Nice Journal - Spring 2011 - 12

Sunday, 3rd April, was yet another sunny morning and I made coffee at 9am. We had a breakfast of bread and cheese with more coffee and were out of the apartment soon after 10:30. Considering it's Sunday, we didn't have long to wait for a tram.

Auto Bleue charging & rental point

As it was so sunny and warm, and our last day down in the centre-ville, I insisted that we get off at Massèna and walk along the promenade. As we made our way from the tram to the sea-front, we ran into an "auto bleue" electric vehicle charging and rental point, the first of these that we'd encountered.

Once we were in Perry's apartment I went with him into his study to disconnect and pack away his old computer. After a while, Lisa joined us and all three of us lugged the old PC into the lift and then into Perry's cave.

Back in the apartment, I helped Perry learn how to load photos from his new camera onto the PC hard drive. And, once he'd grasped that, we walked down to Quai Lunel to end the gustatory part of our visit where we'd begun: at chez Marinette and Fred, otherwise known as Le Vesuvio.

Greeted warmly by Marinette, we were seated at a lovely sunny table on the pavement. Perry and I both decided to have the lasagne today, while Lisa choose the "assiette cannibale" of steak tartare on a bed of beef carpaccio. For wine I picked a Chateau Robine (Côtes de Provence) red that was lovely and full. The lasagne lived up to its billing and Lisa declared that the carpaccio was a fitting addition to the tartare. For dessert, Lisa chose the Café Liègeoise, Perry went for a Tarte au Pommes Paysanne and I had one last Tiramisu. Coffees all round and Limoncello "on the house" completed our last meal together.

We walked back to Foresta and Perry phoned for a taxi to take us to the Musée des Beaux Arts at Les Baumettes. Lisa and I had visited here before on our own but hadn't been with Perry before today's visit.

Spread out over two floors with a huge staircase between the two, the Musée des Beaux Arts is full of sculpture and paintings, many of the latter on a truly grand scale. A very impressive collection that it took a good two hours to look through. I was especially taken with several sculptures by Michel de Tarnowsky, including a striking depiction of Marie Bashkirsteff.

Statue by Sacha Sosno

When we'd completed our tour round the collection we walked down the hill a little way to get a No. 10 bus back to the port. On the way down to the bus stop, Perry pointed out the statue (by local artist Sacha Sosno) embedded in the facade of the Elysee Palace Hotel on the Promenade des Anglais. Apparently there is a matching figure at the other end of the building.

After a final few minutes together at Perry's, we made our goodbyes, promising to call tomorrow evening, and walked back round the sea-front to stop off for another couple of beers at l'Eden on our way back to the tram.

Back home we put our feet up, played a game of Scrabble and decided that we didn't want supper. I took myself off to bed just after 11pm and Lisa followed some time later. At some point in the middle of the night I woke up feeling very uncomfortable so I took the splint out and dozed fitfully until about six.