#Nice

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Leaving Nice for Paris

We sadly made sure all our stuff was packed and ready to go for our 6:30 am taxi ride to the airport to go back to Paris for day 4 there.

I had thoroughly loved Nice. My go fund me campaign suggestion wasn’t getting any traction at all so we grudgingly shut the apartment down and went downstairs to wait for our cab. Maybe my love of Nice came from it being a mini vacation on my vacation. Or, more likely, I just really enjoyed it there.

Our flight was delayed over half an hour after we were all in the jetway waiting to board. We all lined up a 2nd time (So much for Speedy Boarding). While we were all waiting, a couple of police officers came up to the front of the queue, huddled with the ticket agent and scanned the crowd. The line barely started moving when we again stopped and the police were leaving with 2 men from the front of the line. They didn’t seem happy to go but they weren’t in handcuffs. As the line moved, 2 women got out of line and walked in the same direction the men had gone. Maybe we’ll have an empty seat beside us. (No)

Well, we are on the plane this time so maybe we’ll be on our way soon.

And sure enough, we were soon moving.

I think it’s a hotel. It’s really big whatever it is.

It’s so easy to just use my cell phone that I kept it out for the flight and never did take my camera out.

Soon we were off the ground and turning over the sea to clear the area.

I miss it already

By now we were heading north and I could see mountains. All I saw was clouds on the way down so it was a much more interesting flight going back.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the lack of alpine lakes. Living in Canada spoils you to the amount of water we have. Most of the water I saw was reservoirs and not actual lakes. It seemed really weird to me.

The mountains gave way to flatter ground.

Soon, Paris came into view and as we made a turn to line up with the runway, I caught site of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

As we were taxing to the gate, many people got up to get their luggage ready to disembark. (Even with the fasten seatbelt sign still being on.) We stopped and the announcement was made to exit through the front door. But no one was moving and time was ticking by. Suddenly it got light behind us (we were 5 rows from the back) and people were going out the back door. So, Lynda and I followed the small crowd. After crossing the tarmac and climbing the stairs, we were with the people who got out the front door.

It was a nice easy exit from the airport with no bags to wait for and soon we were in a taxi to Lucille and Curtis’ place.

The had taken their cats to the vet so it was a quiet, empty apartment when we got back.

They were back soon enough and we headed out for lunch and ended up at Le Circus.

I tried a Spritz. While not terrible, all I taste in it is the wine so not really my thing.

I tired their burger. Not used to being ask how I would like it cooked though. Even asking for it well done, it was pretty raw in the middle. It tasted good but was really different than I’m used to.

We walked to a local fruit and vegetable market. My wife got in trouble for touching the avocados (The sign on them started “Ne touche pas …” The lady there asks you when you plan to use it and she’ll give you on with the proper ripeness. In Lynda’s defense, we aren’t used to such large avocados and she was pretty excited to try one. (It was good, for an avocado.)

We headed back to the apartment for the afternoon until supper time came around.

We were going to try the new hot pot place – The X Pot – that opened at 6:45 pm. We walked over and arrived around 7:00 pm. We hadn’t booked a reservation so they had no available space for us.

It’s not like you can’t find food in Paris so we walked over to Italie 2 mall and tried Hippopotamus Modern Steakhouse.

I had a glass of champagne and a glass of Coke (No, I didn’t mix them together).

We ordered chicken nachos and a chicken skewer. Lucille was ordering in French and we all heard her ask for poulet and she pointed at the photo on the menu. The waitress asked how she’d like it cooked and with a questioning tone, Lucille said, “Pour poulet?” The waitress answered, “Oui.” So we all said, “Well done.”

And when the food came, it was boeuf, not poulet. Weird tasting chicken they have here in France. It was good, but not what we ordered. Lynda and Curtis got their drinks for free and we got a couple of apologies from the waitress and hostess.

At least it wasn’t something none of us liked.

Stopped in the grocery store at the mall on the way home and I have never seen a grocery store with ceiling so low. Usually there is a whole lot of room over the shelves but I felt a bit claustrophobic in there.

So apparently I didn’t take any photos in Paris today.

I got 14k steps in though

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Nice, Day 3

Friday, September 16th is exactly 4 months from Lynda and my 25th wedding anniversary. Since my wife and I were living in separate cities back in May, we decided to use today as our celebration day. With that in mind, we had a do whatever we want day.

