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.

Wednesday in Antibe & Biot.

Wed. April 6: After yesterday’s trip east, nearly to Italy, today we headed west to Antibe, aka Juan de Pines. Despite not leaving until nearly 10:00 the 4€ train ticket assured that we would get there in time to enjoy a full day before we returned by bus. Once again we found our way to the Vielle Ville (Old Town) and we roughly followed a Rick Steves walking tour combined with one they suggested at the Tourist Information. On our way we passed along the “Billionaires Quai”, lined with many, many yachts from modest to outrageous. From the waterfront one can look east and see pretty much the whole coast line, with Nice and Monaco, the protective foot hills, which keeps the cold air away from the coastline, and the snow covered Alps beyond in the distance. It is a stunning view!!! We entered the Old Town through the ancient gate that was the only way to get within the fortified city walls from the Port for centuries. First stop was at the outstanding Marché Provençal (farmers’ market) where we bought cheese, olives, bread, marinated artichoke hearts, sausages and wine for our lunch. Winding our way through streets and passageways we found our way to the west embankments along the water. We found a park looking over the bay and shared our delicious lunch sitting on a park bench. A sailing club or school was putting in boats as we finished and they had 5 or 6 dozen boats on the water by the time we finished. Wandering back along the bay we arrived at the Garibaldi Chateau, which is now the Picasso Museum. Picasso worked in the chateau for a few years where, like many artists before and since, he was transfixed by the luminescent light on the Mediterranean. He was also struck by the antiquity of the setting, because the Chateau was built in the 1300s on top of the ancient Greek city of Antipolis which claimed the easily defended area 3000 years ago. The fort on the other side of the bay, which we had hoped to see, closed at 4:00 and so instead of touring it, we made our way down to a protected beach and rested in the warm sunlight while dipping our tootsies into the Mediterranean waters. Passing again through the Old Town, we walked up to Place General de Gaulle and found how and where we could catch a bus up to Biot, where artisans make ceramic and glass pieces, among other crafts. We had hoped to eat dinner there but the timing didn’t work out so we looked around the Old Town up on the hill for a bit before catching a late bus back to Nice. We had a nice dinner of the traditional Niçoisse beef stew at Lulu’s before returning to the hotel, not as exhausted as last night, but well satisfied with our travels.

Tuesday in Menton & Monaco.

Tue. Apr. 5: This was our day to visit Monaco. On Steves’ recommendation we took the 1€ bus to its last stop at Menton. We were surprised to find that the entire two hour trip along the coast is densely developed and populated but we had lots of stunning vistas to enjoy. The turnaround is near a Farmer’s Market and a park which walked through and then we found the Tourist Information. Armed with a map we made our way to Old Menton to wander before getting coffee and sitting in a square. Back on our feet, we made our way through the Old Town market and then to the Promenade along the Sea. Nearing the end we stopped at the Mirabella to sit outdoors and have their daily special of “pintade avec artichaut” or Guinea hen with artichokes, which was delicious and came with chocolate mousse for dessert. We walked on to the extensive gardens of lemon and other citrus trees for which the area is famous. They had the biggest lemons we’d ever seen! Returning to the bus line we caught next bus to Monaco and got off to see the Casino. It is pretty spectacular with lovely gardens and fountains outside all surrounded with hip high tulips at the height of their blooms. I wanted to mail a postcard from Monaco to James Sims for his collection so Marv asked the GPS to find a post office. She took us 1 kilometer pretty much straight up the hill. Heidi and Kris encouraged us to go ahead without them because it was so steep and so tiring. We sloughed our way up to the Post Office only to find it was closed. ARGH!!!! So Marv told the GPS to take us to the Prince of Monaco palace. Monaco is built on such a hillside with roads at different levels that the GPS was having a terrible time telling us where we were and where we needed to go. But happily along the way we came across an open Post Office so I mailed the card. Although the GPS ended up going dead we found our way to the bottom of another l-o-n-g hill up that appeared to be the palace. Up we climbed again and we were there! It was 5:25 and they cut off tours at 5:30 but after all we had been through we felt we had to see the palace. We picked up our English speaking audio guide and followed the directions of the tour. About halfway through, we had a uniformed guard hanging around with us and closing off the areas as we finished. He was soon joined by a “suit” (administrator?) and then a second guard but they didn’t rush us or even speak to us. They just closed everything off as we moved along. At the end when we turned in our audio guides the three women who took them followed us out and went home. So we really closed that joint down!! We wandered through picturesque Old Town but it was also closing down so we headed back down the hill, where we found the very bus we needed to get back to Nice. All this time we had no idea where Kris and Heidi had ended up. Walking back to the hotel we stopped to pick up a baguette, some Camembert cheese and two apples which we enjoyed with a packet of tuna and some of our wine from the Sunday festival. As we ate on our “balcony” we saw Kris and Heidi returning from the bus. They had spent their time at the Princess of Monaco rose garden, opting not to do the climb up the hill to the palace. They hadn’t eaten so we went with them to l’Oval, a rugby (and other sports) bar where they had nice salads and we had dessert. Being pretty tired from all the uphill walking we had done Marv and I headed back to our room before they did and looked at choices for tomorrow and caught up the blog.

