See the Sea

Woke up from our slumber on a bed and frame which the proprietor said we were the first to sleep in-but which Rich said reminded him of the turquoise Kool-aid stand his dad made.

We did worry a bit that a nocturnal awakening might cause a concussion. 

We returned to the flower market this morning-but this time we were too early. The vendors were just setting up at 8 o'clock. We did manage to find a great bolangerie with a pastry that tasted like custard pie with zucchini. 

We changed our plans around due to the train strike and swapped our planned day in Antibes for the closer Cap Ferrat since we were now depending on buses. However the French have thwarted us again, as now some bus lines-including the one we needed-are on strike too.  We found a sign that seemed to indicate the strike would be done in the afternoon

so we sprang for an Uber taxi ride out to Cap Ferrat. 

Our for destination was the villa and garden of Beatrice de Rothschild.

She was an eccentric widow and heiress, and indulged all her whims In the creation and furnishing of her home and gardens. In many ways I enjoyed it more than Versailles-  the water views were stunning both inside

And out

The gardens more  varied including cactus

Spanish style

And musical fountains

We also enjoyed the stories of exess and eccentric.  She did not have children, but loved her animals-which included exotic birds, monkeys, lapdogs, and a mongoose. A treasured dog and mongoose even had their own matching Louie XIV chairs.

In fact, she famously staged a very elaborate wedding ceremony for one of her dogs and invited various other millionaire friends' pets to the ceremony.  This is some of her monkey wallpaper. 

And some other moments 

After the tour,  we walked to the town of Saint Jean and admired Ferraris

 and many boats and yachts 

He was disappointed to find the Rivas covered up. 

We ate pizza and set off on a walk on a fairly maintained trail around Cap Ferrat with lovely vistas everywhere.

Rich dipped his feet in the Mediterranean  

and declared it was possible to swim-but I've seen him swim in Maine, so not sure I can trust him. 
After the walk we thought we could catch bus 81 back to Nice now that the strike was finished.  Only the strike wasn't finished. Thankfully some Austrailians happened upon us and told us of the strike continuance, but that bus #100 was running still. This meant a long walk, quite a bit of it uphill,with us following our new down-under friends all the way up.

But we made it to the stop just in time to catch the bus. Did I mention that much like the Amalfi coast in Italy, this bus trip provides some pretty stunning views. But also like Amalfi coast, the bus was packed to the brim so we had to see some of the famed cornice road standing up, doing what I like to call the bus surf.

For dinner I had my first official Salad Niciose. It was surprisingly filling. Rich also walked me over for gelato again-and we stopped to play on the way.

It was a fun-but slightly transportation challenged day. 

It's nice in Nice

I'm Another day, another gas line.  Though we had found the opportunity to fill our tank before the drive, once in Nice we had to top it off before returning it to the rental company.  This proved challenging as we navigated crazy Nice city traffic to stations either out of diesel (witch is what we needed), or out of business completely. It was finally an Avia station to our rescue again. The rental car company personnel seemed surprised we had found fuel.  

We had to wait a bit before checking in time for our last Airbnb   I though maybe we should putout a tip jar since with our garbage bag "cooler" filled with frozen water battles and cheese we looked a bit like homeless people.  

After checkin it was off to explore Nice. We found a fun fountain

The kids just take off their shoes and run around in their clothes-or sometimes just underwear. 

This guy-maybe Apollo-goes sans underwear. Our tour book rinks he looks like he's carrying a beach towel.  

Nice has a daily flower market that supplies cut flowers to all of France.  It was mostly over, but we still saw some displays.  And for pretty good prices. 

Rich said it smelled like a funeral home. 

They even had exotic cactus for sale 

Fun shopping in the area amidst the tourist traps-interesting toy cars for kids

And exotic gelato favors like "cactus" and "tomato" at the very famous gelateris here. 

For snack time we had a Nice specialty-socca-which is a savory crepe made from chickpea flour. We liked them so much we went back for seconds. 

Next we found the beach. It's mostly rocks, but that doesn't stop the sunbathers.  They do import some sand for the volleyball courts which people utilize for seated purposes. 

We kept walking and first found local teen swimming hole.  It didn't look so comfortable. 

And we watched his girl take 10 minutes or so to finally work up the courage to jump.  

You might still be waiting if I had to jump Into those rock infested waters.  Or try to climb out of the sea if I did manage to jump. 

Eventually we  found the port. Lots of yachts

Though some were fixer uppers for Bob to work on

Nice view 

Very pretty here in Nice. 

Dinner was truffles and truffles. -literally a restaurant that serves shaved truffle on every   dish.  This is Rich's lamb with truffle. 

I had eggs and truffles-but in France food is rarely what I suspect. My dish turned out to be almost like a scrambled egg soup. But I got some of that gelato we saw earlier as dessert. Apricot and caramel-yum. 

Walking home through the public art. Welcome to Nice.