Thursday in Nice

Thu. Apr. 7: Today we all bought day passes for the buses/tram and spent the day exploring within the city again. We had breakfast across the street for the third day and then took the tram and a bus to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It was the first built outside of Russia to be consecrated as a cathedral and was built to serve the large population of Russian aristocrats that would winter in Nice at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s. It is quite lovely. There was a service going on (which runs for 2 hours!) and is supposed to be closed to tourists during the mass. But we didn’t realize it was happening until we were inside so we got to experience the ethereal worship with a choir singing in response to the priest. We stayed a while and left after donating to the offering for the poor. The same bus we had taken there took us to Las Planas where we took the tram back to Old Town. After having coffee and buying more bread and wine to go with yesterday’s leftover cheese, olives and sausage, we set off to climb Castle Hill and enjoyed our picnic once again with 240° panoramic views over the “Bay of Angels”. Kris and Heidi were as taken with the setting as we had been our first day. This time we went down the east (Port) side and then strolled back along the Promenade d’Anglais. Back in Old Town we went our separate ways to do a bit of shopping and agreed to meet back at the hotel to go out for dinner. After showering and resting a bit we took the tram north once again and got off at the Valrose Université stop and found Lou Pantail’s Restaurant and Pizzeria. Kris and Heidi had pizzas, Marv had slivered beef with artichokes and olives, and I had beef ravioli. I was happiest with my meal of the four of us. After dinner we walked a ways to see church of Saint Jeanne of Arc again, this time all lit up for the night. The tram took us back to Place Messena where we got off and walked to one of the Casinos on the waterfront. Kris changed a 5€ and we each tried the slot machines, with no luck. Then we strolled back up the Promenade where we saw the biggest waves of our time here. Back at Place Massena we found that someone had added some sort of sudsing agent to one of the fountains and it was billowing with white fluff which young adults were having fun with. Before heading back to our hotel we sat by the larger fountains to the west of the plaza and talked about what a nice day it had been.