Nice Is Not So Nice When It’s Raining!

Today we have moved onto the Cote d’Azur, also known as the French Riviera, a usually sunny resort area along the Mediterranean coastline but currently, it’s pouring rain! 

We’re staying in Nice, the largest city in the Cote d’Azur and we’ll be taking trains to daytrip the nearby cities of Cannes, Monaco, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Antibes over the weekend.  Our initial plan was to move from city to city, but when we couldn’t book hotels in Cannes because of some media conference, we decided to base out of Nice.  After a few weeks of moving around so much, we’re actually very glad we couldn’t find a hotel in Cannes because it gives us a chance to get settled and it’ll be nice to not have to pack and unpack again for almost a week!  For future planning we’ll try to home base from one city and daytrip to other cities we want to see whenever possible.

On the train ride from Avignon to Nice, we met/sat with Art and Amy, a father and daughter pair from Seattle.  It was really nice to have someone new to chat with (we haven’t really met anyone this past week because we’ve been in hotels) and because Seattle is so close to Vancouver, we should be able to actively keep in touch when we return home!  We’ve met numerous people on this trip that we’ll continue to be friends with, but it seems a bit easier when they live close to you as you’re more likely to see them again.

Because we both had trouble sleeping last night and we’re in Nice for a while, we decided to stay inside, out of the rain.  Apart from grabbing some lunch and some drinks/snacks at the grocery store, we didn’t leave the hotel until it was time to have dinner (sort of like Nimes, but at least there’s stuff around the hotel this time!).

For dinner, we chose a busy little restaurant called Le Toscan based on the fact that it was full.  We struck up a conversation with two English guys at the table next to us and learned that this restaurant is popular with the locals because it’s good value for the money.  When our meals arrived, we could totally see that!  Paul had ordered mussels for an appetizer and a quarter chicken with spaghetti as his main dish and I had ordered fish soup and lamb chops with spaghetti.  The mussels and soup alone could have been a meal because they were such large dishes, but then our main dishes were even more massive (Paul’s quarter chicken was half a chicken!).  I thought French food was supposed to come in small portions?

We were so full we weren’t sure how we could eat the dessert that came with the set menu, so the English guys suggested ordering something called Fromage Blanc because it’s quite light, like yogurt.  I’ve seen it on all the dessert menus but never knew what it was, so I gave it a try, and the only way I can describe it is sour plain yogurt.  They told me you can sprinkle sugar or pepper on it, and I tried both and decided I liked the sugar more.

All in all, Nice is off to a rainy but good start and the English guys (one of whom used to live in Nice) have suggested a couple of restaurants to try so I’m looking forward to some more good food!