Home Again, Home Again......
Posted by adesigninmotion on Monday, December 7th, 2009
Not only was our Thanksgiving routine different for us this year, so were our plans. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed to BWI with bags in tow to visit Monte Carlo, Monico and southern France. We were first timers, new passports in hand (with decent pictures) and curious to see what the fuss was all about.
As the trip was sponsored by one of our company's distributors, we lacked for nothing in the way of creature comforts and were surrounded by friends from the states and friends that we developed along the way.
We took tours of castles, winery’s and perfume factories. We took a walking tour of Monte Carlo followed by a bus ride to Monaco (or the "Rock" as they call it) and visited the Chapel where all of the members of the Royal Family have been buried. The taxi cabs were all Mercedes and there were numerous Bentley’s, Rolls Royce’s, Lamborghinis and Ferrari’s in the parking lot. The highways were crammed with "Smart Cars" and smaller versions of the cars that we see here in the states. No one in Europe is shy when it comes to driving. I was biting my nails on several occasions has our tour bus driver turned in front of speeding cars and nearly sideswiped large trucks.
We ate breakfast every morning overlooking the Mediteranean and had beautiful weather 90% of the time. The most fun was exploring on our own in the little bit of free time that we had. Alas, I came across a lot of French fashion but no fabric shops.
We were able to visit the famous Monte Carlo Casino - tickets, passport and photo ID required as the citizens of Monoco are forbidden to gamble. As the country is so small, that was probably a very good plan to put into place.
The French, despite their grumpy reputation, were more than hospitable and kind. What a wonderful experience - especially as British Airways pilots had a "thing" about leaving the airport early - nearly causing us to miss our flight out of Heathrow Airport. We arrived home in one peace, completely exhausted and luggage in hand.
After three hours of ironing this morning, chores and all day putting up the Christmas trees, it is now time to either take a nap or get back to business. I'll let you know later which won out : )
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