Crystals at our feet on the Champs Elysees

Ricardo headed out early to get food for breakfast. There was some coffee at the apartment, but the coffeemaker had no coffeepot. Quite a disaster for the coffee drinkers in the group. We texted the owner immediately, hoping for a quick remedy.

The weather was nice, so we all took the Metro over to l’Arc de Triomphe, and went up to the top.  The nearest Metro stop is Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, and when you see the 6 lanes of traffic to cross, you're thrilled to see the underpass to get to the Arc. The Arc was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate his victory at Austerlitz in 1805. The tomb of the unknown soldier is under the Arc, and this is also the start of the Champs Elysées, the famous, wide avenue that has been host to many military parades over the past few centuries. The view from the top is spectacular. And it's amusing to look down at the convergence of 12 streets flowing into the traffic circle, known as La Place d'Étoile, around the Arc. We were all glad we didn't have a car in Paris!

Looking down on Place d'Etoile, where 12 streets come together in a circle around the Arc

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier below l'Arc de Triomphe

Il Padrino and Marchesa in front of l'Arc de Triomphe. Notice all of the tiny people at the top.

The clouds were high enough that we had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. And just like a supermodel, she's beautiful from any angle.

In another direction, a great view of Sacré Coeur on Montmartre.

We bought Paris Museum Passes at l'Arc de Triomphe, and had the choice of 2-, 4-, or 6-day passes. For most of us, the 4-day pass worked well, and saved us some money. Additionally, there was always a separate, shorter, line if you weren't buying individual tickets at each museum or site.


We decided to walk down the Champs Elysées to see some of the fabulous shops along the street. There's also a McDonald's along here, but it seems more French than normal with a bakery and espresso counter, called McCafé, which I think we have in the U.S. now too, but maybe not as fancy-looking.

This doesn't look like your average McD's

We saw a Swarovski crystal shop, and thought we'd look for trinkets to take home. This wasn't actually a trinket kind of store, but fun to look around in, anyway. The one thing we all loved was the staircase with crystal-encrusted risers. So gorgeous, and a great place for a photo of the girls.

The ladies are kind of blurry, but the crystals look beautiful

Continuing down the street, we decided to stop for lunch at a place called Vesuvio. Lunch was good, but Marchesa’s omelet was cooked in the traditional French way, which means a bit underdone. Otherwise the food was tasty, and the service was attentive. No one would probably recommend eating in this very touristy area, but we enjoyed the view, and had a hearty lunch for 275 euros, in Paris, on the Champs Elysées!

We continued walking down the street, headed toward the Louvre and l'Orangerie museums. They didn't look so far on the map, but were quite a long walk from l'Arc. In fact, I just read in my guidebook that it's a 2-mile walk. Luckily, the weather was nice, and not hot. The street wasn't lined with fabulous shops the whole way, so we probably could have walked part of the way and taken the Metro part of the way. 

Sunshine, crowds, the Paris ferris wheel, and designer hats in the Tuileries garden, near l'Orangerie

Our first stop was l’Orangerie, a small museum with a great collection of Impressionist paintings. The highlights there are the circular Monets, featuring paintings of water lilies. Click on the link here, to see more info about the museum and the Monets https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en/article/claude-monets-water-lilies

A part of one panel of the circular Monet paintings

We could have spent much more time here. The museum is a little jewel filled with beautiful paintings.

Then we were on to the Louvre.  

Principessa, Giovanni and Il Padrino in front of the signature glass pyramid at the Louvre.

We visited some of the highlights - Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo and the Coronation of Emperor Napoleon. We saw plenty of other great works along the way too. 

What visit to the Louvre would be complete without seeing the Mona Lisa!

The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon

The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon is one of my favorites. It shows the Pope, seated and looking forlorn, while Napoleon holds his own crown aloft, ready to crown himself, while Josephine kneels at his feet. The Pope had traveled from Rome to crown the Emperor, but Napoleon was so egotistical as to think that he, himself should do the honors. From his beginnings as the common-born son of immigrants, to becoming the Emperor of France, was quite a coup.

The nice part about having a museum pass was that we could spend as little or as much time in each museum as we wished without feeling that we needed to stay for two hours to get our money's worth. We could always go back at another time over the length of the pass to re-visit something we really enjoyed, or see some of the things we missed the first time.

We headed back to the Metro, and our apartment, after that. Everyone was tired after our long day of sightseeing.

There's some pretty amazing artwork outside of the museums too, even in the subway tunnels!

