The one about the trip....Part 2: Nice
Sorry folks, we've begun our apartment hunting and I've just been so distracted, blogging about the trip kind of fell off to the side. Let's hope I can get back on track here. :)
The second part of our trip, we flew from Paris to Nice. And Nice is niiiiiice. The waters are gorgeous! I didn't really expect the water to be THAT blue. Unfortunately, we didn't bring any swimwear so we just had to admire.
Our first meal in Nice was pizza! Which was quite good! And quite large! It was basically a half of a large pizza overflowing on a plate. I decided to be a little brave and got one with olives and anchovies. This was actually my first time trying anchovies, but apparently they're kind of famous for their anchovies so I felt like I had to try them at least once. I was surprised at first that there were so few anchovies on the pizza...until I actually had a bite. Those things are strong and SALTY! Also, the olives weren't pitted...not a huge deal but these were also local olives, and were very tiny with very little "meat" on them. And a strong smoky flavor. I really liked this pizza though. Out of all the pizzas I had on the trip, this would be my least favorite BUT if I could have it again, I'd totally eat it. Good stuff!
After pizza, we went back to the room for a bit, then came back out, walked along the water and took in all that beautiful blue. We stopped at a place to have some pasta and that was pretty much the end of our first day in Nice.
On the second day, we took a 9 hour tour of the French Riviera. This was really neat because it wasn't a bus tour, it was a guy driving us around in a van and for the first part of the tour, it was just me and Willie so it was like our own personal tour. He took us to Cannes first....what can I say about Cannes? It's boring. There is absolutely nothing special about it unless you go there for the film festival. We spent very little time there. Nothing to see.
Next was Antibes. Antibes had a Picasso museum which we didn't see. Some really sweet little churches and small cobblestone streets.
This is where we started to see the really big yachts.
We checked out a neat little market as well. I'd say we spent about a half an hour wandering around there before heading back to the car for the next destination....St Paul.
More winding tiny little streets...if that's what you want to call them. You don't drive on them. It's just all walking.
We wound up buying some olive oil here and some really yummy cassis vinaigrette.
After St Paul we went back to Nice, had some lunch (Willie, spaghetti bolognese, me...more pizza!). This is where our driver picked up a couple from Canada and a woman from Australia. Our next stop on the tour...Ese.
Ese was another gorgeous little village with winding streets and lots of shops. They kind of all become a bit of a blur to me. Not to say that they aren't worth visiting. Each is special in its own way.
In Ese, we also visited Fragonnard which was a small perfume factory. I don't like using the word factory but that's really what it was...but not in an ugly industrial sort of way that you might think of when you hear factory. It was very small and lots of pictures of flowers all over the place.
We took a tour and learned how the flowers get turned into essential oils and on to perfume. At the end, well of course it turns into almost a sales pitch. They took us to the store where we sat at a bar and she gave us different samples to smell. I actually didn't mind the sales pitch part and was almost hoping we would have something like that at the end since I was already planning on this being my big splurge for the trip. I wanted some nice french perfume! And I walked away with 3 very lovely scents and 2 for mine and Willie's moms.
Last we hit Monaco/Monte Carlo. We stopped at the church where Princess Grace is buried.
And we checked out the big beautiful casinos...from the outside. You have to pay 10 Euro just to go in to gamble.
As we left Monte Carlo, our driver took us along the same route the Monaco Grand Prix takes. And it was back to Nice for some dinner.
We decided to try one of the seafood places the guy at the front desk of our hotel suggested. This would probably be the worst meal for me for so many reasons. First off, no english menu. That wouldn't have been so bad had their menu actually been in some sort of understandable order. But everything was all over the place and extremely overwhelming. Drinks..then desserts...ugh...no rhyme or reason. We finally decided on just getting some shrimp and I had a bad feeling before we got them. One good thing I can say...the seafood is all out at this stand outside the restaurant and totally fresh.