We started with a late breakfast at Mamma Mia. We picked it because it was right at the start of the outdoor market and Lynda really, really wanted to shop in the market. That was the only place we had more than 1 meal in a place. (I’m not counting the bubble tea place.)

There is such a variety of stuff at the market and Lynda got some hard candies and some really, good black olives.

Walking through the market was a nice stroll but it was about 26 degrees C out so we stopped for a bubble tea. (See, 2nd place that we’ve been too more than once.) We had decided to walk down to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a shot glass for Curtis for his collection and taking a drink along helped a lot.

The walk was long enough and breakfast small enough that we could have lunch. We just shared nachos and I got a strawberry basil lemonade. (And it was awesome.)

We walked back through a park area and ended up in the square we had been in on our first day. It looked different with the sun shining.

The tram looked interesting but we never did take it anywhere.

As we walked we could see a fountain area in the distance. The water stopped as we got closer but we sat on a bench in the shade and waited to see if it would start up again.

After about 20 minutes or so, the water started back up.

Lynda was really looking forward to going swimming and I wanted to get to the top of Castle Hill – the “mountain” behind our apartment. There is quite a bit of stuff up there in a fairly small area that we had yet to explore.

We decided we could take the elevator up to the top of the hill and wander through and take the back stairs down to our street and go home and change for the beach.

The view from the top is really nice and the blonde girl makes it better.

I decided I’d do a panorama from the rail.

We wandered through the park to find the stairs. We knew we were close when we looked down to see the harbour our apartment faces.

Hey, we can see our house from here. Our apartment is in the building with the skylight, just to the left of the rock.

A bit more resting in the shade while I looked for things to take photos of.

Soon we found the stairs and headed down.

I got a photo of my bride coming down the stairs as the last photo I’d take today.

We weren’t far from our apartment and we were soon changing into swimwear. Wanting to keep it simple to keep an eye on our stuff, we wouldn’t bring a camera or a phone with us.

While it wasn’t as hot today as yesterda (Only about 28 degrees C) it was still warmer than I like so I was happy to go cool off.

Lynda knew I really didn’t enjoy the beach so when we got to Castle Plage – Waterfront perch offering Mediterranean-style seafood & artisanal ice cream, plus beach rentals, she said, “Lets go down there.”

So for a small nominal fee – $20 euros for the perch and $25 euros for the umbrella, we lounged in comfort along the sea. (3 rows back actually but that kept us dry from the waves.)

Lynda went and sat on the shore while I lounged for a bit before joining her.

The rocky beach is hard to walk on for people like me who never go there so getting into the sea seems easy enough but getting out in the big waves and steep slope seems a challenge so letting the waves splash me was good enough for me. I figure that my wife is a much better swimmer than me and she was nervous about it, why tempt fate.

Cooled off, we went back to our loungers and ordered a margarita each. It was a slush like I’m used to but it wasn’t as good as my Mamma Mia one from the other day.

Lynda finished hers before me and soon I had a drunk wife on my hands. It was pretty funny to watch but she giggled like a school girl and for the first time in a long time, I know she was relaxed. I enjoyed just sitting there holding her hand, watching and hearing the waves. It was very relaxing.

We lounged for over an hour before they came to close off our tab and we decide we’d wander downtown to look for food.

Luckily it wasn’t too far and we picked Di Yar as our supper stop.

Another Margarita for me (This one over ice, better than my last one but not better than Mamma Mia.) and my still more than tipsy wife decided on a Long Island Ice Tea.

Being how she can’t seem to eat and drink very close together, Lynda consumed her drink rather quickly.

More giggling ensued as our food came.

The meal was good but Lynda was too full of iced tea to eat much of her meal.

After supper, we decided to walk through the shopping/bar area around the side streets and alleys to take the “scenic” route home. I did have to hang on to Lynda’s hand the entire way but that is never a chore.

I wanted to find a Nice tee shirt to buy but the shop I thought I’d seen the day before was either closed or I was mistake on what street it was on.

We got our steps in and somehow Lynda got to 10k steps before me, and that was before she was drinking so I know it wasn’t from weaving from side to side.

Bed time was soon after getting back as we had an early start in the morning. Lynda was asleep (I would of thought passed out but I’m going with asleep) by 10 pm.

It had been a great day to celebrate our anniversary.