Our landlord had sent the cleaning lady over with a coffeepot, thank goodness, and he also responded to my request for restaurant recommendations in the area. He directed us to Rue Montorgueil, where he said we'd find lots of restaurant options. We headed to that area, maybe 5 blocks away, and stopped at Les Têtes Brûlée (which translates as Burnt Heads!) for dinner. We hadn't actually gotten to Rue Montorgueil when we stopped. We had a good dinner, and the bill was much more reasonable than our lunch on the Champs Elysées. We only spent 216 euros for our dinner. We were drinking carafes of house wine, which helped. 

A souvenir salesman came to our table at the restaurant, selling trinkets. Marchesa bought a toy fish that lights up, plays music and races across the floor. She talked him down from 12 to 8 euros. Principessa bought some little stuff too. 

We headed back to our apartment, luckily within walking distance of the restaurant. The Metro is great, but on a nice night, Paris is a great city for a walk.

Nice to Paris

We ate some of the leftovers for breakfast, and packed up what we could safely take with us. Then we waited for the two cabs I had scheduled the night before. One cab arrived, and said he’d come back for the second half of the group. 

We were cutting it close enough already, and I called the taxi company office in a panic. I said I was afraid we wouldn't all make the train if the cab had to return to get the other half of our group. We had been told the ride took 20 minutes each way. That wasn't going to work! The lady on the phone said, no madame, no need to be afraid! I said I was worried. She said, worried? I could hear her typing on her computer, apparently looking up the translation of the word "worried." No madame, don't be worried!

Well, the cab ride didn't take 20 minutes each way, so the second group, including me with the tickets for all of us, made it in the nick of time. We got settled in for our fast, almost 6-hour, ride to Paris.  

The view from the train as we leave the Riviera. We'll hope for sunshine next time!

I have to say our time in Nice was somewhat of a disappointment, due solely to the bad weather. I've been to Nice a few other times, at different times of the year, and the city, the market and the beach have always been lovely. The city is beautiful in the sunshine, and there are so many places to walk or hike. We were staying on Mont Boron, a large hill with a park at the top. Castle Hill is also a fun place to visit, with gorgeous views of the city and the bay. There are also some nice hikes along the coast in Villefranche, the next town over, and other towns along the coast. And Monte Carlo is only a train-ride away, but would have meant lots of walking outside to see everything. The almost constant rain meant that we didn't venture out to see any of those places. We still managed to get out every day, but tended to stay closer to home. And, at least we had a big, comfortable house to spend time in while we were there. I suppose Elton John and Sean Connery were staying inside too.

We arrived in Paris at 3:41 and took 2 cabs to our apartment, Maison Courtyard Marais, which we found through AirBnB, and which was located in the 3rd arrondissement, in the neighborhood known as le Marais. Our apartment was located in a building with an interior courtyard, so we accessed our place from the courtyard. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding all around the courtyard, and construction going on the whole time we were there, so we didn't have a very charming experience with our little courtyard.

Our apartment in Paris. The kitchen was really too small to do much cooking, but we managed

One of the bathrooms in our apartment in Paris

We all got settled into the various bedrooms, and decided to head out to see the Eiffel Tower, and have some dinner.

There were a few Metro stops within 2 blocks of our place. We found the ticket office and all purchased a packet of tickets (a carnet) to last for the few days we were in Paris. I guess we didn't neatly "find" the ticket office. When you're under the streets in the Metro stations, sometimes you walk for what seems like blocks to get from a stop to your connection on the next line. The ticket office was around somewhere, but we didn't know where.

I remember standing in the passageway looking around and an older Asian lady stopped to talk to me. I assumed she wanted some directions, so I pointed to the nearest passageway leading out of where we were. But no, she was stopping to ask if I needed help finding something. She was so nice, and helped me figure out which direction to go. She must have been a local, and her English was great too.

We got off the Metro at a stop near Rue Cler, a neighborhood in the 7th arrondissement that some of us stayed in several years ago. It's a nice pedestrian street, with some great small hotels, and lots of shopping and eating opportunities. During the day many of the shops open onto the sidewalk, and there are also carts selling a variety of produce, cheese and meat, in addition to flowers. There are cafés and restaurants with outdoor seating when the weather is pleasant. Rick Steves has made it very popular by writing about it, and the result is that it's very visitor-friendly, but still a market street that attracts locals.

Rue Cler market street, in daylight

We were there after dark, and in the rain, so we didn't see the colorful displays of food and flowers, or market carts, or people sitting outside. It was fun to point out all of the places we'd been to the others who had never stayed there, and in addition, we knew the way to the Eiffel Tower from there. I can't say I've never gotten lost in that area with all of its streets that angle off in crazy directions.

