Nice is nice

Our first day in Nice we were awakened by thunder and lightening at about 5 a.m.  We were hoping for better weather here, but alas, it rains on the Riviera sometimes too!  But by 8 the skies were clear, and it was in the low 70's.

Rick and I headed out to find some pain au chocolat - chocolate-filled croissants.  Our apartment is on the 5th floor, with no elevator, 81 steps up.  We figure we can eat as many croissants as we like!

A symphony of church bells began at about 9:45.  We were up so high in the building that the bells were very close.  We weren't sure of the timing of the bells, but we were very grateful that they didn't ring twice every hour, like they did in Sablet. 

After a little petite déjeuner we were off to the Nice market to buy some serious groceries.  There were dozens of stalls of produce, spices, olives and breads, and cases of meats, cheeses, sausages.  We stocked up on some supplies for a few meals.  A stop at the wine store on the way home and we rounded out our Mediterranean diet.

Linda checking out the flowers

Bulk spices

More spices

Rick and I buying some produce

On the way back to our apartment we walked by a square where an exhibit was going on.  It appeared to be all classic cars, with flower arrangements on the hoods, and models wearing hats with flowers that matched the arrangement on the hood of their respective cars.  There were about 8 cars in the whole thing, but very elaborate flowers involved in each display.  We had noticed a wedding cavalcade the day before, and seen flowers on the hood of the car carrying the bride and groom.  It looked kind of funereal to me, but it must be the custom in this part of the world.

I want that hat!

This one was a little too much.  The box was strapped to her head.

We sat out on our terrace and the bells began to ring again!  We are very close to heaven here.

We decided to go down to the busy street below and find lunch.  There was a pizza place right next to the door to our building.  There's lots of Italian food on the Riviera, since Italy is so close, and this part of France belonged to Italy for hundreds of years.

There are pros and cons to living next door to La Maison de la Pizza

The pizza is baked in a wood-fired oven, and is very tasty.  One of the other two details related to our pizza place right downstairs is that the shared wall with our entry hall is almost too hot to touch by the end of the evening.  The wood-fired oven is right there, on the other side!  We could imagine in the heat of summer the oven would increase the heat all the way up the stairway.  The other detail is that the wood-fired oven smokestack is right next to our terrace on the roof.  There seemed to be soot on the terrace all the time, and we figured that was the reason.  If we didn't take the furniture cushions in every night, they'd get a  little sooty. 

After lunch we walked along the Promenade des Anglais, along the beachfront.  Its name comes from a time when wealthy English tourists started visiting Nice during the cold and rainy months at home in England.  I guess that would be all year, then, wouldn't it?  Most of the private beaches along here were closed by this time of the year, but there were a few topless sightings among the scattering of sunbathers. 

The Promenade des Anglais

We walked around to the port side of the city, past the war memorial, and saw a sample of the huge yachts we'd be seeing in this area all week. 

The memorial to citizens of Nice lost in two world wars

The view of the beach from the promenade

Back at the apartment we had a simple but good dinner of roast chicken, polenta and salad.  We have baguettes with cheese every evening about 5, with our pre-dinner rosé, so by all accounts we don't really even need dinner sometimes!   We're trying to be European, and eating dinner later, but still!

Nice is driving us crazy

We checked out of our house in Sablet and headed south to Nice.  Once again, there are so, so, so many more places to see in Provence.  We missed some because of bad weather, but another week would have helped too!

The skies were overcast most of the way, but the clouds were high enough that we could see some of the beautiful and dramatic scenery on the way down.  Rolling green hills, and also high cliffs of rock and chalk.

We stopped at a truck stop for lunch. This time there were only 6 coffee vending machines, but the café

served coffee also.  It's obviously top priority here.

We knew the drive would take 3 hours, and we allowed 4, plus some time to stop and eat.  We were scheduled to check into our apartment at 3 and return the rental car at 4.  We arrived in Nice about  2.  Brunhilda, our GPS, was programmed with the address of our apartment here.  It was in the old part of town - Vieux Nice - and we knew there were streets where we wouldn't be able to drive.  We thought we could get the car as close as possible, unload our luggage, and then park the car at the closest parking lot.  We had some groceries and wine left over from our place in Sablet, so of course we were loaded down with more than just our luggage. We drove around for quite a while, and finally parked in a lot near the border of the old town.  I shouldn't say WE, because Tim was driving the whole time, and Rick was trying to navigate.  It was stressful for both of them, and Linda and I, in the back seat, weren't having much fun either!  The audio on the GPS was turned off, thank goodness, or we would have heard "at the next opportunity, make a u-turn"  about two dozen times!

Parking garage in Nice.  I wish we could add the sound effects!

