The forecast called for rain but we had a beautiful day for touring Cannes, Antibes and Nice. We strolled around Cannes before meeting up with our tour guide for the afternoon. Jennifer was an ex-pat from Hong Kong and very knowledgeable about her adopted home. She showed us the delightful twisting streets and alleyways of Antibes before moving on down the road to Nice. We didn't find all that much of appeal in Nice and it didn't really compete after the rustic beauty of Cannes and Antibes.

As we headed out of Cannes we drove by the main theater of the film festival. The red carpet was out again for a special event coming this weekend. We didn't see any familiar faces except for Charlize Theron and Eva Longoria in advertisements and on billboards. It was pretty funny actually to see Eva Longoria on a sandwich board advertising ice cream treats from a trailer-like the Good Humor man.

Seems everywhere we go we walk with ghosts of the past. Today it was Picasso and Napoleon. Picasso lived out the end of his life in this area and painted prolifically in Antibes. When he left he donated over 150 of his paintings to the city. A museum was created and the collection is still intact today even though the museum is being renovated. It was supposed to be open this month but the renovations are running behind schedule. We couldn't help but speculate that happens often.

Napoleon passed through this area while in exile. He escaped into the Alps where he was offered hospitality by the locals. It's very common to see houses with signs saying "Napoleon passed by here".

I loved hearing the story of the origin of Dumas' story of The Man in the Iron Mask. I've never read the book so I'm going to have to now to see how the stories compare. I didn't even realize it was set in this area. Our guide was particularly partial to the movie version with Leonardo di Caprio.

You can see the photo of the bookstore in Antibes (ahn-TEEB). The accordion player posed while I shot frame after frame. I think he finally got tired and his song was ending so he is bowing in this photo. Little did he know I was shooting the sign on the bookstore behind him.

That's it for today. Tomorrow will be a really long tour day as we visit Florence and Pisa.