It appears that I have been remiss in my writing. Several of you wrote emails of concern regarding all the snow that we received in West Virginia. At our house there was 32” and a half hour northwest they got 42”. We followed the warnings and the newscasts closely, however at a safe distance. We are in our second week of a six-week stay in Nice, France!! With luck, I’ll not see any snow this year.
We have fallen into a relaxed routine here that involves lots of walking, some running for Cindy every morning, modest but excellent meals with late morning wake-ups and early goodnights. We have averaged about 8 miles of stepping per day according to my pedometer. One day while Cindy was in one of her French classes, I walked to the airport in addition to our normal walks and got in 11 miles. Of course, I couldn’t sleep that well at night since my hip was killing me. Not sure if it was from the walk or the three flights of stairs with heavy bundles of wine, water and groceries. In any event, I’ve cut back on the uber long walks.
Backing up, we had a quiet holiday period after the cruise, which ended on 22 December. We enjoyed the cruise but we are not Caribbean people. We don’t like beaches, heat, humidity and sun so we mostly stayed on board and danced at every opportunity. Cindy and I had our traditional Christmas Eve meal of Champagne, caviar and smoked salmon and we had a huge feast on the 27th with Colin and Meagan, Patrick and Hannah. Tons of fun, multiple simultaneous conversations and lots of laughter. (From CCE: for the first time ever, I watched William try to get a word in edgewise - Byxbee conversations do not have pauses! It was hilarious for me since I have been in that situation so many times I don’t even try to join the conversation any more - I just sit back and listen while marveling that they all seem to keep track of what the others are saying.)
We have noticed a few little changes here in Nice since last year. The most obvious is that our little Italian friend Maria, who ran a small snack shop with excellent espresso, is now gone. The shop is now an Indian Snack shop, with tea rather than espresso, and the food looks and smells awful. There are more beggars then we remember. Mostly Romas (pre-PC known as Gypsies) who sit in front of grocery stores with one or more little kids requesting donations. If the kids can talk, they echo the solicitations. Other beggars look like homeless young folks. There seem to be more North Africans, Tunisians, Sudanese, Moroccans and others. You can walk for long periods of time in some neighborhoods and only hear Arabic. However, there are no signs of any refugee camps or settlements in the city.
Most of our old favorites are still around and we have discovered a few new spots that are just swell. One is a place that is right around the corner called Chez Faty. The Faty we think is short for Fatima, the Portuguese woman who along with her French husband run the place. Only open for lunch, Monday-Saturday and only room for about 22-25 people packed together at small tables. On the Friday we went it was so crowded that we had to sit at the tiny bar for twenty minutes nursing Kirs until there was a spot for us. The clients are all locals, not a word of English spoken or encouraged. I had the traditional Aioli Provençal which is a plate of poached cod with boiled carrots, potatoes, green beans and a huge bowl of Aioli. The latter is the key to the dish, garlic with enough mayonnaise to make it spreadable and you eat everything with a healthy dollop of the stuff. Oh my! Cindy had Gambas a la Plancha, large shrimp pan seared in the shell. She had to have lots of my Aioli or else she would not have been able to be in the same apartment with me after lunch. It was a wonderful meal, very inexpensive and a lovely cultural trip.
As they say here, à bientôt, literally until soon. Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment