Cruise Day 10: Villefranche

At the beginning of the cruise, when we were planning what to do and when, we didn't have any good ideas for the last port stop in Villefranche, on the southern coast of France between Nice and Monaco. We knew the port would be tendered, so that's a hassle, and looking at the official cruise excursions didn't give us any ideas (visit a fancy car museum/collection in Monte Carlo, taste wine and cheese in Nice, etc.) so we decided it would be played "by ear." This gave us the option of staying on the ship if we were tired, or if the on-board activities were more fun than we were expecting. We elected to take this option, and started off a beautiful day in the bay of Villefranche with a late brunch at the Topsider Buffet, which was featuring a special menu: A Taste of Provence.

May 24, 2010

At the beginning of the cruise, when we were planning what to do and when, we didn't have any good ideas for the last port stop in Villefranche, on the southern coast of France between Nice and Monaco. We knew the port would be tendered, so that's a hassle, and looking at the official cruise excursions didn't give us any ideas (visit a fancy car museum/collection in Monte Carlo, taste wine and cheese in Nice, etc.) so we decided it would be played "by ear." This gave us the option of staying on the ship if we were tired, or if the on-board activities were more fun than we were expecting. We elected to take this option, and started off a beautiful day in the bay of Villefranche with a late brunch at the Topsider Buffet, which was featuring a special menu: A Taste of Provence.

Villefrance-sur-Mer, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

I suppose we felt like we had stumbled on some well-kept secret, that the buffet has better food on the port days, but this was the first day we didn't have anything particular planned so we could have the opportunity to find this out. Anyhow, we enjoyed some aubergine salad, asparagus in truffle jus, Spanish-style pinxtos (little bruchettas) with fresh mozzarella and tomato, a fair attempt at a coq au vin, and sliced baguette to pair with our French cheeses with Corsican confiture du chataigne, and the muscato from La Spezia. Oh, what a splendid banquet, and the clear blue sky, and the steep hills of Villefranche just across the water. It was an awesome brunch.

Tapas at the lunch buffet, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Banquet on deck, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Though we woke late, I still managed to visit the gym and rainforest room at the spa before breakfast, and I was feeling very refreshed, with the good workout, relaxing steam and lush mid-morning feast. Ryan's been wanting to play shuffleboard on the ship, I think since we started considering the cruise, so we went and played a couple games of that and then spent more time exploring the ship. (There's a pool we can see but can't figure out how to get to. Our best deduction was that it was reserved for some top-end stateroom suites, but even then we couldn't find the logical door. Several times when we thought we were on the right track, we were blocked by a Staff Only door. Later someone confirmed that it's a staff pool, which I suppose makes more sense.)

Shuffleboard, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Now we're tired, so we headed to our room for a little reading, but then decided what we needed was a good beer. We'd seen some Murphy's Stout on tap at several of the bars, so at 4:00 (a perfectly respectable drinking hour, I'd say, especially for an afternoon beer), we went in search of our Stouts. The first bar we tried was closed and there was nothing going on there. We wandered to another bar and found it closed, too, but then we ran into Lola (a girl I met earlier on the ship when I was rescuing a drowning dragonfly) and she had just begun a game of Wheel of Fortune as a pass-time. We joined her team and ended up winning the game. One of the other teams was an older couple who had done two back-to-back cruises aboard the Magic and had now been at sea nearly 20 days! And they'd played Wheel of Fortune on the ship before, and despite having seen several of the questions in earlier games, they still managed to get a final score of zero. Sigh. Our main competition was the third team, which gave us a good run for our (fake) money. We had just reversed the lead for the third or fourth time when the round ended with us in first place. The woman running the game decided that some prizes were in order, so she returned with little plastic balls of lip balm for each contestant. Mine was pineapple scented.

Promenade lounge, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Then we went to the last bar where we hoped to find our beers, and we did find them there, and tried to play a trivia game with Lola on our team again, but we didn't do as well. But the beer was good.

Tonight's entertainment was a crew talent show, which was fun, but again not as spectacular as the big production shows. We heard some amazing vocals from several cast members, but then there were also a couple hokey numbers that could have been skipped. So it goes. It was a shorter show that started late, so we came dressed for dinner already, which for us tonight will be at the exclusive restaurant (requiring reservations), Palo's.

Oh, what we ate: four cheese pizza to start with (shared between us), with gorgonzola and soft white cheeses on a delectably crisp crust; my grilled shrimp salad which was terrific, though Ryan's calamari wasn't as spectacular as the reviews from other people predicted. I had room for a marché salad before the main course. For mains, Ryan had lamb, which was delicious, and I dared a halibut with ginger-orange sauce, but shouldn't have (the sauce was too sweet and not nearly bold enough for me, and I found the fish soft and weak instead of robust; sigh, again). We ordered the obligatory chocolate soufflé for dessert, broken with a spoon and filled with dark chocolate sauce; and shared a tiramisu, too, with a shot of espresso poured across the top. We drank a bottle of wine with the meal and staggered out happy.

Dressed up for Palo, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

Yummy lamb at Palo, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

We made a quick change at the room before heading off to Rockin' Bar D again for socializing and dancing and had another good night that ran long past bedtime. Lola and her friends were there, and I think Evan and his gang, too. Michelle may have joined us, and several of our Table 12 mates. This is how the last several evenings were, so on any night this may be true. We talked and danced and stopped for a breath when the music went to hip hop, and then requested new songs and got up and danced again. By the end, DJ Matt was tossing in our choices without waiting for us to pester him, and we had so much fun I sweated in all my shirts and never got more than 5 hours of sleep before we had to get up and do it all over again.
Tomorrow's our last full day, a sea day, and then we'll be back in Barcelona for disembarkation. Wah.

Sunset, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat