What a great day! The weather in Nice today was somewhere in the mid 60 degree range, sunny, and clear. We got a bit of a late start again today. Mike had a small malady that put us a little behind. I won’t say more than that.
The other thing that put us behind was that I had to clean the soles of my neon white gym shoes….again. If you have ever been to France, you know that everyone here owns a dog. Some people have more than one. Most people are really good scooping the “poo”, but there are enough of those who don’t so that it is not unusual to encounter at least one mound every block or so. Mike calls it the “grande merde”. This makes me laugh every time he says it. I think that my past eye issues have left me some blank spots in my lower peripheral vision because every day that we have been here, I have managed to step in some “poo”. I really just don’t see it. Mike. always helpful, points them out each time after the damage is done. I think now that all of the local dogs I pass are actively reviewing my feet as a potential “toilette”. I know this is irrational, but each day since we have been here, I have had to come back to the room and dig dog “poo” out of the treads of my trusty gym shoes. So, true to form this morning before we could get started, I had kleenex in hand cleaning my shoes. UGHHHH……….love those dogs. But, it does add to my collection of travel “poo” stories. Between us, Mike and I have a few of these stories and they are pretty funny! Some involve dogs, some pigeons, and some our own bowel issues. We just never know, but there is at least one of these stories per trip. Fun times!
The day was absolutely gorgeous, so we decided to spend the day looking around in Nice. We have been here for quite a few days and really haven’t looked around in our home base. Today was the day, and what a day it was!
Once we got started, we headed to the Promenade Anglais to have a cafe au lait and a croissant. We found a delightful little snack shop right on the water where we could sip for hours and watch the parade of people as they passed by. Just delightful. In keeping with our focus of meeting people, we met 2 Malaysian women who were also having breakfast. They tried to convince us that our next trip should be to Malaysia. I would like to go there, but it’s somewhere mid-way on my list of places to visit. We’ll see what happens.
We spent a lot of time walking along the Promenade. You may remember brom a former post that the Promenade runs along the Mediterranean and is the main strolling lane for beach goers in Nice. The Promenade is about 4 miles long. We saw people walking, roller blading, and scootering up and down the way. There is an abundance of blue seats that face out to the water in the case that one needs a break from the physical activity and needs some relaxation. You can also have a drink or lunch right on the beach for about a million dollars. We opted not to do this, but it was tempting….sipping a glass of wine on the beach of Nice. Maybe next time.
This is a great time to visit the cote d’Azur. It’s a little bit before the main tourist season. So, while there were quite a few people here, it isn’t jammed, making it easy to walk and sit whenever the mood hits. We walked along for quite awhile watching the waves and the people. It wasn’t hot, but there were quite a few people sun bathing…some of the women were topless. Mike enjoyed that. Truth be told, had it been warmer, I may have given that a go, too. I tried topless bathing in Spain on our first visit there. It was very freeing! The best thing is that you always see someone that looks worse than you! HA! Today there were no topless bathers that shouldn’t be doing it, if you know what I mean.
You may know that the beaches in Nice are made of small pebbles instead of sand. Raphael, the winery guide that we met on the first day told us they are thinking of trucking in real sand for the beaches. I’m not sure how I feel about this. The pebbles are a trade mark of Nice, and I don’t think it would have the same effect. But, on the other hand, it would be awfully bumpy to lie on the pebbles to get a tan. It wouldn’t be worth it to me.
The Promenade has a myriad of hotels, restaurants and condos that look out to the beach. Mike and I have a dream of purchasing one of the condos and living here for part of the year. In fact, we have already picked out a condo on the top floor of one of the buildings with a balcony that wraps around the corner. For a few dollars, you can make our dream come true. Send all donations to….oh….maybe this is asking too much of our dear friends…..HA!
We walked along into Vieux Nice, the old section of Nice. First, we encountered the market. I just love these markets! You can buy just about anything you can think of. The beginning of this market was all flowers. Then, we got into soaps with the smells of Provence, honey, olives, pickled garlic and all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and cheese. Mike wold not let me buy any of the garlic. He remembers our encounter with this in Germany. For those of you who didn’t catch up to this in my last blog posts…..I’ll just say, there was a lot of gas involved. Mike didn’t want to repeat this experience!
The one disappointment is that we were too late to have Socca made by the famed Therese. The Socca is a filled chickpea crepe and the story goes that Therese’s is the place to get this. It’s one of the yummy foods that this area is known for. By the time we got to Therese, she was closing her shop. I have hopes that we will try this delicacy before we leave.
Vieux Nice remedied me a lot of Bellagio in the Lake Como area of Italy. It was filled with narrow winding streets in the center and steep stairs on the upper perimeter leading out of the old town. There were all kinds of shops selling typical products of the Provence area. It was fun to look at all of them. About mid-day, it started to rain, and we decided to walk back to the hotel to take a nap. A perfectly relaxing day!
This evening, we had the best meal of our trip so far. We went to a typical Provencal bistro. Mike had bouillabaisse, a huge bowl of fish chowder with every kind of fish and crustacean in it that you can imagine. It was “grande”. He managed to get almost all of it down and convince the man sitting next to us that he should have it as well. He also managed to get down part of a salad appetizer and dessert. Good man!
Tomorrow, we plan to make our way to Italy. We can get to Ventimiglia on the train and then to San Remo. We are anxious to compare the Italian and French Riveria lifestyles. I’m wondering about the dogs there and hoping for less “poo”.
Ciao!
Travel With Betsy 
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