Monday-Nice museums.

Mon. Apr. 4: Today was the day to visit Museums for us. Following Rick Steves’ directions we actually hiked uphill all the way to the Chagall Museum, which was a pretty amazing climb! But the museum is wonderful and highlights especially his “Song of Songs” series of paintings and his 17 Old Testament paintings. He was instrumental in setting up the museum and is fairly unique in having seen it completed while he was alive. Our admission included individual audio guides in English which were very helpful in our enjoyment and appreciation of what we were seeing. When we were finished we continued hiking uphill until we got to the site of an ancient Roman city called Cemenelum. In a large park atop a hill there is an archeological museum and a Matisse Museum, which is housed in a 16^th century villa. In the park there are the ruins of the Roman Arena for the city, a monastery, an orchard of olive trees, and a large green area. Groups of older people were playing bocce ball and we found it a delightful place to enjoy a small lunch from the vendor set up there. We went through the Matisse Museum, which wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the Chagall, partly because there was very little English interpretation to help us. We had a similar problem at the Archeological Museum; however we could wander the extensive ruins of the Roman baths and look at the many artifacts inside and gained some understanding of the ancient culture. After all our climbing and walking through museums we all welcomed the chance to take the bus back to the hotel. We had a recommendation of a restaurant to try down near the Market area but it was too crowded so we went to a nearby place where Marv and I shared a pizza and a Caprese salad, Heidi had lasagna and Kris had a pizza. Our feet were plenty tired as we trudged back and gratefully hit the sack that night.

Sunday in Toulon

Sun. Apr. 3: This trip to Nice all began when Kris returned to a site he had bookmarked with Festivals held around the world and found that the Bacchus Wine Festival was being held Apr. 1-3 in Toulon, France. One thing led to another, and today was our day to make the Pilgrimage to Toulon. The e-tickets for the train that I had bought online before we left worked perfectly and the two hour trip got us to Toulon without a problem. But when we tried to get information on the festival, the woman at Tourist Information had no idea what we were talking about. Kris found the site again on his trusty IPod and the woman could direct us to the Place (plaza) in which it was being held. After a quick bathroom stop at McDonald’s (clean, free restrooms! Why haven’t we seen that travel tip in Rick Steves?) we continued walking and found the correct plaza and the long white tent of the Bacchus Wine and Food Festival, 2011. About a third of the tent was devoted to foods of Provence and the other two thirds had four rows of wine booths from all parts of France. We bought our tasting glasses for 4€ each and spent the rest of the day sipping and tasting to our hearts’ content. The Vintners and helpers were quite amazed to learn that we had come all the way from Michigan in America for the festival, and everyone was helpful and friendly. We had a delicious lunch at a food vendor set up outside next to the festival tent. It turned out that it was an Alsace dish of melted cheese mixed with thin mashed potatoes, about the consistency of cheese fondue, that on eats with a fork by twisting and scooping. Great fun and fantastic!! We returned to McDonald’s for the bathrooms and then went back to the festival for the last time to make our purchases. We were plenty tired as we rode the train back to Nice but quite satisfied with having completed our mission. Voyageur Nissart was close to the train station so we introduced Heidi and Kris to it. We found it much busier than our first night there but it was equally delicious and made a good ending to a great day.

