Nice, France

October 1-5, 2003

Wednesday

Paris aerogare	"Your flight is retardé."	La Côte d'Azur	La Mer	Nice
Nice	Graffiti everywhere.	Medieval lanes	Doug	Lydia & Doug
From my balcony

Thursday

Villa Kérylos, a Greek palace from the second century B.C. Constructed by Theodore Reinach in the late 19th century in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Breaktakingly beautiful.				the bath
	Standing desk	View from library	Salon	Seasonal sundial

La Turbie			Monaco


		The medieval hilltown of Eze, perched on a promontory. Great lunch at La Troubador.

Friday

To enter the grounds of Bruno's, in Lordues, you pass between two columns surmounted by giant truffles, up a lane through a vineyard, coming to a car park surrounded by olive trees. Then you walk past the truffle boutique and yards full of statuary to the entrance, noticing that everything is decorated with the letter B, for Bruno. It's reminiscent of the N for Napoleon, and in fact, Napoleon's way to Paris is quite nearby.


Lunch at Bruno's was the tastiest meal I've ever eaten. First, a kir, compliments of the house. Next up, an appetizer of foix gras imbedded in truffled oxtail atop a sauce. The first course was scallops on skewers atop a bed of celery remoulade, surrounded by chunks of truffle and wild mushrooms. The second course was a whole truffle, just over an inch in diameter, coated lightly with foix gras, baked in flaky pastry, and sitting in a high-test sauce bordelaise. Philip and I were swooning over the medley of flavors, savoring every bite.

The following course was pintade, or guinea foul, stuffed with truffles and accompanied by roasted carrots, parsnips, and onions on a lightly-creamed sauce albufera. I couldn't finish my second piece of pintade. We were getting full so we ordered a trou Normande. I'd heard of the trou before but didn't really know what it was. The waiter arrived with two snifters of vieux calvados. The calvados (a 15 year-old apple brandy) supposedly expands the stomach so one can eat more. Thanks goodness it worked, for the first dessert course was a vanilla custard with caramel sauce. The second dessert was a plate of seasonal specialties, which I forgot to photograph. Here's Philip, my trencherman companion, at the conclusion of the truffled extravaganza.

Saturday


After breakfast, Philip piloted the Boxster to the gourmet supermarket at Galleries Lafayette, where I purchased €87 worth of truffles, mustard, honey, and special salt. The fill-your-own olive oil department was huge. Patrons who find the mountains of cheeses or shellfish or whatever can plop down at a counter and eat right in the middle of the store.
			In a mere six or seven hours, you could go to Corsica by ferry.
		Next up, old Nice. Tiny, twisting walking streets chock full of restaurants, merchants, bars, butchers, wine shops, pizzerias, and spice merchants. The awesome car chase scenes in the movie Ronin were filmed here.

That's a whole stuffed pig in the second picture above. To be less obtrusive, I began shooting photos from the hip, à la Henri Cartier-Bresson. Henri had a certain je-ne-sais-quoi; most of my pics fell victem to the delete key.

			In the evening, Jane, Philip, and I went to the Restaurant Aphrodite in Nice. I ate a delicious salade Niçoise, Provençale octopus stew, and several desserts.

	The colors at the beach formed a series of Rothkos trouvées. Sunset painted a brilliant seascape.

Sunday


Sunday we took the bus a few kilometers north to St. Jean Cap Ferrat, a peninsula loaded with the estates of the super-rich, a nice little harbor, and a string of quite reasonable restaurants.
			Badoit water sparks innovation.
We dined at Le Sloop. To the right is the view from our table. The fish soup was superb--you slather the rouille on slices of baguette to make your own croutons.

Since it's illegal to import food into the U.S., I can't imagine how this happened, but somehow my dogs tried French dog food for the first time last night and absolutely loved it! Latte, who has some doggie eating disorder, gobbled down his rabbit and ran over to lick Smokey's bowl. This morning, they both dug into their agneau vigorously.