So we get our shrimp...whole. Heads tails....beady eyes and all just staring up at me in a pile. Now, I'm sorry but this is just not the way I'm used to eating shrimp. I know it's totally normal but I just don't have the stomach for that. Also, I don't suck the gunk out of their heads. I just know the waiters were looking at us and thinking "Stupid Americans". But we had to laugh. I will say...they were very fresh and very good! It's just that I prefer my shrimp headless and hot...not cold. I'm not a shrimp cocktail person.
After we were done with all of that carnage, we of course asked for the check. Our waitress let one of the other waiters know....and we waited...and waited...and waited. We then grabbed the gentleman she had told to get the check and told him again...and waited...and waited. Now, if we had had cash on us, I would have just dumped some on the table and walked away. And at a certain point, that's what I decided we would do. We figured in our heads what the bill would be and I sent Willie off to an ATM to grab some cash...at which point as soon as Willie disappeared around the corner, the idiot waiter showed up with our check. Sigh. We paid and left knowing we would have a good story later on. So it was an experience for sure. The food itself...tastewise...yummy!
Of course after only eating shrimp, we weren't entirely full so Willie stopped and got some gelato. I should mention here that Willie was on a mission during this whole trip to gorge himself on gelato and get as much as he could. So just assume when I mention a meal, that Willie had gelato afterward. Then we stopped off at a fast food burger place called Quality Burger and Willie got a burger, I got some fries. After that whole dinner fiasco...I wasn't in the mood to hunt down anything too complicated. We took this back to the hotel, watched some Bones in french and ate our burger and fries. Yum! Stupid Americans. :)
The next morning we headed off to the flower market and I had my first official hormonal pregnancy meltdown. Like I mentioned before, I had been starting my mornings off with a croissant or some sort of simple bread and orange juice. This particular morning, we needed to hit the market before it closed and I figured they would have some breads there. They didn't. So I soldiered on and we browsed the market. Lots of flowers of course. Further on they had a ton of candied fruits, olives, soaps and a ton of spices.
We bought some candied fruit to try and then bought a few spices for Willie and his dad.
So afterwards, we wandered trying to find somewhere to buy a croissant or something simple for me to get in my stomach. Willie saw some posters in a shop as we were walking and stopped to check them out. This was about when I started to feel the empty stomach and just wanted anything to eat. Poor Willie...he doesn't even see it coming. He noticed me getting impatient and asked if I wanted to go and...it just all came pouring out. "Yes, I'm just hungry! I just want to get something to eat. Can we just go??" Luckily we passed a little deli that had sandwiches and stuff. He asked if this was fine and again..."I don't care I just want a croissant! I don't care!" So he went in to get the food and I proceeded to sit down at the only table outside the shop and cry. Yeah...I cried over not having something to eat....having to wait so long. I'm not sure. I wanted to stop crying and I couldn't! And poor Willie when he came out, he just didn't understand what in the heck was wrong with me. I totally freaked him out. I love him, he's so patient! lol He settled for a sandwich from this place even though I'm sure he wanted something else. God bless him.
After that drama, we took a very long walk up to this waterfall castle thing overlooking Nice. Gorgeous views here! LOTS of stairs. I had to stop quite a few times to catch my breath.
Totally worth the trek up there. But after that, I had to rest. We went back to the hotel, I napped and then we came back out for some dinner.
After a bit of wandering, we decided on a cute little place called Chez Juliette. We were being a bit picky about where we went because this was our last dinner in France and we had yet to have some good seafood. Sorry, I don't count the shrimp. We wanted a nice cooked meal.
So Willie settled on the Seafood Stew and I got a fish (can't remember what fish I had) and yummy veggies on the side. Good final meal for France.
Next post we head into Italy.....
The second part of our trip, we flew from Paris to Nice. And Nice is niiiiiice. The waters are gorgeous! I didn't really expect the water to be THAT blue. Unfortunately, we didn't bring any swimwear so we just had to admire.