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Nice, Day 2

It was already 25 degrees C at 8:30 am, Thursday, September 15th as we waited for our van pickup to go on our tour to Monaco and Monte Carlo. The bus was late getting to us as we where the last stop and apparently there was a lot of traffic. We climbed in to make it a full van with 8 passengers. There was a mother and daughter from New York and Connecticut, a couple from Toronto, a couple from India (relative of the Toronto couple as far as I could tell) and us.

We were soon climbing the hills to the northeast leaving Nice. After a short drive we stopped for a photo opportunity at a familiar looking place – Villefranche-sur-Mer, only from the top looking down at the harbour and not the other way around like yesterday.

After a quick stop we started down the mountain road and traveled to Èze. Our guide had stated that Èze was a magical village. (Looked nice but to me it was mostly shops in old houses.) Still, it had it’s charms and I did like the other lemmings and took photos.

No park at City Hall

We only had about 20 minutes to explore the village so paying the 6 euros to get into Le Jardin Exotique – botanical garden, just wasn’t worth it.

We jumped in the van to get to the Parfumerie Fragonard – L’usine Laboratoire Èze – Fragonard perfume factory and lab for a tour.

The tour itself was interesting but I wasn’t there to shop so I think the tour guide was put off a bit by my indifference to her explanations. Lynda liked some of the scents and did get a couple little hand soaps.

Oh look, it’s Èze up the hill

The factory direct pricing was pretty good but for us travelling with carry-on luggage for the first time, we just didn’t have the space to buy any more.

Tour and shopping done, we all piled back into the van for our trip to Monaco.

Soon we were driving through Monaco on our way to Monte Carlo where we get dropped off near the casino.

We had less than half an hour to explore Monte Carlo before we had to be back at the van to go see the changing of the guards at Le Palais des Princes de Monaco, Monaco.

The other couples were late getting back to the van and our irate driver tried to get us there on time but this is the extent of what I saw.

Nothing to see here, move along.

We had another half and hour or so to explore Monaco. Seemed a bit anti-climatic now but we gave it a shot. We didn’t even venture very far from where we were dropped off to take a photo or 12.

The van pulled up and everyone was on time. (Now that we were heading back to Nice it didn’t matter as much.)

After driving through 2 or 3 of the 7 road tunnels in Monaco, we headed towards the expressway back to Nice.

This place was about 10 blocks from our apartment but I feel the name may be a bit misleading.

It was around 30 degrees C when we got back to the apartment so Lynda changed into her swimsuit and I put on shorts. (Yeah, and for those who know me, that is a rarity indeed.)

We headed out for lunch and for Lynda at least, a swim.

We were between meal times by the time we went for lunch and not all restaurants were still serving lunch. Luckily, we found El Merkado. The food was good and the staff seemed friendlier by the time we were done than when we arrived. Both waitresses did take a break while we were there so I think they were just tired. And, since it was right across the road from Hotel de Ville, Nice…

We got a bubble tea on our way to the beach and it was now about 33 degrees C out so I had it done by the time we walked the 3 blocks there.

The beach has never, ever been a thing for me and I found a spot to sit and wait for Lynda. I had my wide angle lens on and with the wind blowing like it was, I wasn’t about to change lenses to get a better shot of her enjoying herself.

Unlike the day we arrived, the waves were really high and she was a bit nervous about going in. It’s an all rock beach and there is about a 6 foot hill of loose stones before you get to the normal level of the water but the spray was coming well up the incline. Lynda sat on the top of the pile and let the water splash into her.

She’s the far left girl, so far away.

She was enjoying herself until a particularly big wave came in and hit her so hard it rolled her over on the rocks. She realized she still had her hearing aids in so she grabbed them before she even tried to get up. When she got up, she brought them over to me and was more concerned I’d gotten a photo of it than if she had been hurt. (She did get a couple of nasty bruises out of it.)

After laughing it off, she went back to try again. She did say she wasn’t going to try to swim in those waves.

Lynda left her shoes where I could see them but not her

After an hour or so on the rocks, I was starting to have trouble getting comfortable and Lynda said she was cooled off. (But we still got gelato on our way to our apartment.)

Our Airbnb listing stated it faced the sea. This is a true statement but the view of the sea isn’t all that easy to see.

The view from our table

We had noticed that sunset colours don’t last very long and I thought I’d try to at least get a shot or two before it was gone.

