Cruising the Med with Mickey and the Crew **Updated 11/25** COMPLETE About This Page:

[DyanKJ130]

Great update and photos, Terri! The market looks cool! I think I'd like that way of living too! Can't wait to hear more

[chezp]

Great update Terri - the market looks wonderful.

[marisag]

Great update!! I have really been enjoying reading about your cruise!

[lauriep]

Great update. I so agree that shopping daily and eating whatever is fresh in the market would be wonderful.

[disneydani]

Fabulous update and pics, brings back wonderful memories for me...I spent a summer in Cannes and was able to explore the surrounding area quite a bit.

danielle

[JaimeandChad]

Great update! All caught up again, I can't wait for more.

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Terri!

[Disney_Scarlett]

Oooh, Villefranche is beautiful. I wish we had markets like that, too.

[PrincessSharon]

Terrific update, Terri! And great photos, as usual.

[Disney Fan 101]

Wow! your photos are great. Looks like you had a wonderful time.

[DrDolphin]

Sorry It's taken me awhile to get back to this report. Been really busy - but since I am like 24-days out from Mousefest - I figure I need to finish. Since I have tomorrow off work - I plan to get this puppy done!

Ok - on with the story.

Next stop on our tour was the town of Grasse... the center of french perfume making. We went to the Fragonard perfumarie...


We started in the museum at the front of the factory - they had displays of where materials that go into perfumes come from, as well as antique perfume making materials.



Our guide (who's name I do not remember) came out and began the tour -

And then we entered the factory -

This is the "organ" - the chief perfume maker - called "the nose" (I kid you not!) sits here and mixes these different oils and fragrances to make the perfumes. The Fragonard factory makes perfumes for many famous perfume labels.

They also make perfumed soaps - these are rose scented.

Soap making machine

The fragonard collection - in special bottles that don't let the perfume breakdown due to light, heat or cold (I never thought about that before).

And taking a page from the Disney playbook - the tour ends in the shop - where you could smell any of the perfumes that you were interested in - and Miss J was front and center.

Grandma and I, however, headed for the door. My poor nasal passages had been baked by the strong fragrances. It took me like 2 hours before my regular sense of smell returned. After about 20 minutes, Sophie called everyone together and we all boarded the bus to head onto lunch and St. Paul.

Next - Playing a bit of Bolle and they put what in the cannon?

[DrDolphin]

After our nose-baking tour of the perfume factory - we headed to lunch. Good thing too - I was STARVING!

The view heading into the mountains about Cannes.

Roman Aquaduct

Remains of the St. Paul bridge that was bombed by the allies during WWII to prevent the Germans from crossing the river. There is a new bridge - but these remain to remind people of the past.

We pulled up to a little hotel and restaurant where we were to eat lunch.

The view of the patio where we ate lunch.

Entering the hotel and restaurant

Salad with a smoky, bacony ham (YUMMY!!!)
I was so busy devouring my lunch - I forgot to take a photo of the main course - so I took a picture of mom's lunch.

It was a chicken with marsala and a potato casserole. More YUMMY!!
There was French red wine and Evian on the table - and we learned that this is the water source for Evian - from waterfalls like these.

We shared a table with 4 other families - all of them were DVC members and were telling me all about being a DVC member and all the benefits.... Made me continue to think about becoming a member.

After a wonderful lunch and biological break - we headed to St. Paul -

This is a Renaissance walled city (very similar to the medieval walled city I visited while we were in Sicily). It also has a funny place in French history - but I will get to that a bit later.
We parked at the bottom of the hill and walked to a park area where there was an open air cafe were we would all have our dessert from lunch. Mom, Jolene and I opted for glace - ICE CREAM!! Jo and I got vanilla - mom got fresh strawberry.

After ice cream - we walked into the square and watched the men of the town play Bolle - similar to bacci for those that are familiar with that lawn bowling game. You can see the cafe we had our dessert in behind the players.

