Apologies for the delay. I have been slowing right down. Sleeping in to all hours (once almost until
0800). Lolling about when I should be up
and at ‘em. Missed setting up a Photo of the Week for LabourStart last week. Delayed for a whole day.
Very odd this retirement
thing.
Plus the arthritis is in my hands is more than
the usual problem as I have my cheap laptop only and the travel keyboard I bought
for it only arrived a few days ago…in Cobourg.
Since the last installment we spent a few days
in Nice. Originally we had planned on
two nights and three full days but we were having such a nice time we added one
of each. We drove as we had intended to spend
some time in a couple of hill towns that have no rail service and the buses
looked a bit difficult to sort out given the short time we had. As it turned out we skipped one of them
entirely and the other was a bit of a loss as Geri’s back wasn’t up to walking
uphill much. So we could have taken the
train and saved a lot of time and money.
Still, we gained a few thousand Aeroplan points
from Avis. Pickup and drop off was
fairly painless. The toll highway we
used both ways was both incredibly cheap in comparison to what we are used to
at home but also quite easy to navigate.
Not so Nice (the first time in) as between the construction, the
one-way streets and the large chunk of the city that is either closed to all
vehicles or closed to non-resident vehicles.
The car’s GPS didn’t seem to be able to recognize this and so we went
round our hotel a few times before finding street parking that allowed us to
register. We would recommend the hotel
despite the lack of a lift (for some reason I thought it had one). A nice surprise was that though it only had
17 rooms it had a quite nice restaurant with a chef from Mauritius. He had added a few of his homeland’s dishes
to the usual Nicoise menu and they were quite tasty.
A really nice little feature of the hotel
other than the location right on the edge of the old city and close to the
museums strip was the small rooftop terrace.
Which was fun when the church bell in the attached tower rang the
hours. 😊
Photos HERE:
Nice is way more touristy than Aix, though not
in an offensive way. It’s just that
there are more of them/us than in Aix.
And many more of them are Chinese, interesting in and of itself. The touristiness also means that the old city
is way better maintained than in Aix where the city centre looks more
lived-in.
The last of the CGT protests in response to
the rollbacks of labour rights was happening as we were there. The impressive trams were covered with soaped
slogans. Also prominent amongst the
labour law reform protest posters and such were posters re. the ‘stop bombing
civilians’ campaign of which I know nothing and have yet to research. Bit high-end, looked as though they featured
celebs of one kind or another.
Just wandering around and stopping for a glass
of wine and some socca (chickpea flour crepe native to Nice) was enough to keep
us happy and busy most of the two days we spent in town. Restaurants or finding one we liked took the
evenings. That and making sure that Geri
had a chance to dip
her feet in the Med of course.
Nice was really lovely and while we might bias
another visit to a little later in the season to reduce the number of tour
groups we would bump into in the 2m wide streets in the old town, we’d be happy
to find ourselves back there. Some of
the US travel groups were very large.
Possibly one guide leading a double-decker bus’ worth. Even with them speaking in a low voice into a
transmitter they still are disruptive when that large in number.
It’s also where I found not only some cold
meds (ugh) but also the ‘My Tests’ stand at a pharmacy. My Tests is a brand of test kits (picture
pregnancy tests) for everything from cannabis to the clap. Looks to be quite popular.
The only disappointment was the contemporary
art museum. Perhaps six photos and
paintings, all surrealist, that I liked,
The rest…
Photos HERE:
Cannes was nothing to write home about. We stopped in on our way to Nice. Lots of traffic and a not too impressive
beach is about what we experienced. We’ve
heard rumours of a film fest that might be fun if you move around by
helicopter.
Photos of Cannes HERE:
Monaco took a (hot) day and was
interesting. Of course our Bell roaming
package crapped out that day and the one place we wanted to map ourselves
around we couldn’t. It’s more of a
problem than it might seem if you look at a simple map. As you’ll see from the photos the place is
built into several cliffs and what looks to be a short trot on a tourist map
can be an hours-long hike.
Incredibly clean and fresh and tidy
place. Things like elevators so those in
need can avoid the steps and steps that many streets require.
The aquarium was great. Now our second favourite after Boston. Well ahead of Barcelona and Toronto and
Monterey.
Photos of that (my Blackberry amazing, much
better indoors than the Canon) HERE. Bizarrely, the whole thing kinda hangs out
over the ocean, despite its age. These floor-mounted
portholes remind you of that now and then.
Acrophobic, I did not enjoy.
The palace was lush and incredibly well-preserved
but photography was forbidden. A bit
like the Sistine Chapel but someone’s home???
