A great time in Nice

Wednesday May 23rd, Nice France-

Tartine and other morning essentials while traveling.

 

Got up and took the tram to see the flower market after stopping to get cafe au lait and croissant's at the local outside cafe. Enjoyed that and went to the flower market which was very large. We bought some trinkets and went to the beach or the plage as the French say it. The wind was way calmer than the first day we arrived so it was much more pleasant to sit and hang out at the beach for a while which we did.

Flowers - lots of flowers.

Overall view of flowers at Nice market.

Overall view of flowers at Nice market.

Sample of some of the goods at the market. Clementine jam.

The Eastern end of the market de fleurs.

We hopped back on the city tram which is silent and smooth and makes the Bay Area BART trains feel like something from the Flintstones TV cartoon. We hopped on here and went to the Place De Charles DeGaul and got a couple Pan Bagnat sandwiches for lunch for later. Our next stop was our 2nd attempt at going to the Marc Chagall Museum. We arrived and really enjoyed it a great deal. Photos below, which by the way, are all click-able if you want see them in a larger format.

Mark Chagall painting. (Chet's favorite one.)

Mark Chagall painting outside the museum.

We enjoyed the visit here and then headed to the Matisse museum where it was free to get in and we checked the place out but no photos were allowed. (Again for no apparent reason.) We didn't enjoy this as much as the remarkable colors of the Chagall museum which is free also.

Our next stop was the Museum of Archeology which had ruins of a Roman settlement from 2200 years ago. The signs there said that the area of Nice was a gateway to the rest of France so the Roman army had stationed 3 legions of troops here for 200 years. They had a small amphitheater there and a frigidarium, and heated baths. We also walked by what remained of business stalls and it was pretty amazing. See the photos below. It makes one wonder what will remain from our society in 2,000 years from now. Open to question. Also reminds me of the Monty Python movie where they say "So what did the Romans do for us anyway?"

Roman ruins right next to the Matisse museum in the background. This used to be a store in the ancient past.

Roman era ruins.

Then we got back to our pad for a while hung out and then went down to the water to find a restaurant to get some local fare like Moules (Mussels) for dinner. We ended up talking to a friendly couple from Cologne, Germany who wrote technical manuals for various aircraft manufacturers.

French onion soup. Had to have it once this time.

Mussels for dinner.

Lamb shank we had with potatoes.

Thursday May 23, Nice to Lyon France-

We are riding the TGV train right now which is super comfortable and smooth. Much nicer than the Italian trains we rode on. The train rides right in sight of the water along the whole coast and we've been seeing the towns along the way of Canne and realizing we definitely want to spend more time here in the future. We also saw the snow-capped Alps in the background too which was cool. The climate is Bay Area like. The water is spectacularly pretty and the skies are blue most of the time. Apparently it is sunny about 300 days a year here - not that different from Bay Area. Temperatures were in the 70 range the whole time and we did get a rain shower yesterday. There is really a lot to see here in case you are thinking about a trip.

The countryside of France is very pretty and the trees are at their spring greenest right now. The air is crystal clear blue and you couldn't ask for nicer weather. Lynne said she likes the train because we aren't cramped in, no airport security, no check-in etc. It's just comfy and nice and there is a nice slow view of the world going by.

Very pretty - We just past a outdoor flower nursery. Small vineyards, low ranging mountains / hills (probably 800 feet tall) covered with trees and small outcrops of rocks on their tops. The only downside is the trains usually don't go through the really mountainous higher areas so you're going to be in the low-lands mostly.

Just arrived in Lyon and we are going to start checking it out. Just had a rain shower and it's clearing up. More later on today.

 

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