We got parked, but we didn't really know where the apartment was because our little maps weren't detailed enough.  We were supposed to meet an agent from Nice Pebbles, the rental company, at the apartment.  It would take me too long to relay the convoluted series of events that ensued.  Let's just say we finally phoned the agency, with the help of a very kind (trés gentile) bookstore owner, who spoke almost no English.  The agent, Marie, met us at the parking garage and helped cart our luggage and groceries several blocks to the apartment.  "You knew it was on the top floor, with no lift?"  She asked, laughing.  She's half our age, and got to the top floor with a fraction of the pain we were all feeling!

The building next door.  Our place is even with the top floor

We got directions about everything at the beautiful apartment, and Rick, Tim and I headed out to return the car.  It was also a much longer, and much more involved, drive than we hoped.  There are also lots of one-way streets in Nice, which added to our adventure.  Finally, our business was complete for the day.  We stopped to buy some supplies for dinner, and the chef was so exhausted after our long day that he couldn't come up with his usual amazing fare. He made a simple pasta with sauce, and we also had some canned ravioli(!)  In Nice!  At our feet were dozens of restaurants, but none of us wanted to climb those stairs again.  We all practically collapsed after the long and stressful day.

The funny part was that the GPS had taken us right to the end of the street where the apartment was located.  But, there were police monitoring the narrow street to make sure that cars weren't driving down it.  We had almost made it!

We all loved the apartment and got settled in for our stay of 6 nights.  Our neighborhood is hoppin' all the time.

A street in Vieux Nice

Photo courtesy of VirtualTrip.com

Our kitchen, classy but small

Our balcony looked out over the rooftops

View of the cathedral tower at night

We segué to Séguret, just for today

The hill town right near Sablet is Séguret, and it's been listed as one of the Plus Belles Villes de France (Prettiest Villages in France).  The village is also on the Côtes du Rhône wine road.  At Christmas the entire village becomes one big Nativity scene.

Séguret with castle ruins just barely visible at the top

We packed a picnic lunch and drove over to check it out.  At the very top of the hill sits the ruin of a castle, and we decided to hike up.  I had read that there are too many trees to see much from the very top, but  that there were some nice viewpoints on the way up.

View from the trail above Séguret

The hike up was on rocky trails.  Not too difficult, but we had to watch our steps, and it was a climb.  When we passed senior citizens in their church clothes coming down though, we thought better of complaining about it!

Rocky trail up to the castle ruins

No, this picture isn't on its side!  Rugged hillside around the village

At the top the castle ruins were a disappointment.  Only a few walls are left standing, and you can't really climb around on them.

One of the issues with old castles, forts, bridges and aqueducts is that once they aren't occupied or guarded the locals start carting the stone off for other building projects.  I'm thinking we'll probably see parts of the castle down in the village.  We just won't recognize them as such. 

The village was very picturesque - a photo op around every corner.

One of the entry gates to Séguret

Community washbasin or lavoir, gossip central

Another entry to the village

Cute

Single-handed clock dating from 1680

Linda standing next to what looks like an original gate

Tim and Rick walking down a village street

Branches of ancient plane trees (sycamores) trained and supported to form a canopy over the parking lot

Check out Michel's blog posts for lots more info about the food, wine and history of Séguret. 

We had a drink at one of the restaurants in the village, and headed home. 

Dinner tonight would be French onion soup.  It's really a winter dish, but it's been cool enough to enjoy it now.  The recipe called for a splash of cognac in the bottom of each bowl before adding the croutons, broth and cheese.  The cognac added a distinctive flavor, that's for sure!

Rick preparing French onion soup

The day ended with another pretty sky over the countryside

The Wheels of Isle (Sur la Sorgue)

Each day that we're within walking distance of a bakery, we have fresh bread and croissants for breakfast.  Well, I guess that would include each and every day, since there's always a bakery within walking distance!

We knew that the fish vendor would be in Sablet today, so Rick and I were out fairly early to shop for dinner.  Rick chose some filets that looked like sole, but we honestly didn't know what they were.  He's also been anxious to get some fresh squid to make calamari, and we were able to buy it here too.  I told the fish lady that we're en vacances, and we have to take photos of everything.

Our friendly fish vendor

We were off to Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue (literally an island in the Sorgue River) today, since it was one of their weekly market days.  There are nine waterwheels around the town, remnants of a time when there were 70 waterwheels powering the flour mills, as well as paper and textile mills.  The town was a major economic force in the mid-1800s, and waterwheels have been in use here since the 12th century.

Tim and Rick inspect one of the waterwheels

This moss-covered one doesn't move around too fast, but it still works!

We needed some vegetables for dinner, and bought those and some cheese at the market stalls. 

Market day in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

We bought sandwiches at a take-out place and sat on benches along the river to eat our lunch.

There are lots of pedestrian-friendly areas along the river.

We also stopped to look inside the church.  It was very ornate for such a seemingly-small town, but I guess it shows how prosperous the town was over the last several hundred years.

The church in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

 
On the way home we stopped at two wineries to do some tasting.  The nice, young lady at our local Tourist Information office said she didn't know if any of the wineries would be open for tasting, since it was harvest time and they were all pretty busy.

