At our stop the first thing Liza sees is a Subway, and for some reason that was extremely exciting for her. I guess they don't have sandwich artists in Italy? We next faced the prospect of finding our apartment through the winding narrow streets of Old Nice, another horrifying flashback to Venice or Ericeira...and again, piece of cake.
Our spot for the next four days is perfectly situated 50 m from the square, 300 m from the beach, and 7 meters from Bar Bitch (ed note: turns out it's called Bar Butch and is Old Nice's hottest spot for gays...not sure if they are old gays or new gays, but we'll keep you posted). Our owner is Corsican and has already promised to hook us up with recommendations for the second half if the trip. The only downside of the place: 5th story, no stairs. But really that just means more baguettes.
Liza and I got the place stocked, spent some time catching up and just as we were starting to worry, a sweet screeching arose from the street below "LIIIIIIIZA!?" The Heff had arrived.
We gave her some time to fix her face (needed) then headed out for a beach stroll. The beaches in Nice are pebbly, which means not Nice for lying on. But the water is pretty freaking fantastic. We split a bottle of wine (more on that later) overlooking the water, before heading back home to get swim-ready. Having only gotten two hours of sleep during my travels, I decided not to be a hero, and stayed behind to nap. I was pretty sure I could trust Liza and The Heff not to talk shit behind my back, but we all make mistakes. We rejoined for happy hour two hours later (a tradition I'm glad is global), and then came home, showered up and headed out for dinner.
La Escalinda came highly recommeneded from friends (at Lonely Planet) who said not to miss the melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi. Sold. We kindly accepted their welcome gift of an onion tart and a glass of kir before diving into the menu...which might as well have been in Sanskrit. A waitress read the confusion perfectly and ultimately recommended a fried seafood platter, stuffed veggies and the gnocchi with beef stew (which she told us looked like dog poop, and she was correct). All and all, not a bad way to kick off two weeks of French cuisine.
Also of note:
-We ran into a kindly Scottish man on our stroll who mentioned he'd been here several times. We asked for dining recommendations, and he suggested Dehli Belly...because really, I came to France to eat curry. He also tried to set us up with his 17-year-old nephew, and I told him to check back in in three days.
-We've traveled together enough we have a few things down: (1) always buy coffee so as to avoid the awkward situation of getting coffees to go (2) always buy or steal toliet paper because...well, you know (3) the group fund is the way to go since everyone only ever has fifty euro bills. Unfortunately the group fund only works if you remember to bring it with you.
Bottles of wine consumed:
2 Rose
2 red
+bonus round of beers
Baguettes:
1
Croissants:
2
Number of times walking up stairs:
feels like infiniti
Number of American flag beach towels purchased:
1
Texas Longhorn football victories in my absence:
1 (Go Horns!)
La Escalinda came highly recommeneded from friends (at Lonely Planet) who said not to miss the melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi. Sold. We kindly accepted their welcome gift of an onion tart and a glass of kir before diving into the menu...which might as well have been in Sanskrit. A waitress read the confusion perfectly and ultimately recommended a fried seafood platter, stuffed veggies and the gnocchi with beef stew (which she told us looked like dog poop, and she was correct). All and all, not a bad way to kick off two weeks of French cuisine.
Also of note:
-We ran into a kindly Scottish man on our stroll who mentioned he'd been here several times. We asked for dining recommendations, and he suggested Dehli Belly...because really, I came to France to eat curry. He also tried to set us up with his 17-year-old nephew, and I told him to check back in in three days.
-We've traveled together enough we have a few things down: (1) always buy coffee so as to avoid the awkward situation of getting coffees to go (2) always buy or steal toliet paper because...well, you know (3) the group fund is the way to go since everyone only ever has fifty euro bills. Unfortunately the group fund only works if you remember to bring it with you.
Bottles of wine consumed:
2 Rose
2 red
+bonus round of beers
Baguettes:
1
Croissants:
2
Number of times walking up stairs:
feels like infiniti
Number of American flag beach towels purchased:
1
Texas Longhorn football victories in my absence:
1 (Go Horns!)
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