Grace Kelly

Friday, we (2 Chinese, a Japanese, an Austrian, a Czech, a Moroccan and myself) organized a little international picnic. We had planned to go to the park but decided that was a little far to carry all the food, so we ended up having it on the stairway landing on my floor! The food was delicious and we had such a variety! Homemade sushi, mushroom soup, Moroccan tea... and of course pancakes with maple syrup (my contribution). So good!

Saturday I went to Monaco. I went with the same group that organized the trip to Saint Tropez. It was much prettier than I expected - some great modern architecture, huge yachts and clear blue water! Super clean too. We went to the palace and saw the guards change over just before noon which was cool! Then we ate some lunch (leftover pancakes) and went to the Oceanography Museum (we wanted to go to the palace as well but we only had time to do one or the other). They had tons of different kinds of colorful fish. Then we had to get back on the bus to head to Monte Carlo. Once there we headed to the Casino. We had to check our bags before entering but the building was really beautiful. Unfortunately we couldn't enter the ACTUAL gambling area (well we could have, but it would have cost us 10 euro... no thanks!) which was too bad because I would have liked to see that. Almost more amazing were the cars parked outside. Now I don't know much about cars but I saw some names I recognized: Ferrari, Mercedes, Bentley... it was pretty fancy! Then we walked down the equivalent of Rodeo Drive called Avenue des Beaux Arts. Nothing we could even come close to affording obviously but it's fun to look! Then we spent some time in the park (so many pretty fountains!) and before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus. On the way back we drove through Nice - we didn't get to go outside but I definitely want to go back there in the Spring. All in all Monaco was really luxurious and fancy, definitely worth spending a day in just to see it. It was especially cool to see the Casino since I'd heard so much about it.

Coming up: the villages of Luberon next weekend, Strasbourg in 11 days and Barcelona in less than a month (just paid my deposit this week). Looking forward to it all!