Aix-en-Provence and the Cote d'Azur Drive

We spent our last night in Aix yesterday, Thursday, May 13th. We intended to get up and drive to Avignon to see the Palais des Papes, but decided to simply relax and spend the day in Aix instead. We got some laundry done, shopped (Roberto got some great new Diesel sneakers), and ate dinner at Chez Charlotte, which was fantastic. I had an incredibly fresh gazpacho and vegetable plate with quiche and salad, and Roberto had a steak. The one hiccup was when I told him he was ordering a beef appetizer and it ended up being a poached egg in a sour cream soup (our waiter didn't speak English), and with the handwritten menu I thought l'oeuf (egg) said boeuf (beef). It was delicious anyway!
We woke up early this morning to drive along the Cote d'Azur to our last stop in France, Nice. What a gorgeous trip! We traveled through St. Tropez, St. Raphael, St. Maxime, and Cannes, which is in the midst of its world-famous film festival right now. The traffic was so congested that it took over an hour to get 1 km through town, but I thought it was worth it! We saw the red carpet where the stars walk, lots of self-important people with badges strutting around, and the paparazzi camped outside the glitziest hotels. At one point we heard screaming and everyone outside the Martinez Hotel started snapping pictures furiously, but we couldn't see who they were taking pictures of. We couldn't park the car, so Roberto just drove inch by inch while I jumped out here and there to take photos. Some I took from the car's window. It was neat!
After fighting lots of traffic along the way, we arrived here in Nice, which I was expecting to be a little dirty from reading its Lonely Planet description. I am SO pleasantly surprised, though! It's clean, walkable, and fun. We had an amazing Italian dinner at Pasta Basta in the Old City, then walked along Promenade des Anglais for a little sightseeing. Tomorrow morning we're headed to Monaco, then back to nice for a little more sightseeing and shopping!