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.

And now to France

Thu. Mar. 31-Fri. Apr. 1: Our adventure actually began on Thursday, as we left East Lansing at 8:30. For the first time we decided to take the Michigan Flyer bus to Detroit Metro so we didn’t have to pay to park for 2½ weeks. Carol Roush kindly agreed to take us to the bus, which got us there without a hitch. Other than realizing that the IPod was left at home (which Thelma & Kris remedied for us) the whole trip was routine and without a problem. A strong tail wind got us, via JFK in New York, to Nice, France Friday at 7:45am, half an hour earlier than planned. As per Rick Steve we took the #99 bus to the train station downtown and the GPS told us how to find l’hotel de Madrid, about a 3 block walk away. That was a nice one night’s stay before we joined Heidi & Kris on Saturday. We were surprised to be able to check in right then at the hotel, so we put most of our things in the room and headed out to explore Nice. Our bus ticket was good for buses and the tram the whole day and would prove to be really useful. It is so easy to just wander around the city and we quickly became oriented and comfortable. When we found ourselves beside the Tram line we decided to take it all the way to the end point, Pont Michele, paying attention to stops along the way. We got off at the end, but seeing not much to do there, took the Tram the other way back to Vielle Ville (Old Village) and strolled the narrow winding lanes, charmed with their quaintness and the feeling of having absolutely no agenda. When we noticed a small park up beside a steep street we climbed up to see it. Then we went through a lovely wrought iron and stone gateway and climbed some steps further up the side of the hill. At the top there were signs directing us up a walking trail towards a Cascade and an ancient chateau. The further we climbed the more we realized we were climbing Castle Hill, which we had read about in our Steve’s book. It was an easy climb the way we had done it and we stopped frequently for the great views. From the top one has panoramic outlooks in several directions. After sharing a mozzarella and tomato Panini from the stand at the top, we took pictures of the ruins of the 11^th century chapel and marveled at the remaining walls from the protective citadel that stood guard over Old Nice at its beginning. From one overlook we saw the Port to the east, with some huge yachts pulled up beside one of the docks. High above the Promenade d’Anglais, which runs for 4 miles along the shore, we were surprised to hear the gentle waves lapping up on the rocks. So we made our way down the many steps to the Promenade and did as the natives did and joined the many people walking along the Mediterranean Sea. It was a stunning day with sun in the brilliant blue sky and the temperature was around 70. We spent part of the time on the very rocky shore itself, but the rocks are pretty difficult to walk on so it wasn’t long until we returned to the wide, paved Promenade. About halfway down we headed back up rue Jean Mediçin to take the Tram to close to our hotel. A short nap seemed to be a good idea to help get us acclimated to time. Afterwards we took the Tram to its other end point and got off. Again, there wasn’t a lot to see but we had noticed a sweet park near a University stop so we took the Tram back to it, walked through it and went a few blocks further on foot past the modern looking and very white Church of Jean d’Arc. Back on the Tram we returned to our “neighborhood” and found the Rick Steves’ suggested Voyageur Nissart for traditional Niçoise food. Marv had vegetable soup, a white fish in butter sauce, polenta, and strawberry tart. I had tomato and mozzarella salad, beef ravioli, pumpkin and rice mix, and tiramisu. It was all so yummy and we went to bed full and exhausted from our first day in Nice.