Nice is Nice

Nice was our introduction to France. We felt a little intimidated by the idea of France. I guess we believed some of the things you hear about French people. But from the minute we got here, wondering around trying to find the bus at the airport and asking for help, we had only good experiences with French people. This was an easy and smooth transition to a new country after such a long and wonderful time in Greece.

We learned not to order Spanish food in France. Its better to order French food. I had muscles again, a specialty here. They were prepared differently than the ones I had in Spain but equally good. Maybe I have to give those California muscles another chance? We also were introduced to rose wines and started to have wine with dinner every day, something else I don't do at home. We figured out a bit about Southern French food and what we liked.

We also went to two museums. One was excellent, the Chagall museum. He designed it and donated much of the collection. We learned a lot about him and I got a whole new appreciation for his work. They had a documentary about his life with live interviews. He was a Russian Jew but considered France his home, even after having to flee during WW2. His paintings are much more impressive in real life than the reproductions I have seen. His use of color and his personal symbolism are very strong. He also worked in a wider variety of mediums than I realized; stained glass, mosaic, stone and clay. The other museum was for Matisse, an artist I love. It was disappointing, small, not well laid out. Kind of neglected feeling. I have seen better work of his in other museums.

We had not intended to come to Nice but it happened to be the cheapest place in France to get to from Greece. I loved the colors of the old town and the architecture. It is close to Italy and you can feel the Italian influence. We did touristy things here. Like:

Visiting the flowers market.

Walking around the old town. This was one of my favorite buildings below.

Checking our the beach side promenade. (I forget its name!) As you can see it was not beach weather. But the water was clear as in Greece. And blue, thus the name Corte Azul (Blue Coast). Did I mention this is the French Riviera?

Below is the view from a park on the hill at one edge of the old town, where there used to be a castle.

This is one view from our apartment window.

There was an Italian food festival while we were there. Cheese and meat were big features. Pet the dead boar!

Old town street

Barcelona, Nice and Paris all have these bike systems where you pay to have a card or use your credit card and can ride almost anywhere in the city. You can take one from any stand and return it to any stand.

Our apartment building in Nice