Life's a Beach

First, an anecdote. Actually... I suppose this whole thing is lots of anecdotes.
Anyway, in class on Friday we somehow got onto the topic of popular names for babies, and someone mentioned that Edward and Bella are now popular, à cause de Twilight. However, instead of "twilight" my professor heard "toilette." An easy mistake to make, in the case of that particular book. This misunderstanding was furthered by all of us talking about how disgusting the book was or how much we hated it. En bref, tons and tons of laughter ensued, and I don't think we every really moved on.

So, the weekend. And what a weekend it was...

Friday night I went out on the town pour la première fois (the first time). As in to bars and whatnot. First, some of the girls and I tried to get into an English pub called - surprise - The Black Pearl. The bouncer, not my favorite Frenchie, said, "Ce n'est pas possible" and other things about how we were too young, despite all of us being over 18. Looked like all the people there were in their thirties, though. So, we went a little ways down the street to Sun7 (sun-sept... sunset - clever, no?) where we just waltzed right in and ordered some gintos (that's gin and tonic for all you non-French speakers). In case you're curious, drinks are really expensive here. For real - it was 7 euros for one drink! So, we had to be up early for our trip to Monaco on Saturday, and planned on going back maybe a little after midnight (walking home, by the way, the buses stop early) but instead we left around 2:30 a.m. Whoopsidoodle!
Sun7 is pretty small, but there were lots of people there, especially after midnight. And although it's not really a club, there's a live DJ and people were dancing in the small area that there was. And by people were dancing, I mean girls were dancing while guys were standing in a circle around watching. Slightly creepy. As we were leaving, a couple of French girls started chatting me and a couple other girls up, asking where we were from and why we came here (french accent: "Cannes eez sheet" - I guess they don't really like it here). It was cool to get to talk to locals, at last. (Other random thing - I had been pronouncing Cannes "cahn" for ages! Apparently "cahn" is the city of Caen, and "can" is Cannes. Now I know!)

Another thing I've discovered about Cannes ("can") is that it's sorta like the Florida of France. People seem to come here on vacation because it's warm and beachy, but otherwise it's sort of just inhabited by old people. And the famous. Bien sûr.

I got up early on Saturday in order to wash the smell of bar off of me, then hopped on the bus for Monaco, about a 1.5 to 2 hour drives from Cannes. It was a gorgeous day and Monaco was really beautiful.

Outside le palais, there was a lovely garden, where we ended up eating our sack lunches.

 

We also got to see the changing of the guards, which, I must admit, was not ALL that exciting.

This is my roomie and the sunglasses she got in Cannes

For some reason there are stacks of cannonballs all around the palace

Obligatory "I'm in Europe and am visiting tons of Cathedrals" photo

Creepy shadow of a bust

Afterward, we went to the oceanographic museum in Monaco. There were some aquariums and some cool eels, but it really didn't compare to the Henry Doorly in Omaha. The building was beautiful, though.

Des Jellyfish!

Narwhal skeleton

Super awesome octopus coming down from the ceiling

Après ça, we went to Monte Carlo, the famous casino in Monaco. You have to be 21 to gamble, but you can get into the slot machine room if you're 18. Also, you have to pay to go into the actual game room, something like 10 to 15 euros, so I didn't go in there. I didn't play any of the slot machines, but one girl with our group did and won 100 euros!! I was super jealous, but I knew I would just lose my money.
From there we all went to Eze, which is back towards Nice and Cannes, and is a small town on top of a mountain with really great views and a TON of stairs to climb up! The view was incredible, and the photos can't really capture it, but:

Some mountains and ominous clouds

Giant chessboard!

It was a really cute town - note the little fish on top of the sign

So, Sunday has been quite a lazy day. However, I learned that brunch here is AMAZING. There are croissants, chocolate croissants, cheese, fruit, juice, and you can order omelets, crepes, and eggs. Seriously, I ate so much. And I don't have to sit at the vegetarian table at brunch and breakfast. And, we learned today that there are too many vegetarians for the table, so tomorrow there will be two tables! Triumph!