[ call me ]

REMEMBER this little diamond-in-the-rough I picked up on our cruise day in Nice at the antique market? {see post here}

I know, the poor thing was looking a little unloved. But I knew that I could get her looking as cute as a button.

A bit of a scrub and....

How cute is she?!

I've given her a special spot in the living room and I think she makes a fun accent in the room.

She was a bit heavy to carry around that day and I got a few strange looks when my bag went through the xray when re-embarking the ship.

But for 20 euros, she was a bargain!

Now just to remember not to accidentally pick up her handset whenever my phone rings!

lisa

[ med cruise day 2 - nice ]

No. 2 ~ Nice, France

THIS HAD TO BE my favourite day of our trip. We docked in Villefranche Sur Mer and while some went off to discover Monaco, Monte Carlo or Eze, we chose to take a short train ride further west to Nice.

Before leaving for our trip, I had Googled to see if there were any events happening on the day we would be there. And you'll see why this was my favourite day...

Villefranche was such a cute little place - so picture-perfect. We headed through the narrow streets to find our way to the train station.

I've never seen such a charming train station and I couldn't get over the beautiful floors inside. Thank goodness my guy is French - it makes purchasing tickets so much easier! We waited for the train and took in the pretty views to the beach.

We arrived in Nice about 15 minutes later at a much more elaborate train station.

We made our way through town to the old part of Nice on the shore {we found out later that a new tram could have saved us a lot of walking}.

The seaside area was beautiful with its round pebble beaches. We had a bite at a beach bistro and then off to take in what I was waiting for...

an antique market!

I couldn't believe my luck that there would be a French antique market happening on the one day we were there! For any of you who love this sort of thing as much as I do, you may need to sit down for this...

And so what did I buy? 

Well, I have to admit that it was gut-wrenching to have to limit my purchases {I had to keep in mind lugging it all back to the ship and flying home}.

So I eliminated the chandeliers, heavy piles of linen and beautiful furniture and narrowed it down to some art for our new place and a couple of special finds.


a few vintage advertisements to frame for an art wall...

a couple of old seaside gallery posters...

a vintage French phone

{needs a good cleaning but I got it for 20 euros compared to a clean one a couple of booths away for 60 euros}

and the most special purchase of the day?

a vintage 1970s Louis Vuitton...

The thing I loved most about this bag, was the lovely French woman who sold it to me.

It had belonged to her now 85 yr old sister who had received several LVs over the years from her American husband when he travelled and this was the last one she owned. I couldn't help but snap her pic - I could have brought her home with me, she was so adorable.

I'm so glad I discovered the market was happening that day - otherwise we may have headed to Monte Carlo not knowing.

So can you see why Nice was my favourite day of the trip?

lisa