Winter Carnival

Since leaving the United States and crossing the Atlantic. After many drill and even a rescue of a very ill merchant sailor from a ship at sea we arrive at the French Riviera. Imagine how glad we are to see trees and buildings. In the back ground are the Maritime French Alps.

For some of the new crew members, it is the first foreign country that they will see.

It is just our luck that we have arrived during the Nice winter carnival. We anchor off the coast of Cannes, on the Riviera. Home of the Cannes Film festival and playground of movie stars. We are close to St. Tropiz and to Monaco and the castle of Princess Grace. By train we can go to all these places and still get back to the ship before we are Awol. I visited a town named Grass where they make perfume. Those of us that toured the perfume factory returned to the ship smelling like a French lady of the evening. I got my mom a bottle of "Christmas Night' (Noe de Noel) and send it to her. Many months later I learn the my little niece had dumped it all on her bed.

Best of all was the winter carnival in Nice. Dress blues were in season this time around. Confetti was a very marketalbe item in Nice. It was all over the place and in no time at all we were covered in confetti. You may not know that confetti will stick to wool dress blues like white to an egg. It took forever to get it off and if any was left laying around it found it's way back to your uniform.

The harbor in Monaco is beautify. It was something seeing all the yachts tied to the piers. The biggest one in harbor when I was there was the royal yacht of Princess Grace and Princes Renee. Their castle looks like a story book picture with guards in candy strip uniforms standing in little cute guard houses.

We take a well deserved rest. We tour the towns, the Casino at Monte Carlo and some of us (not me) go skiing. We took time to visit the museum of Jace Costo.

All in all, a nice time but a sore taste caused by the people of France. They didn't seem to like Americans. Even after 2 world war fought to keep them free.

In to short a time, we must depart for more training. We are not there to have fun, we are there to protect our home land. Better to defend it over there then over here.