Villafranche-sur-Mer: July 13-16th

On our way to Villafranche-sur-mer we ran into a few delays. All our other train tickets we had pre-bought but it was a little confusing online to figure out the best route between Italy and France so we decided to wing it. Because of this, we had an extra long layover in Genova because the next available train was booked solid. We were going to go walk around and check out the city but it was raining a bit and it didn't look like there was much to it so we decided to go to a cafe and have a drink and play cards. As soon as we dealt the cards though the lady working came over and said we couldn't play cards. I'm still not quite sure why but we ended up just sitting there for the next two hours doing our best to entertain ourselves.

On the way back to the train station we stopped in to get some pizzas for lunch. It was probably the best pizza we had the entire trip.

It took us 10 hours and 3 transfers to get to Villafranche-sur-mer. We still got in at a decent hour though and after checking in we went to the "beach". Instead of sand, it was rocks. The water was too cold for me to go in so I did my best to get comfy.

After dinner we walked down to the promenade and saw a boat parade! Some people had decorated their boats with lanterns and flags and they motored around the harbor tossing carnations to the on-lookers. After the parade we headed back to the hotel to hang out on the balcony. We ended up catching a fireworks show too. I am pretty sure it was all in honor of Bastille Day, which was the following day.

The next few days in Villafranche-sur-mer we took day trips to Nice and Monaco. Our last morning there, we headed back to Nice to the market to get food for the train and then caught our train to Arles.