Nice Journal - Spring 2011 - 10

Friday, 1st April, was again a warm sunny morning from first thing. I got up and made coffee and we had breakfast but somehow we didn't get out of the apartment until almost 11:30. We got the tram down as far as Opera and walked through the Cour Saleya and round Quai Rauba Capeu to Foresta. On our way through the Cour Saleya we bought some flowers and strawberries for Perry and some rouille spices for Lisa. Lisa also took quite a lot of photos so it was 12:30 by the time we got to Perry's.

We had not noticed the noon-day gun go off and Perry explained that the gun had been fired at 11am today, making a "poisson d'Avril" of the whole town.

Perry proposed that we go over to Villefranche-sur-Mer for lunch so, while we put his flowers in a vase, Perry called for a taxi and we went down to the street to wait for the car. Perry sat up front next to the very talkative driver and the two conversed all the way to Villefranche. We lunched at "Achill's" in the old "Calypso" building right next to the Customs offices on the waterfront. We sat out in the very warm sun and had our lunch.

Perry and Lisa both chose Cannelloni with spinach and cheese on a tomato sauce which they declared to be delicious and both ate all of their very large helpings. I went for the linguine with rabbit in a creamy sauce and did not regret my choice either. At Lisa's behest we did not have wine. For dessert, Perry had his favourite lemon tart, I had a lovely tarte-tatin, and Lisa had lemon and strawberry ice-cream. Coffee all round completed the meal, as ever.

Perry wanted to head back to Nice right after lunch so we took the No. 80 bus from Villefranche. This little bus took a bumpy, twisty route back to Nice, keeping high up the hill away from the sea. Quite unlike the quiet, smooth, sea-side ride of the Renault taxi before lunch. At last we rattled into Nice and changed onto a No. 7 to complete our journey back to the port.

We stayed a little while at Foresta before setting off for Garibaldi. We sat in the sun over a couple of beers and then went over to the Garibaldi Monoprix to shop for dinner before getting the tram home.

Lisa made us a vegetable gratin with canned and fresh tomatoes, aubergine, courgette and onions with fresh Mozarella and grated Grana Padana. This was very richly flavoured and deliciously fresh tasting in spite of being baked for quite some time. Again, Lisa did not want us to have wine with the meal.

I did what little clearing up there was to do after the meal and then settled down for bed. Again I lasted about five hours with the splint before it became too uncomfortable to bear. Tonight, however, I didn't wake Lisa by snoring once I'd taken it out. That was a relief because my teeth felt very sore for several hours after I removed the splint.