Côte d'Azur and Provence

July has been a month of vacation for me so far. I learnt that right after Bastille Day, most Parisians flee the city for their annual summer vacation so being true to my Parisian self  (I've still got to work on looking effortlessly chic but that's a minor detail, I guess), I headed down to southern France to a wonderfully nice city: Nice. D and I had been to Nice many years back; we  loved the Mediterranean feel of the place and I thought it'd be a nice base for me to explore other nearby towns and villages from Nice.

(until I fix the messed-up html coding, please click on post title for more)

The weather was unbearably hot but alas, I'm not too much of a beach person! Unfortunately, growing up just 1 mile away from the beach and now living in sunny California haven't changed that at all, so instead of working on my tan, I spent the 5 days exploring the French Riviera and some parts of Provence. It's quite easy to get around the Riviera. From Nice, you can either go by bus, or take the train to nearby Antibes, Cannes (where I thought I saw George Clooney), VilleFranche, St Jean Cap Ferrat, Eze all the way to Monaco. You could, however, also try to avoid spending too much time researching the best spots  - just like lazy me, and join the one of those comfortable door-to-door service tours. I can't emphasize more on comfort here; for one, being in a fully air-conditioned vehicle while it's blazing hot outside is already worth the money. Having a professional tour guide who's so knowledgeable about the entire region and to throw on top of that, one that looks and even behaves like Anthony Bourdain doesn't hurt at all.

One of the reason I picked to be in Nice at this time was because of the Nice Jazz Fest,  the oldest running jazz fest in Europe. I was  psyched to watch Earth, Wind and Fire perform but the highlight of the night was meeting Vanessa. Who's Vanessa? Well, Vanessa is a fabulous woman with one of the most excitingly bold life stories I've ever heard. The jazz concert was an open-air-bring-your-own-blanket-to-sit-on, a little bit like Woodstock sort of festival. Vanessa and her husband were kind enough to offer me a seat on their blanket and that's how we met. Vanessa is an MD cum philanthropist cum savvy business person cum makeup artist cum real estate agent etc, etc, etc who has lived in many parts of the world, can just walk into any town or city, assesses the needs of that place and starts using her strengths (and her impressive list of skill sets) to contribute to the society. She has been on many international relief efforts - the most recent was to Haiti - and at the same time, operates her businesses in Brazil and Miami remotely from wherever she happens to be. Vanessa speaks French, German and English fluently and I bet she knows other languages, although I didn't have the chance to ask.  I was just intrigued by her accounts of her life and how she walked into a small, sleepy town right smack in the middle of America, bought a flailing business and completely turned it around. Her stories were truly inspiring and Vanessa gave me her secret to her success - do not fear. Even if things don't seem to be going the way you've planned, stay determined and charge on. Vanessa had friends visiting from Germany with her - Annette, whom I also had the privilege to meet. Annette shared how her husband persevered for 18 years to start the first and now one of the most successful media educational center in Germany, despite running out of funds and having to borrow to make ends meet on several occasions. He's now a multi-millionaire - I also met the husband later that evening and he seemed the most down-to-earth millionaire I've met. What an awesome and inspiring evening! And really, I thought the highlight of the evening would be for  EWF to perform "September"! Exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond what I could even imagine..........
Anyway, enough about my chance encounters. Let me share with you the other highlights of my trip:


Côte d'Azur & Provence July 2010 from Jencrafted on Vimeo.