On to Cannes (May 11|12)

We took a cab from the hotel to the train station to hop on the train to Cannes. Cab fairs are a little interesting... There is the basic pickup fair and the mileage charges, but at pick up, there are also subsidise for pretty much everything - bags, extra passengers, etc. - to the point where we were at 6 euros by the time we got in the cab. We spent the majority of the ride chatting with Brad, a nice Canadian guy from Halifax who is currently living in Nimes playing NFL style football. Upon arrival in Cannes we headed for the ticket office to buy our next set of tickets to Nice (near the airport), then made our way to our way to our next hotel -le Cavendish. The front receptionist was great and spoke flawless English which is helpful, although not necessary as Alaina has been doing fantastically well with her French, and Jeff is muddling through. While not quite on the level of the previous hotel, the rooms are quite nice and spacious, although the AC doesn't work overly well so the room is warm at night. Probably our favorite thing about the hotel (in addition to the staff and the great location) is that from 6-9 there is an open, serve yourself bar at which the staff bring by a selection of olives, cheeses, and cured meats.

We did a little Googling and found a highly rated Sushi restaurant near by so we walked down for some great sushi on a quiet little patio. Alaina is still craving more of their gyoza 2 days later. After supper we walked along the main road by the beach for a while before making our way back to the hotel.

We got up the next day to another beautiful clear and warm day. After checking the weather forecast and discovering rain in the next couple days, we decided to make the most of the great weather (29 degrees and sunny) and booked a couple lounge chairs on one of the private beaches. We spent the day there, eating at the beach's restaurant (a fisherman's salad, and grilled prawns with a bottle of rosè), and soaking up the sun. (The most impressive part of the day probably has to be that Alaina was chasing off the few pigeons that kept wandering next to her chair with out any screaming or flailing at all!)

We made our way back to the hotel around 7 for a shower and to grab a drink before heading back out to find somewhere to eat. We picked one of the smaller places just outside of the main restaurant area at random and ended up having a great tomato and mozza salad and a great rabbit and sea food paella along with a bottle of rosè. Lured by the sounds of drumming, we stumbled across a group of acrobatic street performers. Alaina even became an assistant when she went up to tip the performers. We picked up couple macaroons for the walk before heading back to the hotel.