Perfumes, a princess and pasta!

Sighhhh. Today was our last full day and I think we made it a good one. We headed out about 8am this morning toward Èze and took a tour of Fragonard, a perfume factory. We learned what all it takes to make a high-quality perfume, including tons and tons of flowers to get one liter of essential oil. We also learned that usually high-quality, "real" perfumes have a symphony of head notes, heart notes and base notes so they may have up to nine or ten different scents to make up one beautiful perfume. 

After Fragonard, we went just a few more miles along the Corniche to get to Monaco. There, we saw the changing of the guards at the palace (well, except for us short people - we saw mostly helmets and tops of guns). Then we had some free time to explore the streets and visit the cathedral where Princess Grace Kelly is buried.

Then we went another few miles and crossed the Italian border and went a little farther to Sanremo, Italy which was such a treat. We had opted to wait for Italy for lunch so we could have some of their world-famous pasta or pizza. Then after a quick walking tour of the old town with its narrow, cobbled streets, we had some free time to shop or eat gelato.

At 6pm, we drove about 1 1/2 hours back to our hotel for dinner. After dinner, some of us walked down to the beach that was about a 15-minute walk from our hotel and lo and behold: sand! (Not rocks like in Nice.) We played in the water until about 10pm and then trekked home to repack and reorganize for tomorrow's air travel. 

So we've had a wonderful time. We've seen a lot, we've learned a lot and we have lots of stories to tell you. So thanks for following the blog for this year's installment. Thanks especially to the parents that allowed your children to travel with me on this trip. You cannot even begin to imagine what they've experienced and it means the world to me that you've entrusted your babies to me and my other chaperones to travel this far without you.