It was raining as we headed up the Parc du Champ de Mars toward the Eiffel Tower. It was dark by then, and most of the tourists were snug in a bistro somewhere. The souvenir hawkers were still out though. One of them approached us offering umbrellas for 15 euros. We said, no thanks. How about 12 euros, he said? No, thanks. Maybe 10 euros? OK. We were all kind of straggling along, not really walking together. So, one of us paid 10 euros for an umbrella, and another paid 6 euros a few yards behind the first customer. I think the sales guys were wanting to get out of the rain too.

The rain was coming down pretty hard by then, so we high-tailed it into the first restaurant we saw that was near the tower.  It was late, but still busy. We got seated and ordered some food. We knew that the lights on the tower would start twinkling on the hour, and we wanted to be sure to see it. So, as it got nearer the hour, a few of us jumped up to run outside. The waiters jokingly tried to stop us. I'm sure they've watched a million tourists do this very thing.  Eating at this place, Le Dome, where they could run outside to see the lights twinkle when it was time.

The Eiffel Tower in all its glory

After our late dinner, we headed out to find the nearest Metro stop for the ride home, and would have hailed a cab if we'd seen one. It had been a long day of travel and everyone was longing to drop into a feather bed at the palace, which wasn't where we were headed, unfortunately. Our cozy, little apartment would have to do.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

It was another rainy day, but we decided to go back into town and see the morning market. It was the same colorful stuff we would have seen in the sunshine, but why did the rain make it look less wonderful? 

Rain, rain, rain

This is still gorgeous, even in the rain!

Laura standing in front of the fountain near "Old Nice." The rain must have stopped for a minute.

We wandered around in the old city, and I was looking for the bakery that still uses a wood-burning oven to bake bread, after seeing it some years ago. Esipuno's baker was voted the best in France 30 years ago, and his son continues to produce excellent bread today. Today was Wednesday, so the bakery should have been open, but no luck. At least the sign in the window verified that we were in the right place. Of course, my French isn't that good, so I thought maybe they had to go to the forest to get more wood before they could open again! When I actually translated the sign, word-for-word, it was a bit different message.

"We have the last wood oven for the bread in the old Nice"

We ate lunch at a place not far from where we’d stayed 6 years ago. La Claire Fontaine had good pizza, and we were happy to be under the canopy, listening to the rain, eating our lunch.

I had texted the manager of our rental house to get a recommendation for a caterer to fix dinner at "chez nous" (our house) one night. She gave me the contact info for Tiernan Fox, and we communicated about the menu prior to our dinner. Tiernan is Australian, so we didn't have any trouble conversing, and he had a wide range of menu options for us to choose from. He came out to the house to scope out the cooking facilities, and we settled on a menu. His plan was to arrive at the house early in the afternoon, after getting the groceries for the meal. 

Our menu was printed up for each diner, and at our place settings

That afternoon, Tiernan let us know that he was delayed by a demonstration blocking the road, and would arrive a few hours later than he had planned. Not only did he have lots of groceries, but also cooking appliances and tools. And his chef hat and coat. He suggested that we also hire his assistant to help with the dinner, serving and cleaning up. We thought we could have done it ourselves, but thankfully, agreed to hire her too. It was a very nice treat to have our wine poured and dishes served and cleared while we all relaxed. 

We had the perfect kitchen to watch the chef in action

Evelyn set a beautiful table with the dishes on hand.

First course was antipasti platters and prawn, mango and avocado verrine (in jars, or glasses in this case)

We're loving it all!

Mont d'Or cheese, served warm with veggies

We didn't get pictures of the main course. I guess everyone was too busy eating. The Beef Bourguignon was delicious, and the potato purée was perfect.

Two desserts! 

Thanks Tiernan! We gave it all a "thumbs up"

Our dinner was not only delicious, but Tiernan made almost everything from scratch right in our kitchen, including the shortbread cookies to serve with our desserts. It was quite a feast.  Tiernan is a very personable and charming guy, and had some great stories about his experiences working in the area on private yachts and at luxurious estates. We enjoyed the whole experience - from watching Tiernan cooking and watching Evelyn setting the table, to seeing the food artfully arranged, to savoring the meal. I think we all would highly recommend Tiernan if you're looking for a special catered meal at your rental house, or on your yacht. 

Here's a link to his website https://www.fantasticmrfoxcatering.com/ 

And another fun detail to note is that Evelyn has opened a Mexican restaurant in Nice's old town, and it looks like it's a hit. So, if you're in Nice, looking for some great Mexican food, check it out! It's La Lupita. I don't think they have a web page yet, but plenty of info and reviews on TripAdvisor.