Leaning out our window with my “big” lens.

I decided to go out on the steps to see if I could get a better angle to shoot.

The Club Med 2 leaving on a cruise

Lynda even got her camera out to get a few shots.

My bride in the window

Only got 13k steps in today but we saw quite a bit of stuff and had a blast.

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Nice, Day 1

Wednesday, September 14th saw us leaving Paris early for a flight to Nice.

Our pilot told us it was a nice day in Nice and it was supposed to be sunny and 24 degrees. It was cloudy the entire flight so we didn’t see much until we broke out of the clouds near the sea. It was also raining quite heavily as we exited the airport looking for a taxi.

We’d arrived at 8:30 am and we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 3:00 pm so I asked the cab driver to take us to a good place for breakfast.

He dropped up near 2 places and recommended Cafe Du Palais as the better of the two. So we trudged the block or so in the now pouring (but not hypothermia inducing rain like Alberta) rain. We decided on sitting inside as the umbrellas weren’t always winning the battle.

Took this to tease Curtis that we had Nutella come with breakfast (which we didn’t eat)

It was almost done raining when we left to find a place we could drop our small suitcase so we didn’t have to lug it around for a few hours.

Bag dropped and off to shop for an umbrella.

When we emerged from our successful quest, the rain seemed to have stopped. Or so we thought.

We walked around the shops and made our way over to Quai des États-Unis to look at the sea.

It still looked like rain would arrive but we strolled along without it happening.

It’s not a big hill at the end of the Promenade des Anglais but even though it was cloudy, it was still warm so we rested at the #ILoveNice sign. Trying to get a shot of just Lynda was a bit challenging.

We stayed at the top of the hill killing time before I had to go get our suitcase out of storage.

Lynda waited for me as she didn’t want to walk down and back up the hill. I was there and back in under half an hour. We strolled in the direction of our Airbnb and we walked right past it to our harbour tour that Lynda had booked for 3:00 pm. I had thought we could check in at 2:00 pm so we had an extra suitcase to bring along.

We got our tickets and sat on a bench in the shade waiting for boarding time.

We moved to line up with others standing, waiting and the rain came back. It was just a light drizzle but only moments ago the sun was beating down on us.

The boat has room for 46 passengers, 22 of which can be outside on the upper deck. Rain or no rain, Lynda and I headed up top. I had razzed Lynda about bringing her jacket along to such a warm place but it was nice to have it to set on the already wet bench as a blanket. The rain picked up in intensity and the wind started blowing before we even left the harbour. Luckily, we had ourselves a couple of umbrellas.

So, we sat in the rain, huddled under the umbrellas as person after person left to go down stairs to huddle inside.

The wind was even stronger after leaving the harbour so I didn’t even try to get my camera out and decided I’d make due with my cell phone.

We exited the harbour and headed north east along the coast and turned into the harbour at Villefranche-sur-Mer. There are plenty of impressive houses to look at along the way. The rain had started to slow down so some of the chickens came out to stand in the way of our view. I was inspired by my friend Canada Slim aka Adam Kerr and his lazy faire attitude when it comes to level horizons and I snapped a few shots willy-nilly. (It still feels weird)

The tour was almost over when the rain stopped but we were heading into some bigger waves and we were starting to accelerate on our way back to Nice so even the cell phone camera was put away.

The tour is an hour long and not terribly expensive so I think it was worth it. The rain put less of a damper on it than the 20 something year old girls that couldn’t sit their asses down once they ventured out on to our level. We weren’t too wet when we were done and we only had a 5 minute walk to our apartment.

More stairs were climbed and it took us a while to get our keys as the directions weren’t 100% clear. (It is said that things are lost in translation and in this case, it was true.) But finally we were in and dropped off our stuff so we could head back down to town for supper. We picked Mamma Mia and shared a Pizza Margherita. I tried an actual Marguarita (It seemed weird not having any ice in it but it would be the best one I had in Nice.) while Lynda had Sex on the Beach. (The drink. Not… What are you people thinking? Lol)

After a leisurely meal, we decided we were tired enough to just head back to the apartment instead of exploring the town. So we again walked along the Promenade.

Seemed a bit early to crash but it had been a long day getting up at 4:00 am and all and I’d gotten over 17k in steps. Tomorrow we have a morning tour and pickup is 8:30 am.