We Have Returned! Nice Saturday January 21 to Sunday January 29

 Saturday Jan 21 Our Journey 

We are back in France.  Left the island Thursday. Stayed in Richmond and had supper with Camille. Friday airport. Arrived Saturday morning paris time. Temperature 1c...pretty cool! 

A long, but uneventful trip, and on time, which is a good thing these days. 

Of course tiring, but really, considering the distance travelled, we can't complain.  Air France served us dinner with wine and cognac, and a breakfast.  Lynda watched movies constantly, I got through three French movies with English subtitles.  

In Vancouver we were rescheduled for the Paris - Nice connection from 9.20am to 1.45pm because they knew, as did we from past experience, that with security and border control we would never have made the 9.20am. 

 They used to have flights every 2 hours pre pandemic but now it's every 4. So a long layover  but lynda negotiated 11 euro each, delay compensation meal vouchers from the Air France Service desk, and we had Paul's (French version of Tim's ) café latte, and the rest was spent  on pain au choclate and apricot tarts for breakfast for the next day in Nice. 

I bought my French SIM card for 20gb data and unlimited and calls and texts, at the airport while waiting. 

Nice, as the pilot kept happily reminding us, was a pleasant sunny  10c. 

Nice airport was quiet, baggage on the carousel by the time we walked there. The new tram from the airport was 1.50 euros each, fast and frequent. 

Dave our host met us outside the apartment.   

We had booked our  usual rue Bonaparte apartment but the outside of the building is covered in scaffolding for a Reno that should have been  finished so  he emailed a couple of weeks before and offered us their other larger, nicely appointed apartment for the same rate.  Apparently it's in a renovated pasta factory (Nice was part of Italy after all for a few centuries).

Our apartment, for those who like to look at vacation rental photos.  An Art Deco building.

View from our living room. 

Two different buildings in each pane of  the bedroom window 

Walk in shower 

Washer, but no dryer and no clothes line on the balcony like the Rue Bonaparte apartment had. Dryers are not common because there's no opportunity for venting in these old turn of the 19th century buildings. 

High ceilings with  freizes 

Gift from Dave and Margie,pastas, wine, and other goodies. And flowers 

View from the airport tram..palm trees. 

Collapsing after the long journey, From departure in Vancouver to walking in the apartment, 17 hours elapsed time 

CDG. Where you can buy the essentials, like chocolates and macarons.

The domestic lounge, vast but calm. 

Testing out my new apple baggage tracker.  My suitcase was at the gate with us! Comforting. 

Our traditional Paul's and bag of pain au chocolats and apricot tarts for breakfast tomorrow   courtesy of Air France flight rescheduling. 

YVR airport, I really wanted to go in to see if there was a plastic Fire hydrant in the middle of the room. Perhaps a kitty litter box in the corner? 

YVR  also had Prayer room, yoga room and a quiet room, all separate.  Plus à living forest and beach and a stream.  BCs brand is its natural beauty after all 

The conditions when we left the island calm and bright. 

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Sunday Quiet Day 

Went to Lidl for a small quick shopping. Supermarkets are only open until noon on sundays . 

Walked to the prom and back for exercise. 

Had a frantic hour or so on the phone to RBC . We withdrew 500 euros or $944 Cdn for payment to our host for the rent . Machine message said declined, over daily limit so we cancelled and got the card back and decided  we would try tomorrow  after I figure out the max I can withdraw  

Got back and found transaction alert email saying withdrawal was taken!  So, panic.  Managed to figure out how to call RBCinternational  Toll free and first agent said she could  see the withdrawal and she would lodge an inquiry with the French bank . Then another agent showed up while I was on hold and said he could see the transaction was reversed . So we seem to be good the auto alert reacted to the original transaction but not the reversal.  Good work out for my heart . 

They pray that we close the door quietly. 

Wall flowers 

Beautiful Art Deco buildings facing the port. 

Bit grey today

Old time radio in the apartment 

Monday Shopping Day 

Cool day,  went to the gigantic Carrefour close by for more shopping but we're done now.  Had a lesson in weighing multiple vegetables in French. Good way to learn useful words under pressure while  4 shoppers are waiting behind you with their items to weigh. Actually they were all patient First question before you choose is whether the item is in a paper, or string, or no bag.  But you put them in a flimsy plastic bag. So that counts as no bag I guess. Walked to the port area afternoon and hung out  

The wine of what?? Browsing the supermarket aisles.  A friend tells me this is a competitor to a neighbouring winery that make Fat Bastard. 

