Yep – you read that correctly. We are walking to Monaco. Not actually all the way from Villefranche, but that is where we will tender ashore. Our plans are to take the train a few stops, then walk the seafront promenade into Monaco. And, yes, before you say it, we are crazy. We know that.
Up and out, we are on the first tender and heading to the Villefranche train station in no time. Unfortunately, our past experience defeats us – we know exactly where we are going, so we completely miss the huge (and I mean HUGE) sign on the waterfront that says the shoreside access to the train station is closed due to construction. We get all the way down there only to find the stairway blocked. Climbing up some nearby stairs, we can actually see the train station….behind a locked gate. Damn. This is why we would never, ever do (or win) Amazing Race!
Back up the waterfront we go to the HUGE sign, then up the stairs to the access road that leads to the station. Eh, maybe we missed a train, maybe not. We’re in no hurry, so not really a problem, just annoying. Bonus though at the station – there are real live train employees there selling us the tickets! Yippee. We don’t have to deal with those totally annoying ticket machines. We purchase our tickets to the Cap d’Ail station, where we can begin the seaside promenade walk, but I make the tactical error of buying roundtrip tickets. I was thinking about coming back from Monaco and not having to worry about the tickets, but wasn’t thinking that these tickets are only for Cap d’Ail – not all the way to Monaco. Oops. We’ll figure that out when the time comes.
The train arrives and we hop – in a manner of speaking – on. This particular train is packed – as in India up close and personal slam-packed. We literally have to shove our way on and then are smashed up against people so tight we don’t need to hold on to any hand rail. Fortunately we only have to ride 3 stops – or 2? We thought it was 3, but the station announcement for Cap d’Ail comes on after the 1st stop. Huh? Well, not wanting to mess up, we get off at what turns out to be the stop for Plague de Eze – not at all what we wanted. We can’t even start the walk from here – and even if we could it would add 3 miles and an hour to our hike. Nope. Sigh. But you can see Eze up on the hill in the distance. There is that.
Fortunately, another train arrives quite quickly – and this one was virtually empty! What’s with that? We walked right on, stood all alone at the doorway, then hopped off at the correct Cap d’Ail stop to begin our 4+ mile walk to Monaco. It is an absolutely gorgeous day to be walking along this seaside Promenade. Beautiful views across the sea, lovely little towns along the way, cool rock outcroppings, a Winston Churchill statue, commemorating his title as Honorary Mayor of Cap d’Ail from 1951 to 1955.
Such a wonderful respite from touring and museums and people. This was a great way to spend a day doing something we love. Once into Monaco – you literally cross the street to leave France and enter Monaco – we wander along the little harbor, heading into the Princess Grace rose garden, which provided for a pleasant walk through the roses and little lagoon with all the ducks and turtles.
Exiting the garden, we follow the water, heading toward the Port de Fontvieille marina, looking for food. It is still pretty early for lunch, though, so we settle for 2 excellent cappuccino at Graziella, a little restaurant on the harbor. After our caffeine fix, we continued around the marina, enjoying all the boats and yachts docked there – but deciding we didn’t want to eat at any of these restaurants – they were either American or Italian (including Pizza).
We thought about tackling the steep hill up to Monaco proper, but in reviewing the map saw that the train station was even further inland and uphill, and really, do we want expensive French food? Nah, you know what? It is a gorgeous day, we saw picnic benches back there on the seaside walk – we’ll picnic and then walk back to Cap d’Ail! Why not? Luckily there is a Carrefour at the end of the marina where we got these amazing sandwiches, one of which was a hot chicken panini, grabbed a coke and headed back to the waterfront. Not finding many suitable picnic benches within the first 10 minutes or so, we took a risk and sat at the marina side patio tables of an unopened restaurant to eat our sandwiches. So fun!
Lunch handled, we continued our roundtrip walk, back around the craggy rock cliffs, past the Cap d’Ail fountain, through the little tunnels, eventually heading up the steep stairs to the Cap d’Ail train station. 9 miles roundtrip! Perfect Cathy & Ed day.
Turns out Yulia, our lovely Pinnacle restaurant hostess was on the same train as we were, so the 3 of us walk back to the tender pier together trading stories about our day and chatting in general. It is still early when we are back aboard, giving us time for the gym before our “suite” cocktail “minute” – literally 15 minutes in the Crow’s Nest. But it was perfect for us, we sipped our beverages, snacked just a little bit (so we didn’t overdo it for our CellarMaster dinner) and talked the entire time to the Guest Relations manager and the Public Health Officer who were both so nice.
From the cocktail “minute,” we walked over to Cannaletto for a perfect window table to watch our sail out of Villefranche while enjoying our CellarMaster dinner. Just as good as an Azamara Chef’s table, we had a totally excellent 5 course meal with Lobster salad (a whole lobster tail on top of a salad), pumpkin and butternut stuffed ravioli, Seared scallops and shrimp, beef tenderloin with mushroom puree topped off with a sumptuous chocolate torte – which we had boxed up to take back to the room. Each course was paired with excellent wine – and only 1 red wine! Perfect for me – all of which made for an extremely fabulous, and filling, meal!
And our night was done – back in the cabin we spent time on the balcony, then watched some TV in our food induced comas and hit the hay. Can’t believe tomorrow is the last day on the cruise. Crazy how time flies.
Andiamo 