After a good night’s rest with a cool breeze, we spent our morning at La Condamine, went into town for a few groceries and fresh croissants and took a dip in the pool.  In the afternoon we drove into Nice.  We arrived in the city with only a few wrong turns and found parking at the Museum of Modern Art.  Matt took a tour of the museum, while the rest of us wandered the streets of Nice for a few hours.

The  city of Nice has a colorful past.  It has been variously Italian and French, attacked twice by the Saracens and was finally ceded to France permanently in 1860.  In the 19th century its warm climate and beautiful waterfront became a favorite wintering spot for wealthy Englishmen, who paid for construction of a walkway by the sea now called the ‘Promenade des Anglaise’.  A further extension of that is called the ‘Quai des Etates Unites’ and includes a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.

The entire waterfront on the Baie des Anges is nearly four kilometers long and is a continuous series of beaches and waterfront restaurants.  Parasailing out over the bay was popular, but most people seemed content to lounge under the innumerable umbrellas to escape the hot sun.  At one spot it looked as though someone had built a fish impoundment and  we could see a school of sardines swirling about, as well as larger fish that would occasionally break the surface for a tasty bug.

the late afternoon heat proved relentless, so we turned to the shaded side streets of Vieux Nice, or the old town.  Here there were shops selling olive oils, Provençal herbs and crafts as well as an open air market.  Restaurants small and large were starting to open for the evening, and we had reservations for dinner on the  rue Milton Robbins at a restaurant called ‘Frog’.

Melissa and I wandered into the most beautiful candy shop we had ever seen, when we saw a girl pouring glacéd fruits into large bowls in the front windows. The shop was called Confiserie Henri Auer and has been in Nice since the 1820s.  The floor was a beautiful mosaic tile  and the back room displaying chocolates was all stained glass and gilt wood.  We bought a small box of gelees and ate them as we walked down the street (surprisingly little flavor, we thought).

As we sat outside along the alley, the breeze from the sea was cool and refreshing.  ‘Frog’ as the name implies does feature frog legs as an entrée (that being the appetizer course- the main course is called the ‘plate’).  None of us were interested in trying the frogs, but settled on lamb, steak and mussels.  Our waiter assured us that these were not the larger (and left unspoken, inferior) Spanish mussels, but were instead the smaller local mussels.  I ordered the mussels and was rewarded with a pot filled to the top with at least 5 dozen little mollusks in a tomato and herb broth.  We had learned from the locals to use a mussel shell as a tweezers to grasp the meat from the remaining mussels, and it worked well.  After dessert of creme brûlée and melon with white cheese, a complimentary limoncello finished the meal.

A Nice afternoon indeed, and then back to La Condamine for a swim before bed.  Our time in France quickly running out, tomorrow we will rest and pack.  Next stop Italy.