Tomorrow we leave Nice, headed for Paris. Another adventure awaits!

Rainy weather in Nice

The weather was pretty bad, but we were determined to use our hot tub and pool. Marco, Ricardo, Giovanni and I went out about 8:30 to sit in the hot tub, in the rain. The water was nice and warm. We were pelted with raindrops though, but still tried to enjoy the experience. Ricardo and I took a dip in the pool afterward. Now we can say we enjoyed the special features of our house.

The indoor pool is behind those doors on the left. The building was made to look like a cave inside. The steps lead to the hot tub, with a view out to the Med

Our outdoor seating area at Villa Boron. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, so we never used it.

Sitting in the hot tub, just to say we did it! Raindrops were falling on our heads! The view was great though.

We decided to take the bus into town and do the Hop-On-Hop-Off  bus ride around town. The #100 bus went right by our place, and dropped us down at the port, where we looked around, and finally found the tour bus. We rode around for a few hours, seeing every building in Nice, and got off down by the old part of town to find lunch. The tour buses can't go into the old part of town, so unfortunately you miss lots of the charm of the city.

On the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour of Nice. There have been lots of notable residents of the city, and I think we went by every house or apartment they lived in.

Seems like sometimes the highly rated restaurants on TripAdvisor aren’t restaurants at all, but only lunch counters. We needed to find a place with indoor seating, to warm up. The first place we walked into, the hostess took one look at our motley crew and asked if we’d like to see a menu. Good thing, because the prices were high. I thanked her, and indicated that yes, this might be a little fancy for us. She told us a place across the street had good food and was more moderately priced. It was still pricey at the other place though! 

Le Comptoir de Nicole was a nice place, full of locals. We had a few socca pancakes as a starter, and they were pretty refined compared to the socca I’ve had on the street. Socca is flour made from ground garbanzos, and savory pancakes made from it are a traditional dish in Nice. Another traditional dish is Salade Niçoise, with tuna, which some of us had.   

Some of the group at lunch in Nice

Salade Niçoise with tuna, egg, tomato, olives and anchovies

We had several different pasta dishes, and some pretty pricey wine. Without dessert, the bill was 395 euros.

We hopped back on the tour bus, and convinced the driver to let us off at our house. It wasn't one of his stops, but the bus went right by our place, so he very nicely pulled over and let us off.

We had hors d'oeuvres and drinks on the balcony again, and stayed home for dinner. Our home-cooked meals are super economical, and help balance some of our splurges in restaurants.

Finding food in Nice

We had coffee and tea at the house, but no food, so Ricardo and il Padrino went to the Coop grocery store near our house, and picked up food for breakfast. We had croissants and a skillet breakfast with sausage, mushrooms, eggs and potatoes.

Our hot tub, looking back toward our house, and the neighborhood above us on Mont Boron, where all the movie stars probably live.

Laundry was the order of the day. The controls on both the washer and dryer were complicated, so we were guessing on settings. The wash cycle took almost 2 hours. The dry cycle seemed to take at least 2 hours, and clothes still weren’t really dry. It used some kind of water extraction process, so there was a container of water to empty after every load. The clothes were still wet, but very warm.

Meanwhile, Marco, Giovanni, Principessa, il Padrino and Laura wanted to walk into town, down the hill, past the port. They had a good walk, and not too strenuous. They stopped for a light lunch, and ordered some beverages. Principessa decided a bottle of champagne was in order.

A surprise!

She was astounded when the bill came, and the bottle was 200 euros, rather than the 20 euros she expected. She knew then, in hindsight, why the waitress seemed so impressed with her choice. The worst part was that since they were in a hurry they’d chug-a-lugged the champagne so they could continue their hike. Now you know why I have to give the travelers nicknames, except for Laura, who already has an appropriately Italian-sounding name. I can report actual screw-ups, misdeeds and pratfalls, and no one but us will know who I'm talking about, right?

On the way back il Padrino and Laura shared a cab, while the others walked back, uphill all the way.

Since groceries had been procured, we were able to enjoy an aperitivo on our balcony. We loved this tradition, and vowed to continue it at home.

Olives, cheese, salami, bread and beverages. Almost all of the food groups. And, isn't wine made with fruit? Well, that covers it!

 

Wow! What a spread.

 

Happy travelers during happy hour!

We had a chicken dish for dinner. I think Ricardo cooked. He knows how to please a crowd!

