Gone to the Dogs...and Marseille

Every year in March, Monaco hosts dog agility trials.  The dogs and their humans take over the main quay, and it's impossible to pass by without stopping to look and laugh.  There's always at least one dog who decides, about halfway through the course, to stop and visit with some dog on the sidelines.  This year, a poodle was the laugh winner when she got to the top of the walk-over bridge, stopped, sat down, and surveyed the area.  No amount of coaxing was going to get that dog off that bridge until she was good and ready.  Some dogs, however, were in better form:

The guy having the most fun of all was the judge! 

Last year, we got talking about going to Marseille to see what it's like.  This year, we went.  Took the train over, stayed at a nice hotel that was in the middle of the city's attractions.  We have to say it's the first time that we could hear the "call to prayers" from our hotel window at morning and evening.  And it wasn't coming from a mosque, it was coming from a rented storefront behind the hotel.  Let's just say that Marseille is more of an Algerian and Tunisian experience than a French one.

So, the first thing you do when in Marseille is climb up the hill to Notre Dame de la Garde.

 
It's worth the climb to see the interior of the church:

Not to mention the view outside.  We caught our breath just in time to see MSC Cruises arrive.

After Notre Dame, we walked all over town, visiting the two forts that guard the harbor and a number of other churches, each of which had something unique to offer.  Here are a couple of our favorites:

At the end of the day, we'd say that Marseille was interesting and we're glad we went.  We won't knock ourselves out to go back again, though.

So now we're finishing up another year in Nice and it's time to face the pack-up and the plane ride home.  It's been another great year and once again, we've eaten so much duck that we're growing feathers.

Carnaval Nice 2013

Theme this year:  King of Five Continents. 

The King begins his circuit of the parade route:

The USA is represented as...

Fire breathing dragon!

Look closely...see the hands?  There are two people in the dragon's mouth.

And speaking of breathing fire:

As always, the Big Head creators have a wonderful sense of humor.  The king burns tonight, and next year's will be the King of Gastronomie.  Finally, Virgin Media joined the Carnaval mood with this piece of advertising...

Love it.

Formula 1 Test at Barcelona

Each year the Formula 1 teams do some testing before the race season begins.  One of the tests usually takes place at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona in late February.  This year, we decided to drop everything (like we're doing a lot here) and go.

One can't get to Barcelona by train unless traveling via Paris or Madrid can be forced to make sense, so we ventured into the realm of low-cost European airlines:  Vueling (Spain) out and Easyjet (GB) home.  The tickets were dirt cheap and we were impressed!  These airlines put the US carriers to shame...on time, no hassle, clean aircraft, friendly people. 

Anyway, we've only traveled to the track from downtown Barcelona via car, and this time, we had to get there by commuter train.  Someone on a blog said that RENFE's (the Spanish train operator) website is a nightmare to negotiate.  It's true, and so is their train system.  After a false start that landed us at a lovely major train station in Barcelona where we did not want to be, we did figure out how to get going the right way.  Once in Montmelo, the nearest town, it's about a two-mile walk to the track.

The neat things about testing are that there's almost always someone on the track and and there's almost always no one on the grounds.  We stood in areas we've never been to before because they're always covered with people during the race days.  You'd think that you'd get to see some Formula 1 "people" wandering around, but no.  As soon as the car goes into the garage, a screen is put up so no one can see in.  This to prevent espionage, we suppose.  Lots of fun though.  We did see our favorites drive, and some of the newer drivers even did full race simulations, including pit stops.

See the weeds growing up through the seats in the photo below?  They won't be there in May!

There goes Sebastian Vettel!

Perez (new to McLaren this year) hits the garages.

And Kimi Raikonnen, too.