Nice Out-Takes, 1

Many cute two-seater EVs here, Renaults, Fiats, etc.; note spoiler

No! Shoplifters should have to read A La Recherche du Temps Perdu!

Workers/climbers on the Bellanda Tower, on the Colline de Chateau

Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder Kitchen Store...literally...really nice
culinary store

Moral Outrage Department #1: on the border of the kiddie park,
Jardin de la Bourgada; nothing like this would ever be permitted
in an American park, much less a kiddie park

Ditto, #2

The first rule of Fight Club is...where Tyler Durden hangs out when in Nice;
Chuck P. would be so proud

Every French town has a beautiful fin de siecle merry-go-round

Moral outrage #3

City library in the artsy district; closed due to construction

World-wide sentiment

One sees "Hollister, California" wear all over Europe--anything

remotely American-sounding sells--or used to--here, in the up-scale

Nicetoile shopping center is an actual Hollister store; we've been

to Hollister, California, more than once...sort of a down-scale place

in the middle of nowhere...to put it kindly

Film-shoot outside the Negresco Hotel

The buses in Nice go everywhere, but the trams go quicker

Garibaldi statue in Garibaldi Square

Fountains not far from our apartment

Major "civility" emphasis in Nice--working, too--of course, Europeans
have no clue as to what incivility is...you have to visit the US to see
the real thing

Glasses vending machine

Porno bus stop

Nice is definitely stripey country

Palm Sunday refuse

Bus charging station

Bottle-brush plants everywhere; lots of bottles to clean

To Italy And Back Again

My only memory of the coast road from Menton into Italy was of a succession of congested seaside towns and very slow going. But, I theorized, one shouldn't have to walk too far into Italy to find significantly discounted ingredients for our Mediterranean diet. So I reasoned with Vicki and persuaded her to continue on. As it turned out, 100 meters was plenty far enough...just beyond the frontier guard station.

Not even around the bend

Just across the highway and the three (non-megalithic) stone circles

Voila! La! As I expected; every car had French plates...

The line to get in...tobacco about half its price in France, alcools about
30% cheaper, and a far better selection than anything in Nice; I stocked up
on Campari and lemoncello, two Mediterranean diet essentials

And thus, more fully enlightened about Menton's popularity,
we returned to France

Interestingly, at the first establishment you encounter back in
France, Les Amis du Pain, Italian pricing is still in effect...
cheapest we have ever seen in France!

FWIW department: we took the SNCF/TER train back to Nice: 4 times the cost, almost no scenery to look at due to the speed of the train, the tunnels, etc., but quicker...

Menton

Although we've never spent any great time in Menton, it figures in quite a few of our blogposts: on so many of our trips it marks a departure from France and an entry into Italy; or vice versa. Both are favorite places. We took the #600 bus over to Menton on April 29th--the bus is on the lower corniche pretty much the whole way and the vistas are great--and spent the day walking the town and its seaside boardwalk...all the way into Italy (next post) and back.

Before getting to the beach we had to work our way through a market; almost
all of it Italian fare

Lamborghini Service...

Older downtown buildings

A food hall sort of market

Where Vicki bought some of the famous Menton lemons

Now by the beach looking up to the city center...you can see we're
very close to Italy (laundry on the balconies...)

Harbor at Menton...none of the super yachts; thousands of little boats

Menton is famous for its 300+ days of sun per year, and the (gravel, not
pebble) beach had a few early season visitors

Similar to if smaller than Paris' great Viaduc des Arts (why a duck?)

Lunch at a beach-side restaurant...the frites were the only
non-seafood offering; the oysters were from Cancale

Now walking past the harbor toward the frontier

See the white camper parked there...pretty much where we parked for
lunch in both 2013 and 2017

Sail in, tie up, and rent a bicycle, scooter, or small car...

There's a super yacht shipyard, but few super yachts

One smaller cruise ship out beyond the harbor

Looking up to where the Grand Corniche becomes the Auto Strada,
the frontier, miles and miles of tunnels and high bridges...

Thus

Below, sun-bleached driftwood and the clear Mediterranean

Old French villa and above an Italian villa and fortress
tower

Looking back to Menton

The frontier...a few gendarmes stopping occasional trucks and vans,
no Italian presence at all

Looking up to some high pinnacles after our brief excursion
into Italy (next post)

Welcome back to Menton

Most Beautiful Public High School Ever, So Far...

The Lycee Massena.... Our apartment building is on the Rue du Lycee, and, a block away, fronting on the Avenue Felix Faure, is the regional high school, the building dating from 1929, the school itself from Napoleon I, who decreed that every town should provide for the education of its citizens. We walk past the Lycee almost daily, marveling at it...sort of a Mediterranean art deco, we think, with ample artistic flourishes and local references, unlike anything else we've ever seen here or elsewhere, and just beautiful. Someone wrote somewhere that, paraphrasing, we build our buildings, and then they build us. One hopes the young people attending this institution appreciate its extraordinary history, art, and architecture. Security issues being what they are these days, with guards at every entrance checking IDs, we didn't even think about trying to go inside. There are various websites about the school, the most comprehensive (and in English, too) at Wikipedia. Click to enlarge and see more of the tile work, mosaics, painting, and sculpture.

Covers an entire large city block; no way to get even a full frontal shot

At the southeast corner is the clock tower and a large inscription

Giving the date and place and some words of wisdom

Moving north along Avenue Felix Faure

Near the central portal, a plaque with the same sad reminder of fascism
one sees all over Europe...here of the Jewish children taken from this school
and murdered

Along the east side on Faure Ave.

Moving on around to the north side of the complex

Now along the west side

Typical of the ornamentation all over the buildings and
their highest bits

Dozens of sculptures...beautiful place!