Girls Gone Abroad

Sorry for no posting yesterday - I was busy putting up pictures from the past several days during the free time. It was a very nice day, sunny and warm even along the sea, and we decided to enjoy the day just putzing around Nice itself. Before we could do that, we had to go and pick up our car at the train station to have for the remainder of our time in Provence.

We made our way back to the train station without getting lost and decided to pick up our tickets for the train from Avignon to Paris while we were at the station. The woman behind the counter was very nice and let me practice my French! I asked her where we would get our car and she looked at the paperwork and said the airport... "WHAT the %$#@"? I am sure I scheduled it for the train station, but she says - "nope, there is a bus to the airport, guess you'll be taking that".

BUT, instead of trusting her, I thought I would just ask at the train station car rental, my gut said I had done the right thing and Sandy said follow my gut. Well, it was right and we got our car at the train station with no issues - then we had to get it back to the parking garage near our hotel - YIKES! Nice and Paris for that matter are full of one way streets, which I learned is sans unique in French, who knew? I decided Shan or Sandy should drive and I would navigate, so Sandy volunteered. It was a crazy drive, but we made it and we didn't even make any real mistakes - we got a bit of whip lash, seems Sandy hasn't driven a stick for awhile!

Once back we walked to the seafront to try and find a restaurant where we could look at the water, but it seems that is not something they do much of here, at least in the old town area. So, starving since we had no breakfast before our car adventure we went back a block and had some lunch at one of the many choices (we can't remember), it was good, but nothing overly special. After we headed back to the beach and Shan and Sandy put their feet in the water - Shan said it was like California, cold but not unbearable. I had to laugh as a big wave soaked them both pretty far up their rolled up pants and Sandy almost lost it on the pebbles (it is a pebble beach). The water is so pretty and blue here!

From there we climbed to the top of the old Nice fortress since it looked to have great views. It did have a nice vantage looking over the sea, and up higher was a pretty cool waterfall and then cemetaries. My mom and grandpa would be proud because I spent a fair amount of time wandering around these cemetaries looking at the headstones, it wasn't hard really since these were tombs and beautiful tombs at that. I don't really totally get how it works, but whole families are "buried" on a single site. If anyone knows how this really works I would love to be educated!

After our hike we shopped a bit in the TINY streets of old town Nice and then had some Ice Cream. It is a good thing we waited so long to taste the ice cream here because since we had it I think we have had some everyday! SO GOOD! Sandy is a bit lactose intolerant so none for her except small bites of Shan's and mine. From there Sandy was interested in olive oil tasting so we searched out the store in her book A L'Olivier, if you are ever near one of these stores it is definitely worth the stop! Of course we had a very nice young lady waiting on us named Eve and her english was impeccable and she was funny and extremely enthusiastic about her products. We tasted a couple basalmic vinegars and several olive oils and none of us left empty handed. We will be having some great salad dressings and pastas when we get home!

For dinner we made reservations at a place called Acchiardo at 38 Rue Droite, but we couldn't get in till 9:30, so in the mean time that is when I caught up loading pictures. This place was on a website somewhere and my notes said " Nicoise eatery with gorgeous sons that wait tables." Well, that is my abbreviation for saying the sons of the restaurant owner are the waiters and they are good looking - obviously something the other recommendation had mentioned. NOT DISAPPOINTED! The food was good too and cheap, but ladies if you are in Nice you have to go here and check out the eye candy, and they are nice and charming to boot. Jean Francois and I don't know the other's name, he left for the night before we had a chance to answer. And unfortunately, they were so cute we lost our minds and forgot to take pictures for evidence...sacre bleu!

From there, we headed for a drink to Thor, a brew pub type place in the old town area. We ordered beer for Sandy and I and wine for Shan and my beer was HUMONGOUS - not kidding check out the pics... We were then interupted and subsequently joined by a couple of young frenchmen - Jean-Remy and Jean-Christophe - who were pretty drunk, but mostly amusing. Although by the end of the round of beers they ordered us without asking, we were tired of them and Sandy mentioned to JC that she and I were married - that put a crook in their thinking, although they still tried to convice us to let them "show us around" on Friday. We passed and said au revoir... At least it was someone to talk to besides each other for a short bit!