Cannes is our only tender port, and we queue up at 9:15 am for the tickets (thanks Mom). Even though we have some Diamond level cruisers, we cannot get priority tickets, oh well. We get tender tickets #2 and arrive on the pier around 11 am. Our guide Alain from Dream Tours is waiting on the sidewalk with our name and we pile into his Mercedes MiniBus for our tour. Although we had e-mailed and planned to go to Nice for lunch, then back to Eze and Biot, he suggests that Eze is not good, we should go to St Paul straight away, then Nice. So no Nicoise lunch, as we must eat on schedule or we get cranky (we have children, remember). Schedule and expectations are adjusted, and we drive the coast road along Cap Ferrat and the Riviera, one hour to St Paul de Vence. We do not see any celebrities, but pass their hotel. St Paul is a beautiful walled pedestrian city. Alain directs us to La Chapelle for lunch. Delicious, and we practice our French on the waitresses. We selected Nicoise salads and hamburgueses, duck, fromages, wine, and coke zeros.
After lunch we shop in St Paul. It is too steep for my mom, who waits at the bottom. We peruse the village and purchase French liquors. Then off to Nice for a stroll through the market. We drive to Biot, see the glassmakers, and consider how we would bring any expensive glass products back home. Back to the ship, we miss dinner by the time we arrive on the tender to the Brilliance at 7 ish. Though we probably could have just arrived late as we observed others on other days. We ate at the Windjammer that night.
Traffic in the French Riviera is horrible. Next time, we are taking the train to Nice.
