I believe that hydration is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, hydration comes at a cost. Anyone who has ever traveled with me can confirm that within the first hour of any adventure, I will need to use the restroom. Should I ever write a travel guide, there would be a section for every destination regarding suitable public restrooms. In France, that section would be very very short.

Today marked the first time I’ve found myself desperate enough to pay the half euro to use the restroom in a train station. I hope that today also marks the last time I find myself desperate enough to pay the half euro to use the restroom in a train station. These restrooms (or at least this one) did have a toilet, though from the looks of the floor I’m not sure that anyone who visited the restroom before me noticed its presence. What it did not have was a seat for the toilet, making the “hover” maneuver absolutely mandatory. And anyone who has ever traveled with Chuck can confirm the sorry shape one’s leg muscles are in after the first 1-2 days of the trip. Despite overly tired leg muscles and very slippery WC floors, I made it out  of the ordeal physically whole but emotionally scarred.

Today’s adventure was to the nearby towns of Antibes and Cannes. We walked through the market in Old Town Nice (where Charles bought me roses for our anniversary) to get to the tram to get to the train station to head to Antibes, where we strolled along the water front to Old Town, which is very similar to Nice’s Old Town. We strolled through the covered outdoor market in Antibes and bought some currants and socca (bread made from ground chickpeas – a Provencal specialty) to snack on while we checked out all of the other produce, soaps, spices, etc. We planned to check out the Picasso museum as well, but arrived just after it closed for a 2 hour break.

Since the museum was closed, we moved on to Cannes by way of the train, where we overheard some vapid American socialite-esque teenagers (no wonder the rest of the world hates us) discussing the celebrities they’ve seen since they’ve been here (Amy Poehler and Paris Hilton). We strolled along in Cannes, looking for celebrities, finding none, but getting a pretty good view of the then-empty red carpet. We grabbed lunch (and when I say “grabbed”, I’m using it in the European sense in that it took over an hour) at a sidewalk cafe where we could continue scanning for celebrities.

After lunch, we took a boat to the Isle de Sainte Marguerite, where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned. It was quite a hike up the hill to the prison/museum during which Charles and I had to “pardon our French” several times (hint: it wasn’t really French), but the view from the top was very pretty and offered a good view of Cannes. After checking out the museum, we headed back down the hill to catch the boat back to Cannes.

On our way back to the train station in Cannes, we happened to find ourselves in the middle of the crowds hoping to catch a glimpse (through the wall of photographers) of celebrities on the red carpet. A large screen displayed for the crowd who was walking the carpet. Charles and I stayed and watched several celebrities that we did not recognize until we finally saw Cate Blanchett (by way of the big screen). Finally seeing someone we recognized and determining that it didn’t seem all that much different from watching on a television or movie screen back home, we headed back to the train station to return to Nice.

We had a great dinner in Old Town, but are now very tired (and sore). Charles has a surprise outing in store for me tomorrow. I just hope there are restrooms…