Cannes, Nice, and hanging out in Saint Jeanett with some French teenagers - June 29

We picked up Agnes again this morning and off we went to Cannes!  You may have heard of the Cannes Film Festival?  Well, we took a group picture on the red carpet steps leading into the building where it's held.  Of course, at 9 a.m. when we were there, it was fairly deserted.  We walked along the waterfront looking at the incredible yachts...and then continued on a walk around the city of Cannes.  The bougenvilla (not sure if that's spelled correctly) is gorgeous...bright intense magentas and purples against the old stone walls!  Again, we walked up steps, and the some more steps, and then walked up some more steps to get to the top of the city and have a look at the red tiled roofs with the deep blue Mediterranean in the background...with the yachts, of course. 

There was a little free time...LITTLE ...meaning like 15 minutes...and many of us went to the market.  It was a market like I've never been to!  French cheeses...lots of french cheeses, olives, olive oils, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, flowers...just a HUGE market under a roof...It's open every day except Monday and the food sections close at noon but the rest stays open longer. 

After Cannes...we drove about 45 minutes along the Mediterranean to Nice (pronounced 'niece').  We walked around the city (beautiful)... and then walked to lunch.  The restaurant was a sweet, sweet little place with the best bread we've had yet!  We also had salad Nicoise and...escargot!  Some delegates had a little problem getting it from the shell into their mouths...but after a fair amount of encouragement, I think most tried it. 

 Back on the bus to Saint Jeanett, a beautiful little mountain village.  We parked the coach and walked up a lot of steps, and then some more steps, and then walked up even more steps (do you get the idea that we're walking a lot of uphill treks?) to meet a group of French students.  A big soccer game started...and some basketball...and foosball...and some just hung out and tried to understand each other.  We followed this with a barbeque...I did hear some of our delegates saying "I just LOVE American food!"  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, coke, etc...  We didn't leave till close to 8 p.m.  No one really wanted to leave...but finally we said good bye...and walked down many, many steps to the coach...and here we are...

 You may have noticed that I love, love, love the doors and windows of Europe!

 We stumbled across a wedding! 

As I write, everyone is packing since we check out of this hotel tomorrow and start our trek towards Spain.  We will be in France 2 more nights after tonight...but we'll be doing a lot of traveling. 

Remember that no news is good news...we're having a GREAT time....with a GREAT group of students.  In 8 years of leading, I can honestly say, this is absolutely the best all around group yet!  They are all a pleasure to travel with!