Nice to Chateau

Well we have to leave Nice today. And it’s supposed to be sunny and fantastic. Oh well. Adil had the great idea to go down and see the sunrise before we left since yesterday was kind of a bust. Sunrise was around 6am which isn’t that bad – it’s like a work day – but I was up until 2am so I was pretty tired. I thought about just staying in bed but I would have regretted it and I had plenty of time to sleep on the bus so I rallied and went downstairs. We got there probably 20 minutes early and discovered that our lookout point was actually a homeless person’s bedroom. She was just waking up though so she invited us in for some tea and biscuits. It was nice.

As the sunrise got closer, we realized that there was a flaw in our plan: Nice is in a bit of a cove (as is evident in my pictures yesterday) and the sun’s path was not something we considered. I just assumed it was more southerly (sure why not) and over the water. Here I point out Nice on the map. There is no way the sun would make it over my giant hand until at least 10am. We still enjoyed ourselves though and I took some Nice pictures. Get it?

After this Pip and I went on a crepe-finding mission but no one was open this early for crepes – just pastries and coffee. We decided to try again before leaving so I went back to bed for an hour. We then failed a second time so we just got pastries from the bakery around the corner which in France is a great backup plan. They were delicious.

The next stage of the day involved driving many hours from Nice to Chateau de Fontager. On the way we stopped at a few places to break up the boring. First they took us to a perfumery to show us how headaches are made. I would not advise ever going to a perfumery. I took a few pics because that’s why I bought a camera:

Here you see all of the ingredients that go into making perfumes at this shop. They import different flowers, spices, fruits, etc. from all over the world depending on the region that is famous for said ingredients. They then make different combinations of these ingredients in order to create unholy smells that destroy your sinuses.

On the left you see one of the chemists hard at work creating his abominations. On the right are shelves upon shelves of his failed efforts. They will allow these to mature for a few years and then sell them to women over 70 across the world. Good work Mr. Chemist.

Once the demo ended they sold us lots of things at discount prices which were actually pretty reasonable. I couldn’t tell the difference between any of the scents and I wouldn’t know what other people want to smell like anyways so I didn’t purchase anything. Good work me.

Next we stopped at a town called Avignon because it has some interesting historical significance and also isn’t a highway service station. We had an hour and a half to do our thing and then back on the coach. I took some pictures of some cool buildings (you don’t say!) and had some lunch. My lunch was shit because the waitress rushed me and I ordered a ham steak with fries on account of it. I have never and would never pay a restaurant to make me a ham steak. I don’t know how this happened but she definitely has some sort of mind=control powers. I begrudgingly ate the ham after trying to change my mind five seconds later only to have her tell me it was too late because she already put the order in.

I’ve encountered a lot of jaded service industry workers on this trip and Greg attributed it to the lack of tipping on the whole. Tipping isn’t customary in many countries so when those people are here on holiday they don’t tip here either. After awhile, I can see how a waiter or waitress would immediately downgrade your level of service when they hear a foreign accent. NOTE TO SERVICE WORKERS: We tip here in America and most of us tip well so if you don’t treat us like dicks we will throw you some dough. Thanks you.

Oh right here are the pictures of the cool building in Avignon:

This is the old Papal Palace. Before the Vatican was built (Greg said early to mid 1500s), this was the Pope’s residence most of the time. I think he might still use it as a summer home but I’m not sure.

These are two pictures of the Notre Dame des Doms which was right next to the Palace. This is where the Pope played bingo every Friday night. On the right is the Papal Palace again but this time Pip and I are in front of it because I don’t take enough pictures with people in them. Nice work people.

We get to the Chateau around six so we still have four hours of daylight but it’s not sunny enough or hot enough to use the pool which is unfortunate. This place is beautiful but it’s also creepy. It’s a 4,000 year old castle that they turned into a hotel. It looks like the last time anyone stayed here was when they filmed The Shining. Here are some pics of the Chateau, in both creepy and non-creepy versions. Or maybe they’re all creepy – it depends on how you feel about castles.

I think the creepiest thing of all was the appetizer they served us with dinner. I would love to hear your guesses as to what this is. GO!

The rest of dinner was good and I ate it all. It was a nice chicken with gravy, rice and vegetables. The dessert was some kind of dry lemon-cake that apparently the region is famous for. I thought maybe they were famous for that appetizer because there is no other reason in the world for them to serve that to people.

After dinner we just lounged around Chateau style and then played some cards. There was an intense poker game going on but I was more about chilling so we played Old Maid. Meanwhile, there were rumors about the Chateau being haunted which quickly snowballed into crazy, elaborate, “true” stories about murders and cannibalism that happened in the hotel. Half the girls were afraid to go anywhere alone once it got dark (including their rooms) so naturally we went around scaring people.

Sure I’m just as scary with the mask off but this was more about anonymity than anything else. I don’t want to ruin my chances with the guys! Wait, what? Yesterday’s post was the gay post? Alright scratch that last bit. The night ended late because the place really was haunted and there were ghosts running around at the same time we were. You might need to brighten your monitor to see it - I ran like hell right after this so I couldn’t take another.

That ended Day 13. Oooooh Day 13 at the Haunted Chateau! Spooky!