Nice and Monaco and Italy...oh my!

I think this picture pretty much clearly sums up the adventures we had today: France (Nice), Monaco (Monte Carlo) and Italy (Vintimiglia). That's right--three countries in one day! Unfortunately, they don't want to stamp your passport here in western Europe. I still have no passport stamp that says France! That is quite upsetting. Anyway...on to our exciting day (oh and we took over 100 pictures today--are you so excited to see slideshows when we come home?)Here is the view of Nice from the overlook at the top of a mountain. The Mediterranean is gorgeous and the mountains and gorges are great because this is the foothills of the Alps. They are only one hour away! Oh and there were people SWIMMING today. I mean, it was warm, but really, really not that warm yet.
Here I am in a field of yellow flowers. Seriously--doesn't this just scream "I'm in France?"
Here is Nathan walking along the Mediterranean in Nice. The water was really not that cold today (surprisingly).
So eventually we made it to Monaco and this is the backside of the Monte Carlo Casino. We stopped here for a delicious picnic of sandwiches made on baguettes with brie, tomatoes and lettuce. How French! So Monaco is creepy. Sort of like a rich people's Disney World. Everything seems sort of fake. There were boutiques everywhere--Hermes, Gucci, Prada. I felt seriously underdressed. Also, we saw more nice cars than I've ever seen in my life. Ever.
After Monaco we decided to drive to Italy and we ran into a lot of traffic because the village of Menton was having a citrus festival. Festivals abound in France. At festivals you make floats out of whatever it is you are celebrating. So we saw a dragon made of oranges, a pirate ship made of oranges and a storefront made of oranges.


So we finally make it Italy and what do we find but ducks? So here is a Mallard and his Lady Duck for some dear friends of ours getting married soon...Italian buildings. They look like French buildings, eh? Mostly because the part of France we are in was part of Italy until 1860.
All of the restaurants were closed because we were there during the afternoon "everything is closed" time so we couldn't get pizza, but here I am eating banana gelato! Yum--my absolute favorite!
And here we are trying to find our way back to France from Italy.
Isn't this cave so cool?