Our first meal in Nice was pizza! Which was quite good! And quite large! It was basically a half of a large pizza overflowing on a plate. I decided to be a little brave and got one with olives and anchovies. This was actually my first time trying anchovies, but apparently they're kind of famous for their anchovies so I felt like I had to try them at least once. I was surprised at first that there were so few anchovies on the pizza...until I actually had a bite. Those things are strong and SALTY! Also, the olives weren't pitted...not a huge deal but these were also local olives, and were very tiny with very little "meat" on them. And a strong smoky flavor. I really liked this pizza though. Out of all the pizzas I had on the trip, this would be my least favorite BUT if I could have it again, I'd totally eat it. Good stuff!
After pizza, we went back to the room for a bit, then came back out, walked along the water and took in all that beautiful blue. We stopped at a place to have some pasta and that was pretty much the end of our first day in Nice.
On the second day, we took a 9 hour tour of the French Riviera. This was really neat because it wasn't a bus tour, it was a guy driving us around in a van and for the first part of the tour, it was just me and Willie so it was like our own personal tour. He took us to Cannes first....what can I say about Cannes? It's boring. There is absolutely nothing special about it unless you go there for the film festival. We spent very little time there. Nothing to see.
Next was Antibes. Antibes had a Picasso museum which we didn't see. Some really sweet little churches and small cobblestone streets.
This is where we started to see the really big yachts.
We checked out a neat little market as well. I'd say we spent about a half an hour wandering around there before heading back to the car for the next destination....St Paul.
More winding tiny little streets...if that's what you want to call them. You don't drive on them. It's just all walking.
We wound up buying some olive oil here and some really yummy cassis vinaigrette.
After St Paul we went back to Nice, had some lunch (Willie, spaghetti bolognese, me...more pizza!). This is where our driver picked up a couple from Canada and a woman from Australia. Our next stop on the tour...Ese.
Ese was another gorgeous little village with winding streets and lots of shops. They kind of all become a bit of a blur to me. Not to say that they aren't worth visiting. Each is special in its own way.
In Ese, we also visited Fragonnard which was a small perfume factory. I don't like using the word factory but that's really what it was...but not in an ugly industrial sort of way that you might think of when you hear factory. It was very small and lots of pictures of flowers all over the place.
We took a tour and learned how the flowers get turned into essential oils and on to perfume. At the end, well of course it turns into almost a sales pitch. They took us to the store where we sat at a bar and she gave us different samples to smell. I actually didn't mind the sales pitch part and was almost hoping we would have something like that at the end since I was already planning on this being my big splurge for the trip. I wanted some nice french perfume! And I walked away with 3 very lovely scents and 2 for mine and Willie's moms.
Last we hit Monaco/Monte Carlo. We stopped at the church where Princess Grace is buried.
And we checked out the big beautiful casinos...from the outside. You have to pay 10 Euro just to go in to gamble.
As we left Monte Carlo, our driver took us along the same route the Monaco Grand Prix takes. And it was back to Nice for some dinner.
We decided to try one of the seafood places the guy at the front desk of our hotel suggested. This would probably be the worst meal for me for so many reasons. First off, no english menu. That wouldn't have been so bad had their menu actually been in some sort of understandable order. But everything was all over the place and extremely overwhelming. Drinks..then desserts...ugh...no rhyme or reason. We finally decided on just getting some shrimp and I had a bad feeling before we got them. One good thing I can say...the seafood is all out at this stand outside the restaurant and totally fresh.
So we get our shrimp...whole. Heads tails....beady eyes and all just staring up at me in a pile. Now, I'm sorry but this is just not the way I'm used to eating shrimp. I know it's totally normal but I just don't have the stomach for that. Also, I don't suck the gunk out of their heads. I just know the waiters were looking at us and thinking "Stupid Americans". But we had to laugh. I will say...they were very fresh and very good! It's just that I prefer my shrimp headless and hot...not cold. I'm not a shrimp cocktail person.
