Mandelieu-La Napoule 03-08-2019

This trip has been in the planning stage for over a year. Normally, when we plan these trips, we plan them together. A joint effort, with Linda taking the lead in selecting our accommodations, itinerary, dates, etc. On this trip I did the planning, so you can imagine the stress I have been under.
I decided to tie our trip to the French Riviera with a stop in Lake Como, Italy. The plan was to fly into Milan, train up to Como, train back to Milan and then take the train from Milan, Italy to Mandelieu-La Napoule, France. After our stay in France, we will take the train back to Milan and fly home. Simple, right? Everything was going great. Linda flew first class to New York City and I sat behind the curtain. When we left New York for Milan, Linda joined me behind the curtain. We arrived in the Milan train station and were getting ready to go to Como. The ticket agent at Milan asked me if I was aware that the Italian rail service was going on strike the next day. My stress level went up. She suggested that we should return from Como as early as possible the next day in an effort to minimize any travel conflicts. She was confident our train to France would not be affected, not so Como to Milan. We got up early to head back to Milan. I noticed several cancellations on the scheduling board. Fortunately, not us. We arrived back in Milan and boarded our train to Nice, France. I felt an immense level of relief when our train pulled out of the station. We headed south and had a pleasant journey through the Italian countryside. We were supposed to be in Nice at 4:00 pm. Our trip was on schedule, until, we got to Genoa, Italy. At that point, the train stopped for an indefinite delay. I love traveling in a foreign country, but sometimes the language barrier causes you to miss something important that could affect your trip. This was one of those times. There were several announcements over the PA system on the train explaining the delay. We understood that it was a law enforcement delay. After about an hour we got underway. Upon reaching the French border, we stopped again. A number of police officers boarded the train and placed a passenger under arrest. Very interesting. We arrived in Nice two hours late and finally got to our apartment about 7:30. Finally. Risk, reward. Risk, Italian train service. Reward, our apartment in La Napoule, courtesy of Jean-Paul Krebs. My stress level went down and we settled in for the night. A lesson I learned here is to keep it simple. You can have too many moving parts in planning a trip like this.