I am not a big fan of being away from home over weekends for business but made the exception this time around :-) so that I could be at VMworld 2008 in Cannes after my press and analyst meetings in Vienna and London last week. I've been mostly spending the time quietly - catching up on work, ruminating and taking small excursions nearby. It would have been a lot more fun with company. I was hoping to meet up with my cousin who was to train in from Italy but that got canceled at the last minute.
I've been to France a few times before but mostly in and around Paris. I like France. Actually, I understand and speak some French (very little) as a result of having spent some four years studying it at the Alliance Française for fun a few years ago. This time in France was a different experience for me though. For one thing I had to deal with driving here. This was the first time I have driven outside the US. I am a big fan of public transportation while in Europe. So the first day here was quite an experience as I had no idea where I was going after renting my car at the airport in Nice. Nice is the nearest major airport to Cannes. My hotel is between Nice and Cannes about 15 miles from the airport. The traffic circles, narrow streets and the crazy parking situation all make for an interesting driving experience. It hasn't been too bad after I figured it out. I actually drove to Monaco on Saturday. The drive was simply spectacular. It was sort of cloudy and gray. I can only imagine how drop-dead beautiful this place must be on a nice sunny summer day. Monaco was beautiful but the drive from Nice through the little town of Eze Bord de Mer was the highlight for me.
Today, i.e Sunday I mostly spent time in my hotel and around the beach near my hotel. It started out gray but turned out to be a gorgeous day. I worked on my mail a bit and then ate lunch by the beach. In the afternoon, I took a drive to Cannes to check out the convention center in preparation for tomorrow. The drive was supposed to be about 20 minutes but the traffic was just crazy and ended up taking twice that time. The road by the beach front in Cannes was just packed. I guess everyone was out enjoying the nice day.
Today's highlight was the Crêpe au Chocolat avec Chantilly which I throughly enjoyed. I thought it was just a snack. Stuffed me up. No dinner tonight. That was pretty much the excitement for today.