The French Riviera (and my mustache)

I got up pretty early in Barcelona and John and Sarah (the couple from Chicago) and I walked over to the train station and boarded a train for Nice (they got off at another town, though).

I had a two-hour layover in Montpellier so I walked into town, found a grocery store and got some blue cheese, bread and a carton of grape juice (yes, unfermented grape juice - which costs more than wine).

I rolled into Nice in the early evening and was able to get a bed in the hostel recommended by both of my guide books and right next to the train station.

My bed was in a room with two Korean girls and a Canadian couple. Across the hall, I heard American voices and went over to say hi. It was two girls from Oregon (Amy and Erica) and a girl (Amanda) from London.

We went out to dinner (along with Omer? from Israel) Pricey and not very good food.

That night I shaved my beard but left the mustache. Ya, mustaches are super cool.

The next morning we went to the beach and laid out for a few hours. The French Riviera is seriously beautiful. The azure water looks so cool. And it was nice to get in and swim for a while.

In the late afternoon, we caught a train to Cannes to check out the film festival. It was en route that I was hit with the cruel realization that I'd forgotten to sunscrean my legs, which were now painted bright salmon.

We went to a grocery store to buy wine (for the girls) and another box of grape juice (for me) for the 40-minute ride to Cannes.

When we got to Cannes, we headed toward the Palais de Festival and saw a caravan of black cars labeled "Zodiac" en route to the premier. When we got to the Palais, we were able to squeeze in 30 or so yards from the red carpet and saw the stars head into the theater for the premier.

Then we went and hung out on the beach for a while.

On our way back to the train station, we walked past the Palais again and the paparazzi was getting ready for the premier to end and the people to walk down the red carpet.

Security let a few people into the area right by the red carpet and we got in. We were a few feet from Jake Gyllenhaal as he left the Palais (based on my experience with the three girls I was with, I gather that that was a pretty big deal).

We caught the train back to Nice right as my legs were about to burst with pain and I rushed to my room to put on some aloe as soon as we got back to the hostel.