NICE

Bonjour,

Thanks J&A for your comment. Indeed, the sculpture is a bigger relation to our doorstop!
It's great to be in France. The food is great, I can understand the language and the atmosphere seems happier than the rest of the countries we have visited so far. Our campsite in Villeneuve Loubet Plage is pretty cramped but does have a 20m heated swimming pool open all year. They shut the roof in October just in case the weather deteriorates (Polish FA take note) though the weather whilst we were there was in the 70's for most part. We are a 30 minute walk from the village which houses the very interesting Escoffier museum (below) in the home where the great chef was born.

We are also a 30 minute bus ride from Nice, below is the Promenade des Anglais. On our extended jaunts we have a rule of 1 meal out per week but in France there are no rules. We feel we are there after our first pastis and I need to eat (not at the same meal) escargots, a plateau de fruits de mer and steak tartare. I'm two thirds of the way there. Meals in France are far more leisurely than in Italy or elsewhere and 2 hours is the norm for the simplest of menus. Frenchmen take an age to read about, discuss with the waiter and order their meal - a lot longer than anywhere else which adds to the experience.

We visted the modern art museum in Nice which was excellent - a Gilbert and George below.

And also work by the fascinating artist one of whose external installations is pictured below. The last thing I wanted to do was forget her name and, true to form, the last thing I did was forget her name! Nikki somebody or other. There was also a special exhibtion of the artist whose name before we came away seemed to be the answer to every art quiz question on TV - Anish Kapoor.

Fortunately the collection contained no Pollocks!
Onwards to Lyon.
A bientot
J&P