We left the square and started to climb up to the entrance to the city walls. We passed a beautiful little chapel -

And then we came to the famous cannon of St. Paul.

As history tells it, before France was a country - each town was it's own entity - and when St. Paul got a cannon, another town nearby decided to attack and take the cannon away. As the battle was going on, the people of St. Paul ran out of cannon balls..so the town leaders told the people to start eating cherries. Then they collected all of the pits and loaded them into the cannon - shot the pits at the attackers and drove them off.
Don't know if it's true - but can't you just envision everyone in town chowing down on cherries and collecting all the pits??

We entered the town - which is now a tourist, shopping mecca.

It was a lovely little town.

I thought these were so cute! I didn't buy anything - way too expensive - but neat to look at.

Jolene and I at the town well


I love this little well - it says "Eau potable" - which means drinkable water. I think the fish looks like a whale!

Another interesting fact about this town - the painter - Marc Chagall is buried here - in the town's catholic cemetery.

Now if you know anything about Chagall - you know he was Jewish. When he married the second time, he lived in this little town and when he died - his wife petitioned to have him buried in the town's cemetery - since he really loved the town. The request was approved and he is the only Jew buried here. You can enter the cemetery and visit his grave (we didn't do this - but we took photos).

We took photos at the town's overlook - Jolene was really enjoying her photo taking. She even took a photo of Sophie, taking a photo. I am thinking of buying her a nice camera for Christmas.

After touring the town, buying a few post cards and taking way too many photos - we headed to the buses and started the drive back to Villefranche.

Next - a return to Villefranche and back on board the Magic to party the night away!

[DrDolphin]

As we drove back through Nice toward Villefranche - some of us slept, and others of took photos.

We passed the Russian orthodox church

And the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

We also passed a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi - the man that united Italy into the country we know today. Now I thought this was wierd - we were in France afterall - well I found out that Garibaldi was born in Nice, and prior the unification of Italy - Nice was ITALIAN!!! Which is why it looks more like an Italian city as compared to a french city.

As we approached Villefranche - we saw the Magic in the harbor.

We disembarked from the bus, thanked Sophie for a wonderful day and boarded the tender back to the Magic to meet Dad for dinner.


After we made it through security - and took our stuff to the cabin - we headed up for dinner and Jolene asked me to take a photo of her in the porthole -


While we were at dinner - Jolene was working on getting her stamps for the day and it ended up being a comedy routine between Delroy and another server.


I started with the salad with sun-dried tomatoes -


And then a lobster tail (YUMMY!!)



Jolene took the daily photo of fruit and cheese display

And I finished the evening with a chocolate covered chocolate cake!


And I finally have a group photo of our servers -

Stoyan from Bulgaria, Pragalen from South Africa and Delroy from the Grenadines

And then the boys had a little James Bond fun!


After dinner - and before the evening events - we headed back to the room - and found chicken??? waiting for us!


Next - Living Mickey's Dreams

[DrDolphin]

After dinner - we headed to the show, "When Mickey Dreams". This was a special, Med-cruise only show. They brought in acrobats from France and the show was a combination of Disney specials - like the theme music from the Tapestry of Dream parade from EPCOT with the special parts that could only be seen while you were in France.

I should warn you that my batteries died 10 minutes into the show - so thats all the pictures I have.

The show opens with two Disney crew members as the comic relief -


And then the show starts -







After the show - we headed up on Deck to see the Party Paradiso - which should have been cruise wrap up party - which really should have been tomorrow night - but with the switch in schedule between Villefranche and Marseilles - it was tonight... and for some sad reason - I do not have a single photo??? I think I could not find charged batteries for the camera. I did find the show on YouTube -

YouTube - Party Paradiso - Disney Mediterranean Cruise

At least it gives you an idea of what the party was like.

Next - Marseilles; Palo, Terri's cruise souvenir and the Pirate Party!

[lauriep]

Wonderful updates, Terri! I guess your tablemates did their work well talking up the benefits of DVC ownership