Our AirBnb hostess Michelle’s parents, grandparents and aunt and uncle all lived in apartments on different floors in this same apartment building at one time. Presumably she inherited one of the apartments and fixed it up to be an airbnb. She lives elsewhere in the city.
Michelle recommended places to go and eat. We tried one of her suggestions to eat the first night we arrived: Franchin’s only a few blocks from the apartment. It was expensive – 40 euros a plate so we shared. The food was good but not better than other restaurants in the same area with prices in the 14 to 24 euro range. Her other suggestions were similarly priced – one according to google at 100 euros a plate.
We typically eat out one meal a day – usually our main meal and at lunchtime. There are a lot of good restaurants around. One of my favourites is La Vague. I had swordfish the other day and it included a variety of roasted vegetables and a salad – very good. Another favourite restaurant for fish is Braise in Liberation – an area further north of here. We walked over there after visiting the Marc Chagall museum. Liberation has a huge market that runs down one main street and off several side streets. The restaurant Braise is on one of those side streets. The fish market is right in front.
Yesterday we ate at Nina’s – a tiny restaurant about two blocks from here. Nina is the only waitress and her husband is the chef. They specialize in fresh pasta dishes with pastries for dessert. Pasta dishes around 14 euros with enough to take home for another meal.
Michelle was nice enough to make an appointment for Julie to have her nails done. We took the tram over to the location near the Port. Julie got a chance to practice her french since the woman spoke very little english while I went out and took photos. After that, we walked back through the old town. The photos below were mainly taken on that walk back.
In the old town, there is a square in front of the Sainte Reparate de Nice Cathedral with a lot of places to sit and eat or drink. Last year when we first came to Nice, we went through the old town to look at the Cathedral. It was closed and it was a very hot day so Julie and I sat and had a beer outside. On the day coming back from Julie’s nail appointment it was also a hot day and we did the same.
After you get out of the old town, you end up in a large open checker-board space called Place Massena. It has 7 statues of men kneeling on poles that is supposed to represent the 7 continents coming together. From Place Massena we walk down Rue Massena which is the centre of the pedestrian zone. That takes us most of the way home and passes by a lot or restaurants and several Gelato stores which are also welcome on a hot day.
WR Foster 