Nice, 2017

We had spent several days in Nice in previous years and did not want to do anything much more than walk the old city...and thus the following assortment of scenes. It is a beautiful, wonderful place. (We parked two nights, October 25-26,  at an aire in St. Laurent du Var).

Candied fruit shoppe

Lemon shark

Onions on bread topped with an anchovy and an olive; pass the
breath mints, please

We were hoping it would be a theme
restaurant...

The shutters fold down to become tables and benches

Teas

Indian...like boss ribs, fry bread, pemmican,
maybe some fire water?!

Emotional support poodle

Does your neighborhood have a triperie?

Belvedere not visited

See below

A thing in Nice, on the boardwalk

Proper perspective

Proper perspective

Great art deco

Can we live here? Vicki asked

Corniches, Lower, Middle, Superieur

And, the next day, we drove from Nice to Menton, on the Italian border, traveling a bit of the lower and middle Corniches to Menton, then the superior Corniche back to Nice. We really like this part of the world. Who wouldn't?!

The harbor at Villefranche

Monte Carlo

Menton

More Menton, Italy in the distance, where the high bridges

enter the tunnels, then emerge onto high bridges...

A nice apartment building overlooking

Menton, where we had lunch; great view,

lots of road noise, especially as the

Lamborghinis and Lotuses downshift...

Never far away, a gun emplacement, trained on Italy,

which "stabbed its neighbor in the back" (FDR) in 1940

Monte Carlo again

In La Turbie, on the Corniche Superieur, the Trophy of the

Alps, presented by the Senate and People of Rome to the

new Emperor, Augustus, celebrating his conquest of the 40

nasty Alpine tribes

Returning to Nice, from the northwest

Nice Is Nice 3

The next day we returned to Nice, took in a bit of the book festival, had lunch (our deferred 42nd anniversay meal) at the Bistrot du Viviers--one of the few really good restaurant experiences we have had recently--then did more of the old town (which we had also visited the previous day).

We had seen signs and posters all over Nice,

certainly the best advertised book festival I

have seen, except possibly Edinburgh

The lay-out (for those interested) is basically a quadrangle

of these tents, a big tent at the entry for local antiquarian

sellers, three larger tents down the middle for readings/

interviews/discussions; the outer tents were all for

publishers and for their authors to sign and converse with

visitors; although well-supported locally (I think), it is

essentially a publishers' festival

An author interview

Ground-zero Nice, just across from the bookfest

Typical downtown street; note grill-work

In the old town

Ditto

Business opportunity?

Nice Is Nice 2

Later, we ventured down the hill a bit, to the Marc Chagall National Museum, basically a collection of 17 very large Old Testament scenes he painted, plus some other bits. I do like Chagall--very conceptual, in ways I can understand--though he was not one iota French. If you want a national museum, it helps to have the Minister of Culture (Malroux) as a close personal bud. After that, for us, it was time for the beach.

The Marc Chagall National Museum

Impressive Chagall painting (whose title

I will add)

In the auditorium, just a little of the stained glass he was

famed for (designing)

Chagall's take on Noah, the Ark, and the Flood

OK, so now we are at the beach; Nice has some 3 dozen

public beaches; and it was beach-weather

Sun worshippers on the plage

Closer-up; this is the place where many men learn to use

the zoom lens

The great old hotel Negresco, now under renovation