Monterosso to Nice

We departed Locanda Il Maestrale at 10, bidding Giovanni goodbye. We enjoyed our last breakfast there, and were sad to leave. We walked through the village with our luggage, and met a cab at the village square to carry our luggage to the station for us. It was warm, but clouds were moving in

On the way to the cab we had time for one last peek into the church. We loved the striped stone walls, and the inside was very ornate for such a little town.

The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista with a beautiful rose window above the door

Inside the church. We said a little prayer to keep the beautiful Cinque Terre safe from pirates and floods.

Our train to Genoa left the station at 10:55. Then between Genoa and Nice, the train came to a dead stop for about an hour due to some rocks on the tracks. It was Sunday, so the crew might have taken a bit longer to get there and clear the tracks. We thought it might have been a case of vandalism connected to the ongoing scheduled strike, but we were assured that the disgruntled employees of the rail system were unlikely to go to that extreme. Actually, the manager of our place in Nice said that the railway employees were too lazy to do anything like this, and we were thinking, thank goodness for that!

We were buying food and beverages from the bar, located in the next train car, since we didn't have any leftovers from our last place, it being a hotel. During the hour or so delay, the bartender kept going outside to check on the status of our stop, and maybe to have a cigarette too. He was a good source of up-to-the-minute info about the situation, and was questioned by all and sundry. Signore informazione, so to speak.

We finally arrived in Nice about 4 and took 2 cabs to the rental house. It’s a big, beautiful place on Mont Boron, and right on a major road with plenty of buses. 

Villa Boron was a very nice, modern, two-story house. It had a great open living room, kitchen and dining room, so everyone could relax in the same area at the same time. An outdoor deck adjoined the living area. The five bedrooms were divided between the two floors, and oddly one bedroom had its private bathroom on a different floor. 

The view from our house on Mont Boron. 

 

Our big kitchen. Lots of lights!

The grocery stores were closed on Sunday afternoon, but we were able to order pizza, salad, wine and beer from the pizza place near us, and they delivered it. Thank goodness. So, we had a nice, relaxing evening, and had plenty of sustenance.

The weather wasn't looking that promising. Our great view let us see all of the clouds! We were staying here for 4 nights, so hoped we'd have some nice enough days to do some walking in the area. We read in the description of the house that Elton John and Sean Connery both live in the neighborhood, and we really wanted to see them.

Monterosso

We had another great breakfast at Locanda il Maestrale. 

The painted ceiling in one of the rooms at Locanda il Maestrale. Notice the cat peering over the railing.

The hikers - Marco, Giovanni, Principessa, Caterina and Laura were ready to go around 8. Our host Giovanni was knowledgeable about how the “closed” trail could be navigated, so they headed off. 

The rest of us left Monterosso at 10 or so, heading to Vernazza on the local train. The hikers beat us there, and we all had cannoli, in shifts, at Il Pirata.

Coming into Vernazza on the trail from Monterosso

Il Pirata is a fun restaurant up at the top of Vernazza. No view, but 2 very entertaining Sicilian brothers run the place. The food is great too, and the cannoli is wonderful. One of the brothers recommended a place for dinner near the train station in Monterosso. 

Vernazza was packed with tourists on this nice, sunny Saturday. 

At a souvenir shop along the main street in Vernazza. We'll take 1 cat, per favore.

We walked down to the bulkhead, with the idea that we’d grab some pizza and wine and sit and enjoy it, but no one was really hungry, so we decided to take the train back to Monterosso and have lunch there. 

Marchesa is taking the photo of the other 9 of us waiting at the train station

We scoped out the restaurant for dinner, and ate lunch at another place, La Barcacci, where we had good pizza. Then back to the hotel, where some people rested, and some shopped. 

Plenty of cute shops in Monterosso

Principessa, Giovanni and il Padrino put their swimsuits on and headed down to the beach. It was a warm afternoon, and there were lots of people swimming and sunning. After I did a little shopping, I headed down to see how they were. We all ended up chatting with a young American family living in Switzerland, and vacationing in the south for spring break. They knew they'd go back to the U.S. before long, and were determined to visit as many places as they could while living in Europe, in spite of the fact that they had 3 little kids.

Monterosso is the only town along the Cinque Terre that has a real beach.

We headed back to the hotel, where we had beer and wine before dinner, then strolled over to the other part of town for a great dinner at La Taverna. They served great bruschetta before dinner, and a nice little shot of limoncello after. In between we had a wide range of seafood and pasta dishes.  Il Padrino's pasta carbonara was the only dinner that wasn’t great. We all had some kind of dessert too, whether food or beverage. Service was fast, and friendly, and dinner took about 2-1/2 hours. The bill was 358 euros. After dinner we went back to the hotel and had another drink or 2. Buona notté (good night) at about 11.