Nice and environs

The drive to Nice was long and tiring. It is not a long trip mileage wise but we thought we'd avoid the autoroute and take the local road along the shore. We stopped at St. Tropez to find it a small, very trendy and pretty crowded town awaiting the opeing of a big luxury yacht show. We meant to have a nice lunch, but it was very hot so we opted for sandwiches near the harbor.

We also meant to stop at the Picasso Museum in Antibes, but it was getting late and we knew driving into Nice, a large city, would be challenging, so we used the GPS to get onto the autoroute and sped off to Nice. Little did we know that there are about a million cars in Nice, and about a thousand parking spots. Plus overnight parking is free, so everyone is trolling for parking spaces. No kidding, as soon as someone opened a car door to get in, the next car screeched to a stop to take it. After circling our hotel a couple of times we did the same, and the car was "resting tranquillement" as the concierge said, until morning, with paid parking until after lunch. (We have learned that these quite civilized folk don't charge for parking for two hours or so during lunch -- who would want to hurry back to feed the meter? It wouldn't be right!)

This morning we were on a mission to see the Matisse Museum, which was a lovely building (no photos). In addition to a visiting Rodin show comparing Matisse works to Rodin's, there was a group visit by about 25 little kids getting a museum visit. They were about 4 years old, and got a gruff lecture by the security guard that all hands wee to be behind their backs or in pockets. They made their way around the museum, getting a lecture here and there. I can't imagine such a thing happening with American children.

We hopped back on the bus to return to the car for a trip to La Turbie, a village high above the coast, for a lovely lunch. Tom enjoyed salmon tartare, which sounds weird but was quite good -- minced raw salmon mixed with capers, perhaps a bit if spiced mayo. It will be my choice next time. I had mussels and fries (moules frites), also excellent. We wandered around the village, and looked down at Monaco and Monte Carlo. It looked so busy and frenetic against the countryside around it that we decided not to drive through it, but went instead to Menton, the French city nearest the Italian border. We spent an hour or so walking along the beach promenade, then back to the autoroute and our hotel. Hard to imagine that the Italian border is about 25 minutes away and all the big names of the French Riviera are within about an hour's drive.