First you must know where I come from

Wait a minute.

I don't want to go to Cannes yet, I think it is first important to let you know where I was staying first. Plus that is the order my pictures are in, and Asher has more Cannes pictures than I do and I think his camera is still packed.

Our friends we stayed with live in the village of Gilette (pronounced like the razor company). I am not exactly sure how old the town is, but I can tell you this, when they were remodeling the house they found a coin from 1579 wedged between the beams and when we were walking to the nearby town of Claves, there was a plaque above a meadow describing that in Roman times it was used as a community garden of sorts.

Saying it is old is an understatement.

This picture was taken from the balcony of our friends house. You get a good view of the village, the village square and the ruins of castle Gilette. The castle is one of 3 destroyed monuments in the area. (The others are the Fortress of Nice and the Trophy of the Alps, the later I also explored.) They were destroyed by Louis the 14th, who had decided that once he won the territory from Italy that he would destroy the monuments in case the territory (piedmont) would ever fall back in Italian hands, which it did. (Our friend Fabrizio is a walking wikipedia and makes a really great tour guide.)


There is a small business area including this patisserie that was hard to deal with because we were so close, and they would start baking baguettes at 3 a.m. I wanted to break the doors down and eat all of the bread in sight, but contained myself.

We spent two relaxing days here, walking around and exploring the castle and the two bars there. There aren't a lot of tourists. They do have a tourism office, but it is never open. I heard that was on purpose.

Gilette is a half hour to 45 minute drive from Nice down a windy mountain road. There is public transportation, but often times a ride down the mountain from a fellow villager is the most reliable. (Merci Francoise!) There are 3 buses down the mountain, but coming back up the buses are few and far between.

Nice is 45 minutes to an hour from Cannes, depending on traffic.

Next stop Cannes. I mean it this time.