Today started off with the breakfast of champions, raspberry-filled beignets and an Orangina.
Oh my gosh how cute is this town, even the train station?! And do you see the clouds hanging low on the mountains behind the station? So perfect.
Felt it was important to get some vitamin C, as I’m feeling a bit of a sore throat coming on. I’m sure it has nothing to do with drinking out of the fountain yesterday.
I had a full day of travel ahead of me, 3 trains starting at 9am and getting me into Nice at 7pm. I was looking forward to it, as I knew we’d go through pretty scenery getting out of the mountains, and then different but equally pretty scenery in Provence and along the Riviera. When booking the tickets I’d carefully selected a window seat on the right-hand side of the train, so I could gaze out at the Mediterranean as we made our way along the coast.
For the most part the train trips went well. I saw one field of lavender in Provence, but didn’t quite get my camera up quickly enough to take a picture. Not that it would have mattered- I got my camera up quickly enough to take a picture of one of the sunflower fields, and this was the best I could do:
The sunflowers are those blurry yellow dots you see behind the reflection of my cell phone.
The train rolled along, and I believe it was Avignon where things went backwards. Literally. We pulled into the Avignon station, stopped for a few minutes to let people on and off, and then the train pulled out, backwards, unfortunately in the same direction we had just come from. So my brilliant plan of selecting a seat on the right side of the train was all for naught, as I had not anticipated that there'd be any stops where we didn't just keep going in the same direction. Bummer. It was still gorgeous when the train emerged from a tunnel and the bright blue of the water suddenly appeared on full display, it was just the kind of gorgeous that I had to crane my neck around like an owl* to see.
When I arrived** in Nice, I took the city tram to Vieille Ville, the Old Town section of the city. There, I waited in the Place Rossetti square for my host to show me to the apartment.
Darn it, I thought I'd gotten the Brazilian street dancers in this picture, but it looks like they're out of frame.
The apartment I am staying in is just about a block off this main square, which is convenient because I'm confident I'll be able to find the square again, but less confident about finding a random street here in the Old Town. The host never even gave me a street name or number, she just pointed out the lamp shop and said "when you see the lamp shop, turn left". Which, honestly, is way more helpful than the street name anyway.
My studio apartment for the next 3 nights. Love it.
After getting settled in I went back out to get some dinner and do some exploring. I opted tonight for pizza at a cafe in the Place Rossetti.
The 'Quatre Saison' pizza, featuring artichoke hearts, ham, mushrooms, and, hmm, I guess cheese as the 4th season. It was So Good. And in a combination of English and broken French, I managed to ask them to wrap up the other half so I'd have a snack for later- economical too!
View from my table at dinner.
The Airbnb host had told me that the beach was just a few blocks further, so after dinner (and yes, with the pizza in my purse) I walked down in that direction. What totally blew my mind was the number of people still out, walking around, eating and drinking at cafes, or just hanging out. There was an open-air market on the way to the beach with some fun-looking stalls that I'll need to come back and check out more thoroughly later. And then at the beach, more people, sitting or walking, out enjoying life.
Looking to the east, toward Castle Hill.
Looking to the west, with the Promenade des Anglais stretching out along the length of the beach.
Possibly the best part about the location of the apartment is its proximity to Fenocchio, the premier ice cream purveyor in Nice. As I walked back to the apartment, I saw that there were quickly-moving lines stretched out in all directions from Fenocchio, so it looked like getting ice cream from there was a must-do experience, and I mean, of course I want to take advantage of everything Nice has to offer.
Just a few of the 50+ ice cream flavors at Fenocchio. Flavors pictured here include cactus, fig, and something labeled pamplemousse (some kind of fruit?). I opted for vanilla with Kinder chocolate mixed in. Yum.
Another big day of sightseeing awaits tomorrow, so better settle in and get some (blessedly air conditioned!) sleep now.
*Owls- so hot right now.
**Thank you Kaarin, for hacking into my Airbnb account to let the apartment host know the train was running late!
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