Barb and Baden’s Excellent French Adventure – Part 2
Oct. 11, 2002:
We arrived in Nice, France on Friday afternoon after making our connecting flight from London Heathrow. We were in possession of our bags within 5 minutes and this was a good start to the trip. Our hotel in Nice is cheap, clean and best of all, 1 block from the Mediterranean. The weather in Nice was overcast and slightly raining the first night that we arrived. After unpacking, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant. We also found out that our hotel is right in the middle of the main shopping and restaurant district so within a 15 minute walk, we have everything we need at our disposal.
We woke up today to a beautiful sunny morning. We had a delicious breakfast in the hotel of croissants, buns and cafe au lait. We took a walk along the Promenade des Anglais which goes right along the beach for about 7 Km. The weather got progressively hotter throughout the day (averaging about 23-24).
There were plenty of swimmers and sunbathers on the beach and we actually regret not bringing our bathing suits. We made casual note of the French law requiring men to only wear Speedo bathing suits on public beaches. This is similar to the law requiring smoking in all public places.
We walked through a open air flower and produce market and the whole place smelled of fresh flowers and spices that were for sale. An accordion player entertained the crowd and numerous cafe’s lined the sides of the market. One of the things that we immediately noticed was that there was really not that many tourists around. We suspected that if this were July or August, there would be 4-5 times as many people in the marketplace and on the promenade. We saw that all of the locals were buying their produce from these local stands and we have so far never seen any supermarket type of store. We don’t have to walk more than about 2 blocks before running into a boulangerie (bakery) or patisserie (pastry shop). Since it would be an insult to not buy from these stores, we do our part to keep these businesses thriving.
We ended the day walking the promenade again at about 11PM for several hours before retiring back to the hotel.
Oct. 13, 2002:
Today we boarded a train for a day trip up into the mountains (the Maritime Alps). We stopped at two small towns Tende and Eze) where we visited stunning villages perched upon the tops of mountains overlooking the Mediterranean sea. Our plans tonight are to seek out a restaurant in Nice to taste a local delicacy: bouillabaisse (a stew made up of different types of local fish).
Our plans tomorrow are to visit the famous city of Monte Carlo. Stay tuned for our next update …
Baden and Barb
Continue on to Barb & Baden’s Excellent French Adventure – Part 3
