Sea Day/Cannes

August 5th/6th
Sea Day/Cannes

I don’t remember the 5th, it was a sea day, and I believe a production show. Most of the day was spent reading. Oh, and it was spent inside because I got a lovely sunburn on my shoulders from reading the day before outside…silly me
As for the 6th, that’s a little more interesting. The ship anchored in Cannes, located in the French Riviera, and world renown for its film festival. I’ve been to Cannes once before on a tour with my first ship and was excited to be returning. On my last visit, of which I was allowed 90 minutes to roam the city, I spent the first hour running through the area looking for a bathroom that I was in desperate need of – I made sure relieve myself prior to leaving the ship this time.
I got off the ship with a few friends from the band, there were five of us in total. We had a couple objectives: buy cheese and go to the beach. We figured the more intelligent first stop would be at the beach before we had accumulated any cheese, so that’s what we went looking for. After walking towards the downtown area of the city and realizing that there didn’t seem to be any free beaches, we adjusted course away from the water and began exploring, looking for whatever caught our eye. After some walking, one of my friends found some strawberries at a market, which he bought and then walked with. Then Ben, the tenor player, found some cheese that caught his eye, which he also bought and threw in his bag. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but Ben used to work in a cheese shop in Texas, making him the band expert on cheeses, and let me say that he certainly has earned that distinction. On this instance he bought some kind of “triple crème brie,” or at least that’s what I understood it to be. I then ended up buying some bread to share with the group, at which point, we decided to go to a café, get espressos, and have a mock picnic on all our foods. Man, what a good idea. We all sat outside at a café with our drinks, eating really delicious bread (French bread and a “cereal” loaf which was unbelievable) topped with great cheese and strawberries to match. Another guy picked up some large chocolate cookies for the group as well, I guess as a dessert. Anyways, that was a fantastic idea and thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Following the picnic, we moved on towards the free beaches back near the ship. After picking the most promising area, we all did what we’ve been yearning to do since summer began, go swimming. And after months in the cold of the Baltics, nothing could have been nicer than a well-deserved swim in the Mediterranean. Eventually, half the group broke off while I stayed behind with Patrick and Ben to continue our enjoyment of the beach. I eventually purchased some beach paddles for 5 euros, which only prolonged our time at the oasis of sand and sea. We eventually left due to a rehearsal, and seeing as I was starting to fear the worsening of my already burnt shoulders, not a minute too soon. It was a great time though, and those French beaches are certainly nice (and I don’t mean for the sand). The rest of the day panned out as usual. Thanks for reading!