Local macarons shop.  

The exterior of our former apartment. If we'd been there it would have been a bit eerie. But the other full time tenants are living with this. 

Tuesday Jan 24 Cap Ferrat 

After two grey, cool days it dawned bright, so we decided to go to Cap Ferrat for an outing . 

Things change, it's now the #15 bus, not the #81, and the start point has moved to another street. I don't like change on the Lighes d'azur bus system, I've invested too much time memorizing the routes and schedules. Actually not a huge problem.  

Cap Ferrat was as picturesque as ever, but with a wind causing whitecaps on the water. Unfortunately our destination pizza restaurant was closed as were most others. It's their quiet time for restaurant owners to go on vacation or renovate as a number we're doing. So after walking the quays we jumped back on the bus and took it to the tram, and went to the mall in the centre of nice to a lunch place we like, friendly service and a reasonable size meal for a lunch. 

Orange trees walking to the bus 

View of nice from the bus 

Villefranche from the bus 

 

They were just removing Christmas decorations when we arrived. 

Electric post van 

Nice wood sailing boat 

A boat from my old home town of Bristol 

My project this trip is to photograph all the flowers in bloom and try and name them.

Wednesday Jan 25 Walk about day in Nice 

Old pharmacy containers

The French prefer purchasing with soil on their vegetables. Carrots from Brittany 

The new station extension coming along 

My ongoing project to photograph flowers in bloom and identify them. 

The big wheel set up for the Christmas period and remains until the end of carnival in February 

Thursday January 26 Galleries Lafayette and the prom 

An upside down Canada Flag 

French existentialist sign on public toilets,  I piss, therefore I am.

Our first pichet in the sun 

France banned propane patio heaters, so they've moved to electric. These umbrellas enclosed the whole patio and went up the moment the sun disappeared behind a building. 

 

Walking through our old neighbourhood at around 5pm, to buy a baguette for supper.  locals stopping in the food shops on their way home.  Here's the fish shop brightly lit. 

Butcher had a line up inside.  

This is the landmark at the end of our street so it's impossible to get lost. . Tête Carré, or, square head. It's administrative offices inside. 

Friday Jan 27 

Major purchase today, I buy a shoe horn.  

Minor panic this morning.  Lynda decided for some reason to check the printouts of the tickets for our upcoming train trip to Montpellier via Toulon, where we will stay in Le Castellet for two nights visiting my friend Antoine.  Despite the fact that we researched and bought the tickets together on line while sitting at our kitchen counter, theoretically cross-checking dates with calendars before we hit the buy button, we had managed to book Nice-Toulon, and Marseille -Montpellier two days off in the future. 

We walked up to the station and even though we'd purchased online at the UK site Trainline we were able to change our tickets for the same trains on the right day with no penalty, and in fact a  bonus, they were 10 euros cheaper!  So we spent it on two caffe lattes at a coffee shop nearby, courtesy of SNCF  

We always pause at this storefront every visit. Lots of creativity and colour. Loved the apron. 

The opera. 

I liked the contrast of green with the bright yellow paint.  

A reproduction of a painting of  port as it was.  The buildings in the painting are still there. 

Saturday Jan 28 

Our big event today was lunch with our hosts Dave and Marjie and their 2 children.  A typical French lunch, a long and enjoyable three hours! Conversation was very comfortable, even the children speak perfect English, because Dave is English and met Marjie a Niçoise, in Australia when they were both working at a restaurant. 

 The  owners of the restaurant were friends of theirs, we got treated very well. The children amused themselves drawing and playing together and they both wore the infinity "gold" necklaces that lynda brought for them last trip. 

Sunday 29th Last day. 

Walked along the water in the morning to check out a possible restaurant for tonight  in the old town.  FaceTime with our Somerset  friends John and Carol, and also FaceTimed with Rod, a friend  back home in French creek.  

The restaurant we chose was perfect, turns out its #2 of all restaurants in Nice on trip advisor. 

And tomorrow, it's off to Le Castellet   

In France they show the origin of all meat sold.  We get angus beef in Canada but I suspect it's from angus cattle, not from cattle in Scotland  

 ....off early tomorrow with our corrected tickets in hand.