RMS Caronia Timeline

Tour #36: Tuesday, 25 October 1955

Nice and Monte Carlo

Afternoon and evening, by automobile.

Price: $25 per Person (dinner included)

Tuesday 25 October Itinerary

Writers, artists, the “haut monde”, and the ordinary citizen all flock to the French Riviera. Some in search of sun and fun, others of fame, for many's the enterprising movie starlet who's been “discovered” on these golden shores!

But make no mistake about it, the Côte d'Azur has something for everyone…

• superb swimming and other sports,
• fine hotels,
• attractive pottery,
• fragrant perfumes,
• opulent night clubs and breathtaking scenery

Leaving Villefranche, you'll drive along that glittering scimitar of waterfront known as the Promenade des Anglais, Gambetta, Avenue Thiers, Boulevard Carabacel and into Place d'Armes.

Climbing now to immense altitudes along the Grande Corniche, sitting spellbound at the vistas of seashore and cliff face, you'll come to La Turbie with its Roman War Memorial and Menton, snuggled into a natural amphitheatre and decked out with colourful flowers and fruit orchards.

7pm will find you in Monte Carlo, where dinner will be served at the Hôtel de Paris. This city, part of the Principality of Monaco, is a semi-tropical paradise of hanging gardens, mysterious grottoes and a harbour filled with the pleasure craft of the elite.

Key attraction is the celebrated Casino, which you'll visit in the evening. Transfer service will be maintained between the Casino and the Villefranche pier from 9pm to 12 midnight.

Tour #37: Wednesday, 26 October 1955

Gourdon, Pont du Loup, Vence and St. Paul

Full Day, by automobile.

Price: $22 per Person (luncheon included)

Wednesday 26 October Itinerary

(This trip is entirely different to Tour 38 and passengers wishing to see more of the Riviera are advised to take this Tour and Tour #36.)

Seeing how and where French perfume is made is the feature of this drive to Grasse, centre of France's perfume-making industry. You leave Villefranche and drive straight to Grasse, set on the gentle slopes of Mont Roquerignon.

The perfume factories are small — more like chateaux than factories as we know them — and inside the air is filled with the odours of orange blossoms, roses, and jasmine. You will see vats of dried flowers and huge cannisters of sweet-smelling powder. The paths leading up to the factory are lined with flowers and thick trees.

After the visit to the factory, you drive up to Gourdon, a mountain village perched 2,000 feet above sea level. From here you can look down and along the Riviera from Antibes to Cap Roux, one of the widest and most astonishing views of the whole Riviera.

You lunch in Pont du Loup after the drive down from Gourdon along the Loup River Canyon.

Afterwards, the party proceeds through Vence, to St. Paul, a typical village of this Provençal region, a region which a thousand years ago was the centre of European culture.

The party returns through the rolling hills and villages to Villefranche in time for dinner on the ship.

(Members of this tour cannot participate in Tour 38)

Tour #38: Wednesday, 26 October 1955

Nice and Monte Carlo

Full Day, by automobile.

Price: $22 per Person (luncheon included)

Wednesday 26 October Itinerary

From Villefranche, you proceed up the Grande Corniche Drive — a zig-zag ride up the mountains with magnificent views of the sea at every turn — to La Turbie, an ancient town atop the mountains constructed in honour of Caesar Augustus.

Once the very strategic gate from Italy to Gaul, La Turbie was the scene of heavy Roman fighting; today, with its twisting cobbled passageways lined with old houses, its barred doors and overhanging balconies, it is a typical hilltop town with an ancient past.

You go from here down to Monte Carlo for lunch.

After lunch, you see the elaborate and splendid Palace of the Princes of Monaco with its ornate rooms and picture galleries and then visit the world-famous Casino. Here fortunes have been made and lost overnight.

Your afternoon drive back to Cannes passes through Beaulieu and you arrive in Villefranche, a favorite harbour for ships and sailors from early Phoenician times to the present, in time for dinner on board the CARONIA.

(Members of this tour cannot participate in Tour #37)

[Produced for the 1955 Autumn Mediterranean Cruise by American Express]