Still catching up on posting about our vacation in France. The last stop was Nice where we had an apartment on the Promenade des Anglais right on the Mediterranean. It was a beautiful spot, though the apartment turned out to have a few issues.
The balcony was the selling point and it really was lovely (though too hot mid-day because the awning didn’t work). Also, the advertised AC was only in the front room so the bedrooms in the back were hot. No problem, we thought, because it’s cool out at night and we can leave the windows open. Only it turns out the lovely Promenade becomes the drag racing spot for unmuffled motorcycles at night. Still, it seemed like a good spot overall and there were ceiling fans in the bedrooms so not too bad. We settled in and found an acceptable, but unremarkable dinner in a restaurant 2 blocks away. I don’t recall what we ate except that it wasn’t very good. However, we had learned in Aix that no meal is so bad that it can’t be redeemed by a Dame Blanche - a hot fudge sunday with whipped cream or “Chantilly”at the end. So that’s what we did- one Dame Blanche, 2 spoons. After dinner, we stopped at a market on the way back for essentials and turned in for the night (and discovered the roaring motorbikes issue)
The next day our big event was the NiceCar Tour where you drive a small electric Fiat in a caravan behind a leader through the streets of Nice and up into the hills behind the City.
Our tour was due to start at 2:00 so we planned to arrive in the neighborhood early and find lunch before the ride to avoid the no lunch between 2:00 and 7:00 problem. We happened on a cute little cafe around the corner - Les Copains (the boyfriends) and had a perfectly slow-paced meal on a sunny, but breezy afternoon. What could be better than a Salade Niçoise in Nice? It had truly delicious, but tiny niçoise olives in it. Sadly I forgot the pic.
Inside, they had an unexpected feature - the “Art Toilet”
After lunch, we made our way back to the meeting point for our tour
Our guide was very good - navigating the twisty roads and oncoming cars without losing any of us in the caravan. I was sure I'd remember his name without writing it down, but I should have known better.
I was driving so I didn’t take a lot of photos, but here are a couple from when we stopped at "Fort du Mont Alban", built in the mid-16th Century on top of a hill overlooking The Baie des Anges in Nice as well as Villefranche-sur-mer, Cap Ferrat (one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in France and location of the old Rothschilds mansion), and in the distance, Monaco. (Click on the video to see the vista)
It was fun driving the little car and gave us a different kind of opportunity to see the contrasting neighborhoods of Nice and beyond as well as some spectacular views of the water. We weren’t confident that the little electric car with only one gear could make it up the steep hills, but it handled the task beautifully.
Linda was still in a pizza mood. I had a lovely sole meuniere - a dish I had eaten only once before close to 50 years ago when our friend Jo Schuch served it in her cheffy days in SF. I remembered it fondly and this version lived up to the memory. Fabulous, half the price it would be in NYC, and served with a beautiful plate of grilled veg, including fennel. I especially loved that it was called, “sole meuniere et ses legumes” - sole meunière and its vegetables as if the fish brings its vegetables along to the party.