The old town around the palace incredibly well-preserved. Tidy, tidy, tidy. My mother would have comfortable eating off
the sidewalk.
Photos of Monaco other than the aquarium HERE
and of Monte Carlo HERE. We didn’t make the casino however. Perhaps next time though frankly I dunno that
there’s much other than an urge to feel well-dusted that would get us back
there. Perhaps the aquarium.
But the best thing about Monaco? [Hallelujah chorus] I found a Dink!!! Not a
Grand Dink (known as the Big Dink to us cognoscenti) but a 125 certainly beats
a Dink 50 (the Baby Dink)! What a find! Worth the Monaco parking charges!
We drove to Eze, Geri wasn’t up to the climb
to the viewing spots and I was all wigged-out from the cliffside driving (I am
acrophobic), so we had lunch and braked back down to Nice. Pleasant but it inspired us to spend another
day in Nice rather than drive up to St. Paul de Vence. Which we are just fine with.
But other than simply walking around Nice the
highlight for me of our time there was the short trip out to Cap Ferrat and a
few hours at the Rothschild mansion overlooking the sea. Beautifully preserved mansion but the gardens
were amazing. Look for the dancing
fountain video amongst the photos HERE.
Having said that, today when it turned into
something of a bad back day for Geri we popped E8 apiece and spent an hour on a
tour bus working the city centre. There
are times when it pays to just revel in being on a bus full of people dressed
as badly and as brightly as I was. 😊
Back in Aix…shopping for food half the fun
here. A daily adventure. It’s a bit of a pain to cook in an apartment
where you either try to make do with the supplies, pots and pans that are on
hand, or go crazy (where are the knives that Geri left here two years ago? And today Geri was talking about buying a
small sautee pan, I could use a dutch oven…) and spend money for other people
to benefit from after you are gone.
But the daily shop something I could certainly
enjoy. Especially once I got a handle on
the hours each shop or type of shop is open (the fishmonger’s hours are
starting to annoy me). Just trying to
pick out the mushrooms I wanted took a pleasant 10 minutes of sampling and
talking to the mushroom stall guy.
Even supermarket shopping interesting. Younger folks won't remember coloured toilet
paper. Banned in Canada many years ago as cancer-causing dyes used. But here in
Aix we have pinkish-red TP just for the hell of it. Should have been banned not
for the cancer hazard but for the 'holy shit what is going on in my innards
that I...oh, right' factor. 😊
Watch out for all the street shots amongst my
Aix photos. I find them hard to resist
and while they might (probably not though) remind me of how I felt when I took
them if I look at them years from now, they likely won’t do a thing for
you. But that’s why I put them all
online. So you can pretend to have
looked at them and I can avoid inflicting hundreds of them on you.
Le Jeune Marx and a new Juliette Binoche film
playing as are some Iranian films that will likely never make it to
Cobourg. Sigh. Tempting.
I am incredibly impressed with the Office de
Tourisme in Aix. They can do anything I
think. I want to have their children.
Blowing my own horn: my French is back. All I get now is comments about me being from
Quebec and other than some odd cultural references I can even keep up with and
make jokes. That’s a threshold for
fluency in my book. Next up is German
and if I start from scratch, Hungarian.
Am tired already.
Starting, for the first time I can recall, to
see wines labeled by variety rather than terroir. Sad.
Also boulangeries that are also patisseries, though that’s not new. Sigh.
Still, not hard to find a vinegar shop or an oil store. Thank god.
Stopped into des PTT for a beer on the way
home for a nap yesterday. Barfly picking our brains about Canada as he wants to
emigrate and shoot bears for food. Has picked out the part of Alaska he wants
to live in. 😊
One of our favourite things here are the seven
seater plus driver electric buses. Bored
we can just take one for a ridiculously low price and enjoy an hour of
sightseeing. Quiet sighseeing.
Generally the level of public services, from
the post office (and its bank) to the street cleaners to the daily garbage
pickup is all amazing and contributes a huge amount to making the country so enjoyable.
Only real down bit is that this is likely our
last stay here as the trot up the stairs is a bit much now. If back we’ll need a place with a lift or on
the ground floor. For a view of it look for
the video tour in the Aix Apartment photo album.
I am finding very pleasant red wines
consistently below the E5 price line. Not
great but drinakable. Enjoyable about E8
no problem. Geri whites at E7 and a few
specific vineyards at E5. And it is hard
not to love anything E8 or above.
It’s bit unbelievable but I’ve costed it a few
times: factoring out the travel costs as we use points, this is cheaper than driving
2 hours north of where we live and renting a cottage on a lake.
On that note…
