Saturday in Nice

Sat. Apr. 2: Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and turned on the computer so Kris could Skype us when they arrived. When we didn’t hear from them by 9:00 we walked our stuff over to the Hotel Helvetique where they told us that Kris and Heidi were in the breakfast room having a cup of coffee. They had only arrived 15 or 20 minutes earlier. The hotel locked up our bags and we set out together to find the famous Flower Market in Old Town. The flowers there are amazing and there is also a bustling Farmers’ Market of vegetables, fish, bread, honey, etc. We bought olives, bread, cheese, and wine to have later for lunch and wandered around Old Town before we took the Tram back to the hotel to check in. Unfortunately as soon as we got off of the Tram Heidi realized that her purse was open and her wallet was gone. The next hour or so was spent canceling their credit cards and regrouping. When we got together again they did well to throw off the problem and we walked down to the Place Massena fountains to eat our lunch. A little more walk took us to the Promenade for a stroll but Heidi and Kris soon headed back to the hotel to take a nap. Marv and I continued walking and even went down to the water’s edge to see how it felt. The rocks are really painful to walk on barefooted and we were amazed to watch young teenagers running across them and diving into the water! OUCH!!! I did manage to get my feet into the waves and think that the water wasn’t as cold as Lake Superior or even Lake Michigan for most of the summer. Back up on the Promenade we made our way to the Musée Massena, without really knowing what it was. After picking up our free ticket we went inside and found that it was Prince L’Eppling’s villa which has now become a sort of museum of Nice history. There are a few royal artifacts such as Josephine Bonaparte’s coronation gown and lots of photos and festival posters from the 1800s and 1900s. From there we wandered down rue de Massena back to Place Massena and the hotel. Kris and Heidi were ready to eat by then so we took Rick Steves’ advice again and went to “le 20 du Vin” for dinner but didn’t like it as much and found it to be pretty expensive. Since restaurants don’t open until 7:00 for dinner we find ourselves finishing late each night and just going to bed, which is what we did again this night.