Hello dearest friends and family,

Well, I WAS waiting until we entered Italy before sending out my next ChaliGram, but we're having such a hard time leaving France, and... I was due to write another Chaligram, so..... The last one was for Happy Mother's Day.... so it seems appropriate to send out a Happy Father's Day Chaligram....

France is just so BEAUTIFUL. And this town, Menton, the last town along the French coast is the prettiest of them all. Not just the town itself with its yellow, pink, and orange old buildings going up the hill, but the surrounding mountains are just breathtaking. What a view to wake up to every morning. If I were still a beach bunny, I'd only have to walk about 50 yards to get to the beach. We were here last July in the old port and loved it, so we were looking forward to coming back. Upon arrival, we were disappointed to learn that the old port had no room, so we had to go to the expensive new marina on the outskirts of town. But! after 2 nights there, we tried calling the old port again, and happy days, one of the permanent berth-holders just left for his vacation to Corsica, so they said, "come ON OVER!" We had made friends with a French couple last year who live on their boat here in Menton, and they're still here and remembered us. It's so nice to come back to a place and be welcomed in. Other friends we met last year wintered here and were still here, so it's been fun socializing with them again, too. We were especially happy to get to Menton since we'd been at anchor for the previous 6 nights sitting out 30-35 knot winds.... which... on the ocean aren't so bad, but here in the Med those winds really kick up a nasty sea. So.... we try not to venture out in such conditions. We were at anchor behind Cap Ferrat, protected from the west and in fairly spectacular surroundings. The Alpes-Maritimes Provencal are the most dramatic up at this end of the coast.... and the real estate along the coast ain't too shabby, either. We were just beneath the Rothchild-Ephrussi Villa among other gorgeous mansions of the rich and famous. We were pretty stir-crazy and anxious to get into civilization. Speaking of civilization, prior to our 6 days at anchor we'd spent 9 days in Cannes. We liked it even better than last year. In fact, it has real potential as a winter-over marina. Not this year, because we've already got a winter contract in Southeast Sicily, but maybe next year depending on where we go in the 2013 sailing season. Cannes has EVERYTHING.... very conveniently located, and ironically, not very expensive. And the laundry machines in the marina are the bargain of the century. An express bus to the Nice airport stops right in front of the marina, along with busses to everywhere. In fact, we took one to Antibes to check it out. Another old city, originally colonized by the Greeks in the 500-600's BC, with a big medieval fort pointed to its neighbor and enemy, the city of Nice in Savoy, back in the 16th century, among many other lovely old buildings.

After Sanary sur Mer where we were when I wrote my last ChaliGram, we went to Le Lavandou, Cogolin and Frejus before Cannes. We couldn't get into last year's favorite town, Saint Raphael, because they were doing renovations in the old port, so we went right next door to Frejus. It was one of those Condo/Marina complexes, and I was leery of staying there after our experience in the huge complex at Cogolin on the St. Tropez Bay, but it was smaller, and we were well located and it wasn't very expensive, so it turned out better than I dreaded. Cogolin was enormous, and the visitor docks were WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY out in purgatory. There wasn't even a RESTAURANT nearby, much less any stores for provisioning. We didn't have much of a choice though, because once again, we were sitting out F8 and F9 winds and rain and were stuck there for 4 days paying high rates. I just hate it when high rates aren't worth it. Anyway, Frejus had a nice old town about 1 mile inland, and had a bigger population during Julius Caesar's time than today. We caught a bus (since Zoey just can't handle long walks anymore) and enjoyed a nice lunch in the town after seeing the sights.

It's hard to believe that we've been in France for 6 weeks already. Our rendez-vous in Tuscany has cancelled, so we're just sorta taking our time. We need to be in the Rome area (Gaeta, just south of Rome) in 6 weeks, since my little sister will be visiting us there. That's a lot more coast line to cover in the next 6 weeks than we've just covered, so we'll have to get moving pretty soon. Italian marinas are so much more expensive than French marinas, that we won't be as tempted to stay put for as long in certain places. Plus, there are only a few anchorages along the way. We've gotten spoiled by only going about 10-12 nautical miles between destinations in France. I suspect we'll be doing longer daily passages in Italy.

Next stop is San Remo, 12 miles away along Italy's "western Riviera" to check in and get our cruising papers.

'Ta 'Ta, until the next time.

link to photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/109427354797294807716/ChaliGram124AuRevoirFranceBuongiornoItalia?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPrJ57CcpJnKHw&feat=directlink

Love, Alison, Chuck and Zoey