I'm watching the England/Italy game at The Snug while typing this blog, thanks babe for letting me come get a beer!

We're getting back on schedule, even though Maclaren kept us up until 3am last night, but we were up by 9am this morning, and out the door by 10. Through Old Nice to the park, where we stumble upon this huge plaza with a fountain/splash pad, which incites MD to go running crazily through the spray misters with me chasing after her. At the end of the park there is this awesome, old school carousel that looks likes it's from the 1930's...of course we let MD ride "the bluuuuu horsie daddy!".

GOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! England scores right after Italy.

On the bus to St. Paul de Vence (pronounced Vaance); we get the last seat, so Heather and Maclaren sit down. At the next stop a lady gets off and the guy sitting next to Heather slides across and puts his daughter on his lap with his wife next to him, so I slide in and Heather, MD, and I share 2 seats. For the next 10 stops more and more people get on the bus and no one gets off...starting to feel like the Italian train again, there is AC but there are so many people on the bus that it doesn't feel like it! Along the way an elderly lady got on the bus and that dad across the aisle got up to give her his seat, now he is standing halfway down the bus, while I sit. I feel bad he is basically standing because for me, but its so hot on the bus, I'm constantly fanning MD and Heather so they don't throw up...so I guess its ok. 20 stops and 50 minutes later we arrive at St Paul de Vence, but we hesitate and don't get off the bus in time...so its on up the hill to the next stop, Vence. Luckily its only 10 minutes until the return bus shows up, so we're back in St Paul 20 minutes after we should have been.

Holy cow! This is a beautiful town! We wonder if it was this pretty back in mid-evil times? It probably didn't have all the charming flowers or cute signs and shops; more likely it was grimy and had stray dogs laying about. The town is very touristy, the shops don't have much of anything original or crafty, even the paintings are geared to tourists, but somehow it maintains its charm and alure...we really love this little town. It doesn't take more than 45 minutes to walk and shop across the width of the town, see the lookout point at the far end, and another 45 minutes to walk around the back side and see a couple more points of interest. There is a cool chapel/church in the middle of the town that is having a wedding right as we walked up to it, so we didn't get to go in; but man, what a cool place to get married and spend a night or two on honeymoon! MD is getting grumpy, its nap time, and the cobble streets aren't working to let her sleep, so we head back to the bus.

Luckily the bus was partially empty and we're able to find a seat for both of us with MD on Heather's lap. At the next stop the bus fills up to the brim and the driver skips the rest of the stops on the way down the hill and goes direct to the last stop on the route, which is just fine by us! Back on the carousel for another ride as we enter the park, this girl loves this thing! We have to bribe her off of it with a promise of ice cream. She's been a trooper, riding in her stroller through St. Paul, which for her was nothing but boring, so we changed her into her bathing suit and let her run wild through the water fountain with a bunch of other kids. This girl is destined to be a marathon runner, she must have ran back and forth across the 200 yard water fountain 10 times non-stop, with me in tow behind her. Screaming the whole way, attracting everyone in the parks attention in a totally cute, beautiful child kind of way.

Another bribe of ice cream to get her to leave the water fountain even after 30 solid minutes of running and splashing in it.

Tonight we are going to splurge on fancy French meal, so I have spot picked out, but when we arrive at 6pm, we find out that not only do none of the restaurants open until 7pm, but this one is also full of reservations for the entire night...BUMMER! But they give us a recommendation for another restaurant down the street named, Han Gout. This restaurant is also full of reservations, but after a brief minute of talking to the manager, I tell him that we're ready to eat now and we are American so no need for a 3 hour reservation like the French! Feed us and we'll be out in an hour...so we get a table for 3 at 7pm (45 mins to walk and shop in Old Town). The food is definitely French fine dining, meaning no chicken and for that matter, not much of anything that is recognizable. But the steak I had was top notch.

A stroll back through Cours Saleya for some ice cream and back to the apartment where Maclaren summarily passes out the moment we walk in the door.