{"id":1460,"date":"2015-02-28T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T18:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2015-03-04T13:42:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T21:42:45","slug":"roses-to-lavender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/?p=1460","title":{"rendered":"Roses to Lavender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1\"<\/a>\"Toulon<\/a>\"Toulon<\/a>\"Cannes\"<\/a>\"Toulon<\/a>\u00a0\"Cannes<\/a>\u00a0 \"Ile<\/a> \"Ile<\/a> \"Ile<\/a>\u00a0\"Nice<\/a>\u00a0\"VSM<\/a> \"Nice<\/a>\u00a0 \"VSM<\/a> \"VSM<\/a>\u00a0 \"VSM<\/a> \"VSM<\/a>\u00a0 \"Monaco<\/a>\"Monaco<\/a><\/p>\n

After our harrowing experience in hurricane-force winds in Puerto Roses, we hunkered down for a week waiting for our weather window to cross the Gulf of Lyon to get to\u00a0France. During that time we were able to fix the exhaust hose for the generator (meaning, I \u2013 Jennifer \u2013 worked with the chandlery to get all the parts ordered in Spanish, while Darold did the actual labor.)<\/p>\n

Dante also made a local friend, the 11-year-old son of one of the port\u2019s marineros, Camiel. He was even invited over to their house for lunch one Saturday \u2013 lucky kid. Camiel is originally from Kosovo, but married a Spanish woman. The son spoke a little English, though who needs a common language when you can play Minecraft and soccer? We also had a great conversation with Camiel\u00a0one evening about the war in Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

With a weather window finally open, we made an overnight crossing to Toulon, France. It was the coldest crossing we\u2019ve done so far. \u00a0The winds got up to gusts of 35 knots, but only briefly. The bigger problem was that the seas were on the beam and would roll us occasionally and scoop up water into the cockpit. This soaked our sleeping bag, some blankets and sadly, Darold\u2019s iPad (despite the fact that it was in a waterproof, ruggedized case). Fortunately, we have two more iPads aboard. Another casualty was our mail halyard, which snapped off near the shackle. “Oh shit, what do we do now,” I said to Darold, as I watched our sail drop in a heap\u00a0on our boom. \u00a0“Don’t worry we still have two other sails,” Darold says. \u00a0“But we have NO main and we still have to cross the Gulf!” \u00a0“No, not true,” Darold says “we still have a main, just think of it as a very deeply reef main. \u00a0You’re always wanting to reef …. voila!” \u00a0he say. \u00a0Didn’t help that he was laughing when he said this to me. \u00a0In any event, we had a spare main halyard on board and were able to route the new one easily enough once we got to France.<\/p>\n

We anchored our first night after arriving in Toulon and got a good night\u2019s sleep. Dante made us spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner, which was nice because we were absolutely beat. We motored a few miles the next day into the old port (Darse Vieille) of Toulon. \u00a0Toulon is a large port (originally built in the 1500s) and also the main port for the French Navy on the Mediterranean. We checked into France without any issues, despite our poor French. Toulon itself is a nice town. Darold and I found a bar for a \u201cdate night\u201d and chatted up a\u00a0few locals, including the bartender. They tried to explain the meaning of the French phrase \u201coh lalalalalalala\u201d but it seems there is no English equivalent. It is somewhere in the vicinity of \u201coh boy\u201d and \u201coh well, whatcha gonna do?\u201d\u00a0 Later, in speaking to someone else about this phrase, it was explained to us that the meaning can change depending on the situation. It can be positive as when you come across a beautiful sight, or it can be negative when you lock your keys in your car.<\/p>\n

Since the port was relatively inexpensive (21 Euros a day) and there was a direct TGV train into Paris, we decided to take an impromptu side trip into the City of Lights. \u00a0Less than 24 hours after making this decision we were on our way at almost 300 kilometers an hour (180 mph) toward the country\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

We loved Paris, even though it was cloudy and cold the entire time we were there. It is such a beautiful city, even in the dead of winter. We hit all the typical spots: Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Seine, Pantheon, Musee d\u2019Orsay, Arc du Triomphe, the Pere de Lechaise Cemetery and quaint neighborhoods like the Marais. We spent one day with a friend of mine (an Englishman living in Paris who I met while working at Philips) and on another night we met a group of young Italians living in France. (See Dante\u2019s blog post for more details about our Paris trip.)<\/p>\n

