FRAHNSAY( or France...however you'd like to pronounce it)

This weekend ranked right up there as one of the best weekends ever. I went on a school trip to southern France. A lot of friends from school were on this trip, so I was in good company! We had the same guides as on the Swiss Alps trip, but they were much better! Our first stop was Monaco. It's an independent state and there are no income taxes. It's the 2nd smallest state in the world! It's where Princess Grace is from. We had a local guide who took us to the Prince's palace. We arrived just in time for the changing of the guards, which was cool (the part that I could see over the crowd). There was a park just off the coast that was one of the most beautiful parks I've ever seen. We learned about hte 2 princesses (one's kind of a slut I guess? ha) and the other heirs to control the state. There were cameras everywhere, and all the rich people who live there to escape the taxes feel safe. There is one policeman per 80 people! Lunar, Lucy, Bryan and I left the tour a couple minutes early on our ouwn and took pictures all over because the town was so pretty. The seagulls are the size of medium sized dogs...I wanted to put them on a leash and walk them like a dog. Weird? Yes...but true. We then souvenier shopped and headed to Nice. Upon arrival, we checked into our hotels. Mine was gorgeous "Le Scribe". We had a local guide again. She showed us the major parks, fountains, Vieux Ville (the Old Town), the Promenade des Anglaio, and showed us how to get to the beach. I had a crepe (...when in France! :)) ; it was banana and chocolate...and soooo good.I got to see the flower market, too! Loved that! By that time, we needed to clean up for dinner. Dinner was for all of us at my hotel. It was nice, but not very good. Lucy was most grateful for the free water. That's very rare here!!! After supper, we explored the bar/restaurant area. We picked up a couple of cheap bottles of champagne and headed towards the beach. I carried one and Bryan had the other. Well, he took the wrapper off. Then unscrewed the metal tab, but before he could push the cork off, he looked down at it...and the cork shot off and his shocked face was covered with a volcano explosion of champagne. The noise sounded like a gun and caused a lot of people to turn and look. We laughed soooo hard. I haven't laughed that hard in forever. Definitely one of the funniest moments of this whole trip. We went and layed on the beach, drank, talked, and looked at the stars. The sound of the waves rolling the rocks of the beach is so soothing and beautiful. After that, we went to Kings Pub, but the prices were tOO steep. So we went to Wayne's world, but you had to have an ID and three of us didn't bother carrying it because we're in Europe and NO ONE cards. We walked back to the hotel and I just stayed in (I had really bad stomach sickness all day..and wasn't up for drinking much). I went to bed only 45 minutes before everyone else came from the bars. Sunday we had breakfaswt and then drove to St. Paul de Vence. It was one of the oldest/cutest/most quaint towns. I LOVED it. We explored and shopped the local stores. Almost every other store was an art gallery (I could see why artists would be inspired there). I bought 3 prints of paintingas, a plate, postcards, and something for my Gpa for Christmas. After I told everyone how good this was, business for that store was booming! Haha. I should get a commission! :) Then we headed to Cannes. It was ok, but I loved the other places more. We played on the rock pier and beach, looked at the film festival famous handprints, ate, and just walked around. We then headed to Eve and toured Perfume Fragonard, a perfume factory. It was REALLY cool! I couldn't make myself buy any for myself. Then, we got on the bus. There was an accident on the highway and the traffic was backed up for miles! So, we didn't get home until much after midnight!! It was crazy! Well, that sums it up! AMAZING!