On Thursday night we had a great pizza and bottle of tasty regional wine at the local pizza place before retiring to our suite at Lis Casa Blanca. This was the best room we’ve stayed in by far. In the morning, Sabrina, our host, set yogurt, croissants & other bread, orange juice, coffee and cereal out for us in the courtyard at 7 am. We caught the bus for the 15 minute ride back to downtown Montpellier and eventually got into our 1^st class coach for the high speed trip to Avignon. We had about ½ an hour between trains in Avignon and then got another 1^st class coach, a double-decker this time, for the rest of the trip to Nice. We saw lots of vineyards and Anita imagined herself sitting sipping wine in Ralph’s vineyard in Beamsville, the ultimate vineyard experience.

Our hotel, the Trocadero is just around the corner from the train station. It’s an old place but clean and air conditioned. We’re 2 blocks from the main street that runs down to the ocean and old Nice. It’s about a 15 minute walk down to the water. The main street and the old town are swarming with tourists plus a small percentage of homeless people and panhandlers. Some of the homeless people look pretty rough with that junkie look of 90 year old face on a 35 year old body.

We walked down and sunned and swam at the beach yesterday afternoon. It’s quite a zoo. First of all, the beach is known as “the rocks” because there’s hardly a grain of sand anywhere. It’s all pebbles and bigger stones. At first it’s not too comfortable laying on a towel but you get used to it. Everyone is on the beach. There’s even a service for disabled people so they can be taken into the water on a floating wheelchair and then they can get out and swim. The beach stretches all the way across the ocean front of Nice with a wide boardwalk, the Promenade) just above it (well, pavers not boards). Thousands of people stroll the Promenade.

Last night we went to a restaurant called Nissa Socca in the old part of town near the water. It’s highly recommended in Lonely Planet. Socca is a sort of chickpea flour and olive oil batter pancake. We also had pissaladiere with it which is similar flour but is a thick crust with onions, garlic, anchovies and olives topping. Our plate came with salade nicoise (cooked red peppers & a vegetable mixture) plus farcis (deep fried stuffed vegetables). All of this was 12 euros per plate so with mineral water and beer the whole thing cost only 31 euros for a great meal. Almost all restaurants here have seats outside on the sidewalk or street (literally). The outdoor tables at Nissa Socca were sort of in a wide alley. It was okay though.

After dinner we walked the Promenade and were pleased to discover that it was one of their “Prom nights” where the streets are closed and motorized moveable stages drive along and stop at different spots and the band set up on each stage plays a set before moving. We mostly saw a pretty good soft rock cover band who sang some songs in English and most in French.

Today we got a reservation for the train on Monday (actually 3 trains: Nice to Monaco, Monaco to Ventimiglia and Ventimiglia to Genoa Italy). Luckily there was a special section for Eurail passes so we were only in line about 5 minutes and paid only 3 euros each for the reservations.

After that we went to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral nearby. Lots of uppercrust Russians came here in the 19^th century for the winter and eventually built a cathedral. I wanted Anita to see one so she’d understand a bit better what I’d seen in Moscow. This one was very ornate but not as big as the ones in the Kremlin and Red Square.

After that we climbed the hill to where the original old fort was (now long demolished). It was a great view though. Tonight we’re off to dinner around the corner at the Petite Biche, whatever that is. Anita has just brought in the laundry from our balcony, like all the other French ladies. This afternoon, we missed the annual Pink Parade which is the annual gay and lesbian parade here. We weren’t real clear on the parade route. Now we’re just sipping beer and wine and cooling off in the air conditioning. It’s blazing hot here.

We don’t have internet in our room so we’ll post this later from the lobby. Tomorrow, we’ll probably just hang out on the beach since we’ll soon be travelling for 2 days. We’re only staying one night in Genoa and then we’re getting back on the train for Rome.