Day 45 – Cannes & Tour to Monaco – July 5th, 2015

After three long days in the past four days, Judi’s back and hips gave up and she needed a rest day, so I headed out on tour on my own. Today’s tour was brilliant, one of the best, if not the best so far on this 2015 World Cruise. This post will cover the departure from Cannes and the return back to the ship from Monaco. Due to the number of photographs taken (> 300)I struggled to cull them down to about 30, so I created four posts for this exceptional tour of the playground of the rich and famous.

Cannes

Home to the annual Cannes Film Festival, it is located on the French Riviera, and is one of many exclusive resort towns for the rich and famous over a well developed stretch of coastline from St Tropez to Monaco. A small fishing village was the first settlement in the 2nd century BC. After various battles for control, Cannes was eventually controlled by monks for many years, until they relinquished control in 1530, at which time it became independent. In the 1800’s, a British Baron, Henry Brougham purchased land, due to the pleasant year round climate, building a stately winter home. Numerous other members of the British Aristocracy followed, purchasing land and building winter residences. In the 20th century, with the construction of luxury hotels, the winter tourist season expanded to year round tourism. Cannes is home to numerous mega yachts and a plethora of the world’s rich and famous, especially those attending the annual film festival.

Although home to the rich and famous, Cannes unfortunately does not have a cruise ship harbour, so Sea Princess anchored off-shore, requiring about a 10 minute tender ride to reach the shore. Again the tour department excelled with their organisation, as we were whisked from the Theatre directly down to the gangway and a waiting tender. On reaching the shore we immediately boarded the bus and were off to find Monaco.

On departing the port we drove along the waterfront alongside the huge marina in the harbour. The front street is lined with palm trees and had a selection of shops, cafes and restaurants on the opposite side.

Huge marina with hundreds of boats, but this harbour only accepts regular yachts, up to multi-millionaires. The Billionaire yachts are in a separate harbour, to which I can only assume the Billionaire Club is rather exclusive and they don’t mix with the common millionaires. Laughing out loud

Although seen from the water, this is the building that houses the Cannes Film Festival.

Taken as the bus zoomed by, this is the red carpet used by the stars at the Film Festival. Well actually it is really only red paint on the stairs, the carpet gets lifted when not in use.

Shortly after passing the Film Festival building we turned inland, heading through Cannes and uphill towards the coastal motorway. This is an example of the streets throughout downtown Cannes.

Clean, reasonably wide tree lined streets through Cannes, as we headed uphill to the motorway. Once on the motorway we quickly headed along the back of the coastal mountains. No motorway taking up valuable water view land on the French Riviera.

Coming down into the valley approaching Nice, we zoomed past this interesting looking hotel or apartment complex.

The motorway by-passes around the back of Nice, passing the football stadium. This of course is my type of football played with a round ball kicked by the feet. This stadium was probably built for the last World Cup held in France. The distance from Cannes to Monaco is about 50 miles and the entire journey along the motorway was through built-up areas, behind the coastal mountains. Heading into Monaco we took the road over the top of the mountain, descending into Monaco along a steep and winding road, on which Princess Grace was tragically killed in a car accident in 1982.

On departing the Royal Palace we left Monaco via the extensive tunnels through the mountains. We entered the tunnel down at the harbour level and drove uphill for almost 15 minutes before exiting the tunnel at the top of the mountain just before the motorway toll plaza. The tunnels are extensive and even have a series of roundabouts for roads that join.

Heading back to Cannes, having just cleared the motorway toll plaza. The mountain behind is inland of the coastal range, but is still well developed. After over an hour we returned to the port shortly after the time posted for the last tender. However, being on a Princess Tour, it didn’t matter what time we returned, as the ship would wait.