Leaving Lyon for Nice: More than a nice Nice time!

We really wanted to have a car in France but we also wanted to check out the rail system and avoid backtracking with the car. Also it’s just so relaxing to be on a train…most of the time. So we boarded a train from Lyon to Grenoble where we changed to a smaller rain headed to Gap. Well actually we thought we boarded a train to Gap but when it left 10 minutes early we realized we were on the wrong train and jumped off at the first stop. (This was not relaxing.) Thanks to an Uber we got back to the Grenoble station and then we were provided with a couple hours of time to work on the blog. Actually worked well, because we got better light later in day over the alps, had a drink, and we got to see a little bit of downtown Grenoble via Uber. There really is VERY little English spoken in this area so we just keep bumbling along with google translate and hand motions. Everyone has been remarkably nice and seem to kind of show pity for the 2 only English speaking tourists that aren’t attached to a tour guide. Actually on the trains there really didn’t seem to be any real tourists, very surprising to us.

We skipped Marseille and headed for Toulon.

This was an area Brant was particularly interested in because of it’s naval history and a well known maritime museum. During World War 2 when they knew the Germans were invading they scuttled their entire fleet, I can’t imagine the emotions surrounding doing that—and calling out those orders. Essentially giving up. We hopped off the train in Toulon and our hotel was just a hundred feet away. Felt pretty posh! They even had an elevator.

After finding our way “home”we wandered through the city and found an excellent Lebanese restaurant. Google translate did have difficulty translating to Lebanese foods to French then English but luckily the owner spoke English and was very helpful The waitress spoke minimal English but asked if we “come on choo choo?” I love how we find ways to communicate. All in all an interesting day though not quite as planned. In the morning I opened the NYT and saw that Lebanon had been bombed at about the same time we were eating in the resataurant. Guess we had a pretty darn good day….

The next morning we were off to Nice where we would pick up a car. I had really wanted to explore Hyeres area and the Calanques/Cap ferret etc but just couldn’t quite work it in. I guess it worked out for the best as the weather was slightly chilly and threatening rain. And this means we will need to come back to kayak in the Calanques and a nice dinner at Cap Ferrat—-not to mention a ferry out to the islands.

Brant used points to stay at a very nice Nice hotel that allowed us to check in at 10:00 in the morning. The concierge spent a great deal of time pointing out the best sites. (Though his English was good I could only understand 25 percent, and he did look a bit like Inspector Clouseau). So we decided on the best restaurant, and walked in and spoke to the man about a table that night at the restaurant —-phoning does not work well with google translate). He felt so bad that he couldn’t give me a table that he brought me his book to prove to me they had absolutely no tables all night. Honestly, it was a 3 minute apology! I personally think the book was a fake (who uses paper anymore?) though later that night we saw a line out the door but it was very nice of him. So we went to a restaurant which was good but what I wanted (a typical Nicoise meal) was only in their takeout menu. This made no sense at all to me but I lost the fight. (A ground kale gnocchi with a special a basil sauce if you wonder). I was on a mission to check off several boxes on the list of Niciose cuisine. Nice was a fun explore and we left with much more to see. Seems Nice would be a great place for a beach vacation-a beautiful beach with all the restaurants and shopping to go with it. We hiked up to the museum showing the works of Marc Chagall. (Love his use of color though not my favorite artist however the Matisse Museum was another 400 feet up the hill and we had already done a few dozen floors.) Yikes—big security to get into the exhibit which ended up being free. (We think because they made us wait in the drizzle a bit —very kind). We spoke to a woman from South Africa in line with us and she was talking about how lucky we were that English was often the default language. So true…and remarkable how Germans switch to English with a French waiter to attempt to communication. It has been fun on occasion to be able to use Spanish as the default language to communicate in France.

So then I spent 10 minutes trying to find a location that wold put us up on top of the viewpoint over Nice only to have the Lyft driver deposit us at the 300 stairs up to the top despite my efforts. (Brant thought this was very funny). On the bright side, 1. We learned that the cab driver was from Libya and had a PhD in music, he taught handicapped children music and had 3 jobs to support his 5 kids, and has lived in France for 20 years and still loves classical music best and continues to play the violin, 2. The hike up was truly not bad and it was beautiful looking out over the coast, 3. We almost got 15,000 steps on our app (On this trip we are having 10-15,000 steps every day.—-and I think about 82 floors. The floor count is inaccurate on my phone so I do my own estimations.

Happy to say after a nice Nice espresso on the balcony we picked up a nice Nice compact car and headed back to the Alps of Provence.