The first place we stopped was Le Gravillas.  It was right outside of Sablet, and they had people on duty in the tasting room. They took plenty of time with us, making sure we tasted anything we might be interested in. 

We bought several bottles and headed down the road to Domaine Chamfort.  The door was unlocked to the small tasting room, but there was no one there.  We saw a buzzer on the wall and rang to see if they were open.  A 30ish young man came rushing in to help us.  He was very friendly and spoke great English.  He described the wines in great detail.  We noticed that his hands were purple up to his wrists.  He had stopped working with the grapes to come in and let us taste!  When we commented on it, he said inside he was frantic, worrying about getting everything done.  Weather conditions might mean that a certain field should be harvested right now, or tomorrow, or not until next week.   He had no idea how long the harvest would go on.  In spite of the great pressure he was under, he took lots of time with us.  We wished we could buy more wine than the 6 bottles we bought, but we were headed out of town in two days and would be turning our car in.  We had no mule to carry our wine.

We headed back home.  Rick was anxious to try preparing the calamari, and we were happy to oblige him.

Tim was starting to feel a bit disheveled after three weeks on the road.  He sports a buzz cut, and thought it was getting long.  We didn't notice.  He went down to the nearest salon and tried to make an appointment for later that day.  They were booked, but sent him down the street to another salon.  They had an appointment available at 5:30.  We would have all loved to go and observe this whole process, but Tim went off on his own.  He came back with shorter hair, and had had a fine time.  He took his trimmer to show how short he wanted his hair cut. He said they washed his hair before cutting it, which they don't do at home.  The stylist, an attractive young woman, didn't speak English, so no chit-chat during the haircut.  She did a good job of cutting his hair, massaged his temples, and charged him 15 euros, about the equivalent of what he would have paid at home. 

Tim's French haircut

Rick prepared the squid by skinning it, cutting it up and dredging it in egg and then flour with salt, pepper and some herbes de Provence.  Sauteed in butter and olive oil it was a tasty appetizer.  Even with the fast shutter speed, we could hardly get a picture before it was all gone!

Fresh squid makes great calamari, with Rick's help

Dinner was the fish from the fish vendor, baked with zucchini and tomatoes.  We took a photo of the recipe so we could duplicate it at home.

Fillet of fish with zucchini

A picture of the recipe for our dinner

After dinner we could see the sunset turning the sky red, so we dropped everything and raced down to a nearby overlook to enjoy the scene.  The neighborhood looked nice all lit up too, with the lights from the village of Séguret in the background.

Sunset in Sablet

A Sablet neighborhood with the hill town of Séguret in the background

Dodgy weather in Provence

No rain came during the night, but the weather this morning was still dodgy.  Dodgy is my new favorite adjective.  We've run into so many Brits on this trip, and within minutes of conversing with them, they all have something they describe as "dodgy": the weather, a B&B they've stayed in, their knee or ankle, their daughter's former boyfriend's profession.   Anyway, I'll be interjecting my new favorite word as often as I can, while hopefully still maintaining the integrity of the blog.

So it wasn't looking too promising outside, and we were wondering if we should venture out.  I suggested we go out for lunch, to a place written up by our host Michel.  He did a nice blog post on the restaurant and it sounded like a great place for us to try.  Our little village doesn't have much to offer in the way of restaurants, and this place was nearby.

Les Genêts is a restaurant and wine tasting shop.  It's known for creative local cuisine, and they were serving a nice 3-course menu for lunch, which we all tried.

First course was a paté de campagne

Second course was a beef brochette with veggies and couscous

A caramel éclair for dessert

 

We had wine and bread with lunch, and the bill came to 64 euros.  That's about $80 for the 4 of us.  The food was great, and there was nothing dodgy about it!

On the way back to the house we saw grape-harvesting machinery going through some of the vineyards.  We saw tractors pulling wagons heaped with grapes headed to the wineries.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the tractor is shaped kind of like a catamaran. 

It drives over the plants and harvests mechanically from each side of the vines.

A wagon full of grapes headed to the winery

We got back to the house before the rain started, and once again it was quite a storm.  We monitored the places that had sprung leaks the last time, but didn't have problems this time.  A few drips maybe, but nothing like before.  I'd been in contact with Michel, and he wasn't too happy about the flooding with the first storm.  They'd already had some extensive repairs done to the house to fix some of those problems.  I let him know all was well this time. 

Thank goodness we had a good selection of movies at the house.  We were stuck inside for the rest of the day.  We watched Kevin Cline and Meg Ryan in "French Kiss", and some of "A Year In Provence". 

Dinner was a pork roast marinated in olive oil, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  One of the great cookbooks at the house provided a recipe for tomato gratin, using bread, tomatoes, eggs and cheese.  It turned out well, and we wish we could remember where we got the recipe!

Tomato gratin was a hit!

Having nothing to do with dinner, or our day, here's a photo of Rick with his dream car - a Twizzy.  I don't think there's room for me!

Rick in one of his signature Hawaiian shirts, next to his dream car.