of Christ, why not make it yourself…).

Yesterday, for our last day in Cannes, we visited the monastery.  Walls and gorgeous vineyards surround the building.  The landscaping has everything from palm trees to cactuses to orange trees (I picked an orange – it wasn’t that good but I had to try it).  We also would climb through the paths in the woods and end up right on the shore, where the waves crashed against the rocks, giving me an irresistible urge to take too many pictures. From the shore we looked over and saw an old medieval tower, which we eventually made our way towards.  I couldn’t really understand the tour that I was snooping on, but it looked like some sort of watchtower and the view from the top was amazing.

Locals had told us to try a glass of wine.  They swore it was worth the 7 Euros and I was willing to pay for some fine, monk-made wine.  For some reason the guy wouldn’t serve it to us because they were closing in a half hour (but for some reason we were allowed to order food so I don’t know how long the French typically take to drink a glass of wine).

We caught the last boat back at 5:00 and since we were starved, stopped for some pizza while we were in town (the pork in the dining hall just didn’t sound too appetizing for our last meal).  I did get a glass of wine, however, and that was definitely worth it.  To finish off our Italian meal in France, we grabbed some gelato and headed home to get ready for our last big night out.  We went to an Irish pub where every Friday is Karaoke.  How could I be disappointed?