We spent a little time exploring Toulon, which was also nice. They have a great outdoor fruit and vegetable market (there was always someone selling lavender!), and you can also see vestiges of their colonial past through their North African and Vietnamese restaurants littered throughout the city. We sampled their bread and pastries (absolutely amazing), their cheese (also excellent), wine (delicious and inexpensive) and their coffee (sorry, the Spaniards and Italians have the upper hand on this one).<\/p>\n

We left Toulon and anchored off the island of Porquerolles just off the mainland near Toulon. \u00a0We had a very nice and relaxing and warm day. \u00a0Unfortunately, the next day was rainy so we didn’t make it ashore. \u00a0And the following day we woke up to 20 kts. and the boat hobby horsing on some significant chop in the anchorage. The wind had picked up and put us on a lee shore. I hate waking up and having to put on foul weather gear first thing in the morning! It wasn’t yet light but we got everything ready to go and pulled up the anchor as dawn started to break and headed to Cannes 50 nautical miles away. \u00a0Uneventful, but cold and a little wet. \u00a0Hate getting saltwater all over the deck after having just washed the boat. \u00a0No big deal when you are coming back to a marina, but when on the hook for weeks at a time you either use precious freshwater to wipe off the salt or cringe as you go on deck.<\/p>\n

We anchored off of\u00a0\u00a0Ile Ste. Marguerite, a small island very close to\u00a0Cannes. The island is famous for its fort \u2013 Fort Royal \u2013 where the Man in the Iron Mask was held. We took our dinghy to the island and tied it up to a concrete wharf\u00a0near a closed restaurant. We took a tour of the fort and the island and the next day we took the dinghy into Cannes for a few hours. \u00a0We enjoyed Cannes, with its nice views from the hilltops.<\/p>\n

Next we left for Nice, 18 nautical miles away. It was a very cold sail, cloudy and dreary. We anchored in a small bay around the corner from Nice, next to the town of Villefrance-sur-mer. We had been wanting to anchor near a quaint French town and we\u2019d found it. The cobblestone streets of the old town run higgledy piggeldy up and down the town, making for a fun exploration around.<\/p>\n

One evening a paddleboarder came by the boat and started talking to us. We invited him aboard for a drink and had an interesting conversation. \u00a0Interestingly he prefers whisky to vine…. voila… we obliged. \u00a0He\u2019s from Nice (works at the airport) and is an avid sailor himself. He said that cruise ships will anchor off the town in the summer and inundate the town. \u00a0So even though we have been cold for the last few months, the up side is that we have towns like Villefrance-sur-mer to ourselves – plus it was sunny and warm here! Oh lalalalalalalala!!! \u00a0In the 4 days we stayed anchored in the bay, we were usually the only boat anchored and there were very few tourists around.<\/p>\n

We also took the dinghy around the corner into Nice one day. We took an impromptu scenic trolley tour around the city, walked through the open air market and went into an old church (guess that is redundant …. they are all old).<\/p>\n

By this time, our French was getting a little better.\u00a0 We had a phrasebook specifically for people sailing in French-speaking countries.\u00a0 However, there is nothing that makes you feel more American than speaking French to someone, thinking you’re doing it correctly and the French person giving you a blank stare back.\u00a0 The French aren’t rude, they just don’t understand you!\u00a0 What’s more humorous\u00a0is that when they finally figure out what you are\u00a0trying to say, they repeat it back to you pronounced correctly though it sounds exactly like what you just said!\u00a0 Oh lalalalalalalala….<\/p>\n

Our third day anchored we took the bus to Monaco. \u00a0For a 10 Euro entry fee you can tour the casino …. but you can\u2019t gamble. \u00a0This is because the casino is actually closed! \u00a0That’s right closed! \u00a0Could you ever image a casino only opening for the evening in Las Vegas. \u00a0 \u00a0Nope … time is money. \u00a0 We would have loved to put a euro into one of the slot machines just to say we gambled in Monte Carlo. \u00a0Nevertheless, the casino itself is absolutely beautiful and recently renovated to its original Belle Epoque charm.<\/p>\n

Our last night in Villefrance-sur-mer was bittersweet because we knew we\u2019d be leaving France the next day, and who knows when we will be back? Darold and I dinghied into town and had a glass of wine and some \u201cfrites\u201d (French fries) with mustard. \u00a0Au revoir France!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To see our pictures go to the following Flickr albums:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/easethemain\/sets<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 After our harrowing experience in hurricane-force winds in Puerto Roses, we hunkered down for a week waiting for our weather window to cross the Gulf of Lyon to get to\u00a0France. During that time we were able to fix the exhaust hose for the generator (meaning, I \u2013 Jennifer \u2013 worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1490,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions\/1490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}