After we were done with all of that carnage, we of course asked for the check. Our waitress let one of the other waiters know....and we waited...and waited...and waited. We then grabbed the gentleman she had told to get the check and told him again...and waited...and waited. Now, if we had had cash on us, I would have just dumped some on the table and walked away. And at a certain point, that's what I decided we would do. We figured in our heads what the bill would be and I sent Willie off to an ATM to grab some cash...at which point as soon as Willie disappeared around the corner, the idiot waiter showed up with our check. Sigh. We paid and left knowing we would have a good story later on. So it was an experience for sure. The food itself...tastewise...yummy!
Of course after only eating shrimp, we weren't entirely full so Willie stopped and got some gelato. I should mention here that Willie was on a mission during this whole trip to gorge himself on gelato and get as much as he could. So just assume when I mention a meal, that Willie had gelato afterward. Then we stopped off at a fast food burger place called Quality Burger and Willie got a burger, I got some fries. After that whole dinner fiasco...I wasn't in the mood to hunt down anything too complicated. We took this back to the hotel, watched some Bones in french and ate our burger and fries. Yum! Stupid Americans. :)
The next morning we headed off to the flower market and I had my first official hormonal pregnancy meltdown. Like I mentioned before, I had been starting my mornings off with a croissant or some sort of simple bread and orange juice. This particular morning, we needed to hit the market before it closed and I figured they would have some breads there. They didn't. So I soldiered on and we browsed the market. Lots of flowers of course. Further on they had a ton of candied fruits, olives, soaps and a ton of spices.
We bought some candied fruit to try and then bought a few spices for Willie and his dad.
So afterwards, we wandered trying to find somewhere to buy a croissant or something simple for me to get in my stomach. Willie saw some posters in a shop as we were walking and stopped to check them out. This was about when I started to feel the empty stomach and just wanted anything to eat. Poor Willie...he doesn't even see it coming. He noticed me getting impatient and asked if I wanted to go and...it just all came pouring out. "Yes, I'm just hungry! I just want to get something to eat. Can we just go??" Luckily we passed a little deli that had sandwiches and stuff. He asked if this was fine and again..."I don't care I just want a croissant! I don't care!" So he went in to get the food and I proceeded to sit down at the only table outside the shop and cry. Yeah...I cried over not having something to eat....having to wait so long. I'm not sure. I wanted to stop crying and I couldn't! And poor Willie when he came out, he just didn't understand what in the heck was wrong with me. I totally freaked him out. I love him, he's so patient! lol He settled for a sandwich from this place even though I'm sure he wanted something else. God bless him.
After that drama, we took a very long walk up to this waterfall castle thing overlooking Nice. Gorgeous views here! LOTS of stairs. I had to stop quite a few times to catch my breath.
Totally worth the trek up there. But after that, I had to rest. We went back to the hotel, I napped and then we came back out for some dinner.
After a bit of wandering, we decided on a cute little place called Chez Juliette. We were being a bit picky about where we went because this was our last dinner in France and we had yet to have some good seafood. Sorry, I don't count the shrimp. We wanted a nice cooked meal.
So Willie settled on the Seafood Stew and I got a fish (can't remember what fish I had) and yummy veggies on the side. Good final meal for France.
Next post we head into Italy.....
posted by Starla at
7:31 PM
5 Comments:
Starla-I love reading about your trip. We followed a similar route during July 2008 and seeing your pictures brings back lots of fond memories. I need to go back and look at our pictures again! Can't wait to see Italy from your perspective!
what a fun oart of your trip great pis - and yes those bady eyes - I had a shrimp tempura roll come with the head and tail as "decoration" fast way to lose appetite.
What a wonderful trip! How lucky you both are :) I am jealous!
Lovely pictures.
Starla...It's so great to have the narrative to go with the pics I saw earlier! I have to say that here in the south...you get a lot of the head on shrimp too...it's not just France...and lets not forget crawfish..lol...! I don't do the "gunk" either....! I don't mind the head on though.
Ooh I'm so jealous, LOL. Your trip seemed so great! Such wonderful places in Europe, looking forward to your Italy pics. =)
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