A Walk Along the Coast

Walking Honey this afternoon, I passed a poster for a concert organized by the workers striking in France.


The protests seem to be over for the most part, and the tattered bulletin reminded me that it's been weeks since I posted a blog, so here's a tidbit from a few weeks ago. After some days of rain, we had a bit of cabin fever, so Vince and I took the bus to Beaulieu-sur-Mer. The bus is clean, fast, reliable and a steal at 1 euro (about $1.30), especially considering the distance it covers (and the scenic route it takes along the coast).


We had lunch at a place above Beaulieu. The food was average, but the view was priceless.


After lunch, it was time to walk off some calories. We headed for the port at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat along Sentier Littoral, the path that follows the coast.


Along the way, we met a charming and fascinating new friend, Ruth.


She was on holiday from Manchester, England, and we strolled and chatted like old pals. She was staying in Nice, and we thought it might be fun to have her by sometime the following week.



As fate would have it, I was out the next day to pick some odds and ends at a small supermarket. Of course, I ran into Ruth! Kooky small world. We made a date, Ruth dropped by and we yakked and yakked the evening away. We are always thrilled to meet interesting new friends. Especially folks who get Honey's seal of approval.

Mo' Maureen

When our pal Maureen came to visit a few weeks ago, we all took an overnight trip to Grasse, then Vince and Maureen did a lot of exploring around Nice and along the Cote d'Azur while I kept things running at the European HQ of alecwagner.com.

But I especially enjoyed the day Maureen and I spent lallygagging around Nice with Honey. I busted out my finest Nicoise sailor garb for the occasion.


Sweet Treats
There's a candy shop on the rue de France that Maureen had seen earlier during her visit. We headed back to have a Willy-Wonka-worthy shopping spree. The shop doesn't sell Everlasting Gobstoppers, but they do offer miniature croissants, pain au chocolat and other baked goods rendered in marzipan. You can see them in the picture below. And below that, Maureen searches for her golden ticket (and some sweet treats to take home).


We meandered down to the Promenade des Anglais for a seaside stroll. And to pose and take pictures of each other.


Hunger, of course, set in quickly. Luckily, it was lunchtime and there are oodles of places to eat near the sea. We picked Lido Plage, as the view seemed especially inviting.

Maureen enjoyed the seafood salad.

I gobbled up the spaghetti carbonara, made the French way: lotsa cream, lardons (super-fatty bacon) topped with a raw egg yolk. It was really rich, and reeeeeally good. Urp!

Maureen dipped her feet in the water. With those rolled up pants, she's really working that beachcomber look.

We wrapped up a perfect afternoon in Old Nice at Fenocchio, where they have amazing flavors of ice cream (violet, rice pudding, olive, avacado). I had a killer combo of ginger ice cream with vanilla-pink-peppercorn. It was sweet and spicy. Maureen had caramel with browned butter. Honey was mad for it.


It was a day of pure bliss (fueled by the sea breeze, sunshine, sugar and dairy fat). Heaven!

A Visit from Maureen

Shortly after we arrived in Nice, our dear friend and neighbor Maureen came to see us. We'd planned to take a trip to Venice, but train schedules (and rail strikes) nixed that idea. Instead, we opted for a trip to Grasse, France.
We schlepped our bags to the train (the line to Grasse was still running), and spent a few days in France's (maybe the world's) perfume capital. Once we got to Grasse, lunch was in order.

Hungry travelers, waiting for sustenance.


Grasse is quite lovely and green.


We couldn't resist posing like tourists. Nice camerawork, Maureen!

Upholstery by Claude Rains.

Look closely, and you can see me in the windowpane. Artsy picture. Here's another:

Next time: More fun with Maureen (spoiler alert: seaside vittles and a wacky Willy Wonka adventure!). Stay tuned!