Villefranche Sur Mer and Monaco

Villefranche is in the South of France and has a very small town feel to it. We decided to take the train into Monaco and spend part of the day. Later we would explore Villefranche. The Monaco train station won our vote for Overall Best Train Station. It was very clean and modern. After we got off the train we walked up to the palace and saw the changing of the guards. We strolled along the streets and into the Royal Gardens, which were in full bloom and had a spectacular view of the harbor and the yachts. Sydney and Eric each picked out their own yacht! We picnicked in this area and then the kids fed the overly large seagulls, which appear to have been living off people food.

I explained to Sydney who Grace Kelley was and how she became Princess Grace by marrying the Prince of Monaco. We visited the large cathedral in which the royalty is buried and saw Princess Grace's tombstone that had a lot of fresh flowers on it. 

Next stop was the Oceanographic Museum, which was founded by Prince Albert. It had one of the best aquariums we’ve ever seen! The kid’s favorite spot was the tank that had hundreds of little Nemo’s swimming around in it! Then it got a little weird in some of the other areas of the museum. Sydney said (and I agree) that the strangest display was a sheep that had been cut in half so you could see what it looked like inside. Not sure of the purpose of that one or how it relates to oceanography! The French are definitely a serious people and each room had an attendant who made sure no one sat next to exhibits or came too close to them. In fact there was a line that you must not cross and if you do they would tell you to back away. We even saw one family who was getting too close and the attendant blew his whistle at them! Pretty funny to observe!

Back in Villefranche we decided to do some exploring and came upon an underground street. Not sure the story on it but I seem to recall it was built so the residents would be protected during the war. I could have just made that up but there may be some truth to it! It goes for quite a ways and we determined that there are ghosts living there because as I was trying to take a photo there was a mysterious white line down the center of my viewfinder yet when I looked at the actual photo it was gone. There was another couple taking photos as well and this strange white line appeared on his viewfinder too!

It was a beautiful day and just perfect for walking around. We love being able to just hop on the train and go to some new destination. European trains are so efficient and are ridden by travelers, locals, and business people. It makes spontaneous travel super easy! We originally had not planned on going into Monaco but I’m glad we did, as it was definitely worthwhile and Sydney and Eric had a great time!