Days 10 & 11 – A Nice Break

We wake late…no alarm today. Then watch some of the Tour de France on TV with British commentary. Didn’t find out where Victorian Ryder Hesjedal placed in this stage, we’ll have to Google it, but know it wasn’t in the top 10 today. That’s OK. There are still many stages to go.

It is hot here: scalp-always-wet-from-the-sweat hot, +34°C hot. Even in the heat we walk and walk through the streets lined with beautiful five or six story apartments and offices. We notice that there are many doctors in the area and Dennis observes that if we had an MD, where would we like to practice? True.

We find a street similar to 5^th Avenue in Playa del Carmen; back from the ocean and lined with restaurants, shops and bars. Following this led to an older area with all pedestrian passages and what appeared more Italianate architecture. We miss the flower market and arrive to see the most lovely garbage – flowers that were just not good enough to sell. They are now cleaning and flushing the area and resetting it as restaurants under the tents where the flowers used to be. We walk a few blocks and arrive at Rossetti Square where a large church holds down one side and the remainder is filled with tables and people enjoying Sunday afternoon with their families and friends in front of the restaurants, stores and ice cream vendors. The bell tower of the church is much newer than the rest and is dedicated to the parishioners killed in the First World War.

Icy colas are delicious as we sit and enjoy the day. Then, since we seem to be testing our hearts on this journey, we climb several flights of stairs to a remarkable view of Nice and the surrounding mountains on a mountain where there once stood a castle (Le Chateau). There is now a lovely waterfall and park along with some places for cool drinks and a few cheesy souvenir stalls at the very top. It has been worth the climb, but I am done…melting. We ride a tiny train down to the shore and watch pole-vaulters on the broad sidewalk doing a promo for a big track and field meet this weekend. Nice seems like a happening place for the younger set.

We are impressed that there is a “Handi Plage:” a beach access for the disabled that has a ramp to the rocky beach, and concrete pads to allow wheelchairs access to the middle of beach and then mats to get close to the water. There are separate warm showers and places for changing with a caregiver. It’s nice to see this inclusivity. I put my toes in the Mediterranean and feel the rocks thrown on my feet by the ocean.

Nice is the fifth largest city in France and there will be many things we cannot explore; that’s OK because this was meant to be a side trip. We have a memorable meal in a tiny brasserie – Dennis has veal scaloppini and I have an artichoke salad that is presented like a work of art. Today has been full and we will have the chance to fill tomorrow.

At the hotel we try to up load yesterday’s blog…Oh la la – quel experience! There is no Wifi, so we use the computer in the lobby. The computer is a PC, but when we put our flash drive into it the whole system reboots. Then I can open the blog and the document on the flash drive, but I cannot copy and paste. We call the receptionist over and she tries, but it will not function and she shrugs. Ne march pas! So

we watch Pirates of the Caribbean in our room on the 13” TV with a broken remote and crash.

The next day is really more of the same walking, eating, melting and sitting in sidewalk cafes for cold beer – with shopping thrown in. Some of it is in air-conditioned stores so Dennis doesn’t even mind ;-). Sara, your special gift comes from here, Phil, we finally found a Tour T-shirt in your size, and I find a piece of jewellery at Galleries LaFayette that is haunting me, so that may be my big souvenir when we get back to Paris (they have the same store there).

(DD:PS: Although our room here at the hotel is OK we miss the amenities of the apartment that we had in Paris. Free internet, groceries nearby, a fridge that works well, a bigger TV, a VIEW!, a neighbourhood with real locals (we seem to be in a “business” area here) and the feeling that we sort of live here rather than being definitive “visitors”. We have to accept that we are Parisians on vacances!)