Nice Odds and Ends

Cannes (pronounced CAN)

If you want to know how the 1% really live, visit Cannes.  It is a retail Disneyland with every major luxury shop having one or more stores.  Need a suitcase to replace that worn out TravelPro, no problem.  Louis Vuitton has a lovely roll aboard for only $2800 Euros. It is small, but heavy.  Everything in Cannes is 15 to 20% higher than Nice, and Nice ain’t cheap.  The bums wear Hermés, the homeless don’t exist, and the number of Rolls and Bentleys stagger the imagination.

We strolled along the marina in the morning and ogled at the huge mini cruise ships that belong to the 1%ers.  All of them had crews who wore the official uniforms of the vessel, and some of these ships were five stories tall.  Most were registered in the Cayman Islands and a few were registered in Luxembourg, a landlocked country.  Can you spell Tax Avoidance?

Our room at the Carlton was a dream. We were given a sea-view room that was like something out of movie set. We spent zero euros at the hotel since a glass of wine was 15 euros, but it looked like you got a little bowl of chips so I suppose it must have been worth it!   

Our Suite in Cannes

We had a lovely lunch in a little bistro that cost about the same as the gross national product of Peru but we enjoyed it immensely (see the attached photo of sardine rillettes – like a paté – served in its own tin). 

At night we had pizza, yes, pizza. It was a good experience until two young ladies came to join the two Italians at the next table and their 75-pound German shepherd decided he wanted to play footsie with me so my pants ended up with two pounds of dog hair!

We enjoyed our walks in the old town and along the famed Corniche but we were only too happy to get on the train the next morning and get back to Nice, which seemed ever so normal.

The Chinese in Nice

There are daily buses of Chinese tourists that stop along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.  The drill is always the same: The bus door opens and out come fifty newly minted Chinese middle class tourists. They race to the edge of the Promenade and start taking pictures of each other with the sea as a background. They then start taking pictures of everything; I mean everything.  There is a new sculpture on the promenade called La Chaise Bleu, which is a giant sculpture of the blue chairs that are all along the Promenade.  It is trompe l’oeil, a technique which lets you see something in 3D at a distance but when you get up close it is just flat.  So the trick is to look at the sculpture at a distance and then marvel at how clever the artist is when you see it is really just two dimensions.  No one ever explained this to the Chinese; they were just told it was a famous sculpture so they all line up neatly and take a photo of the chair where it looks two-dimensional and then move on without any idea what they are seeing.  It is frightening.

A side effect of the new wave of Chinese tourist is the fact that in the past two years there has been a proliferation of noodle shops, Asian fast food shops, Chinese restaurants and the usual array of Sushi places. It boggles the mind. 

Concert report #2 from Cindy

We attended another chamber music concert here in Nice, this time in a PROPER hall with a stage and nice seats and plenty of room for all attendees.  The first piece was the Bach Sonata # 3 in C Major for unaccompanied violin, and Robert Waechtler did a fine job with a very difficult piece of music.   Following that was a suite of short pieces that he wrote for vibraphone and violin – we knew what was on offer before we bought the tickets and we were looking forward to it.  However, the program we were given upon arrival also listed a “récitant” (reciter, or narrator) for the vibraphone piece, which was worrisome!  Partly because of the language issue and partly because most pieces with narration aren’t our cup of tea.  Our worries were for naught … while the recitation was indeed in rapid French (and I do mean rapid; I had no idea that French could be spoken so fast – it made Spanish seem languid in comparison), the narrator was charming and really put life into the work. 

I didn’t have much luck Googling the version we heard with vibraphone, only weird versions of Etudes Caprices, “Why the Animals Play the Violin” with an odd background video but if you Google Robert Waechter you could hear him playing the violin.  For the concert we heard, you’ll have to trust my less-than-adequate descriptions of these delightful pieces.  Vibraphone and violin made a lovely combination, although in my opinion he should have given the vibraphone a more prominent part in places (I, a violinist, wanting more of the other instrument?!), and it all could have been jazzier.  In any case, the pieces were adorable!  Each was based on an animal, bird, or insect of the forest, e.g., “The Happy Vole,” “The Elegant Butterfly,” and “The Nervous Crow.”  The narrator read about each critter and then the musicians played the corresponding piece.  An example was the “Affectionate Squirrel” who does everything too fast – he thinks too fast and he eats too fast and doesn’t spend a single tranquil moment in his tree.  Is that the reason he plays the violin?  Or rather, is it because he is in love with Julie, his pretty violin teacher?  No, it is because of the fairy dance that the squirrel plays the violin.

Every narration followed that pattern:  a description of the animal followed by reasons it might play the violin, always ending with the statement that it plays the violin only because of the fairy dance.  I imagine this would be a fabulous piece to play for elementary or middle school students, for entertainment and also as a recruiting tool.

All in all a pleasant experience, despite the two British couples who sat in front of us and said dumb things before the concert started; read the program rather than listening while each piece was played; one of them blew her nose during the performance; another’s cell phone rang.  Oh, dear.  We beat feet and had a lovely lunch a few blocks from the concert hall.

Restaurant vignettes by Cindy

Nice, France, December-January 2014-2015

I.

One of William’s favorite dishes in France is Soupe de Poisson, a rich fish broth that is served with toasted disks of bread, grated cheese and rouille – the latter a thick garlic mayonnaise made pink by the addition of chili peppers.  The diner is meant to float the toasted bread in the soup and then spoon on some rouille and sprinkle it with grated cheese.  The bread softens and soaks up the broth, and the flavors are sensational when all blended together.  Several days ago we were seated partway across a restaurant from 4 Chinese tourists who were gamely trying French dishes from the menu and also doing their best with silverware (rather than chopsticks).  However, they did not understand the Soupe de Poisson drill, and William could not abide that they were not getting the full culinary experience.  He strode over to their table and gave them a quick lesson in what should be done with the bread and rouille and so forth.  They were MOST appreciative and I was touched that he cared!

II.

One night at a nearby restaurant I broke my “meat rule” (I almost never order it) and ordered the lamb shank because it was a special that evening.  Good call – it was tender and delicious and I was enjoying every bite – when we heard the waiter tell the diner behind me that they were out of lamb shanks.  The diner was SO disappointed, so a few minutes later Wm took a piece of bread and piled some of my lamb shank on top and walked it over to the man.  He just about fell over with thanks – you’d think we had offered to buy his dinner!  Before he left he bought us each an espresso …. and of course we got mega-points from the waiter and owner of the restaurant who thought we were just the nicest people in the world.  I suppose most people wouldn’t think of doing what we did, but to us it seemed to be the only thing to do (notice we gave him one generous bite, not my whole dinner)!

We are off tomorrow to Milan Airport and home the next day.  Ciao,  Cindy and William