A helicopter flight from Nice to Monaco takes 7 minutes. Here you see one of the company cars advertising the St. Tropez trip from Monaco. Only 20 minutes - quick and stunningly beautiful by air. The same trip to St. Tropez by car, especially on that very windy road once you are off the autoroute, can take forever, especially in summer.
Five years ago a friend hired a helicopter, so he could photograph his house in Apricale (in Italy) from the air and I was lucky enough to be invited along. We met up here at the Heliport - no rude comments on the clothes and clogs! My friend wore a headset with a microphone so he could communicate with the pilot and everyone snapped away like crazy. As we flew home he told me to show the pilot where I lived so we could photograph my house but I couldn't find it. Everywhere looks different from the air! When I got home to Gorbio, friends in the village and my neighbour told me there had been a helicopter zapping around the valley...never did get that photo!Update on Mama Mia and Mistral on Postcards today.
Jilly,
ReplyDeleteYour photo of the advertisement showing the silhouette of the woman on the deck of a boat reminds me of a travel story that some of your Riviera readers might enjoy.
My late father, at about age 70, was on a vacation on a Greek island and went out for a long distance swim with a friend. They swam by a boat in the harbor and saw a woman on the deck sunbathing topless. Now this is probably nothing unusual to you folks on the Riviera, but my father's friend then pointed out that there was another boat in the harbor, and suggested that they swim by it. Off they swam, and what did they see on the deck? Another topless woman sunbathing. So they swam by another boat. Same thing. And another, etc.
After swimming by I don't know how many boats, they realized that they were so tired they could never swim back to where they started. So they swam to the nearest point of land and walked back to their hotel along the beach.
When they reached the beach right next to their hotel, what did they see? An entire beach full of people sun bathing topless.
The other odd twist to this story is that my father had very poor distance vision, and without his glasses he had double vision. Whatever he saw must have looked like a Picasso painting.
In defense of my late father, I should mention that the above story is quite out of character for him. He was a strait-laced person, the son of a coal miner and steel mill worker who died of tuberculosis when my father was young. My father worked on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company in the 1930's to save money to go to college, then enlisted in the Navy and spent World War II in the South Pacific, followed by making a career out of his naval service. He was not a frivolous person, except for his unnecessary and frolic and detour while swimming off a Greek island.
That must have been a wonderful experience!
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought the silhouette of the woman was really a shadow :)
David, I love the story of your father - charming and funny - and am sure any one who arrives here will too. Thankyou.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is an eye-catching advertisement!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a grand time. I'd love to do a helicopter ride one day - with or without the camera!
ReplyDeletehope you get another chance sometime
ReplyDeleteGreat shot, Jilly!
ReplyDeleteIt must be incredible to go on a helicopter ride on the French Riviera. I'll definitely have to do it someday - for now, I have Google Earth.
P.S. I'm a clog person too! :)
You have such a big smile coming out of that helicopter,you brave girl!!!
ReplyDeleteThe ad looks so much like that the real thing!
great catch!
Ah, lifestyles of the rich and famous. Anyone who is a frequent customer of the helicopter service between Monte Carlo and St. Tropez might be viewed as an enemy of the people in certain quarters. Which is not to say I wouldn't go along for the ride. When warm weather returns I really must fork out the money for a helicopter ride over the Arch and St. Louis riverfront.
ReplyDelete