We were a little jet lagged today! Last night Maury and I met the other couple who will be joining us on the Nice pre-trip. We all met at the hotel's upstairs bar for a welcome drink and introduction with our program guide, Dominique. We were also introduced to the two guides-in-training who will be shadowing along the whole trip. The hotel is situated across a wide boulevard from the old city and you can see the Mediterranean on the horizon. We saw a gorgeous sunset as we ate yummy wasabi-flavored potato chips with a couple small glasses of wine. Maury and I were pretty tired, so we went to bed at about 7:30. I vaguely remember waking up while it was still dark outside. I was so wide awake that I thought it must be dawn soon. Maury awoke also and started moving around the room before chuckling and announcing that it was only midnight! We each got a glass of water and something to read for a bit until we felt sleepy again. I also took a few shots outside our room window, which offers a view of the beginnings of the Alps on a clear day.
Bright and early later that day (heh) we had a nice breakfast and got ready for our first day of touring. We had a humongous tour bus for our party of seven!
Our itinerary today was going to begin in Cannes, proceed to Antibes, and end at a small olive oil mill in Opio.
Maury on her private coach
Our driver dropped us at the Promenade la Croisette in Cannes, the main walkway along the beach and tree-lined street, and also the location of the Grand Theatre Lumiere (where the Cannes Film Festival is held each May). There are a few "walk-of-fame" hand print squares in front of the building. The cement directly in front of the theater sparkled like it was strewn with sequins. Closer inspection revealed that the pavement had pieces of broken mirror glass embedded in it. Dominique noted that the stairs still had the red carpet, so she offered to take everyone's photo. Apparently this isn't always allowed because the building is often blocked off from public approach. In fact, our tour guide was surprised by the quiet traffic and relatively few people who were out on the streets. Because the city is super expensive for some reason (gosh, I wonder why?) we spent only an hour wandering around the promenade. Maury and I went across the street to ogle the high-end stores and do some "window licking", as the French say. Not literally!
Hard to read: Julie Andrews' handprint
The Grand Theatre Lumiere (named after one of the earliest inventors of moving pictures. Yes, the surname is coincidental)
Practicing our red carpet poise! The beaches of Cannes
Lovely spring flowers and one of the fancy-er hotels in town
The sycamores look a little sad right now
Next, we spent a few hours in nearby Antibes (formerly Antipolis). This lovely coastal town used to be under Grimaldi rule before they retreated to Monaco. The cape along the bay is known as the Cape of Billionaires due to the uber-swanky yachts you can see. Across the bay you could see le Forte Carre, still an active military post. The harbor is shielded by old ramparts that are mostly a nice place to view the sea from, and offers some inviting beaches.
For lunch we did some more "window licking", this time at all the wonderful boulangeries, and even managed to buy some food en Francais! Thought I suppose maybe the proprietors were just being nice.
The last stop of the day was in a countryside village called Opio, there the Michel family has been producing olive oil at their moulin for seven generations. We were given a tour of the mill, where they explained the difference between cold press and cold extraction techniques. I did not know that early fruit are what we know as green olives and the more mature olives are black. We were given an excellent tasting of several different types of oils, ranging from mild to bitter and I discovered that some even have a sharp peppery aftertaste that smacks you in the back of the throat! I will be coming home a bit of an olive oil snob after today, I feel. They had a marvelous truffle-infused oil that would be wonderful on potatoes. We were also offered tapenade and soussoon (pronounced "so soon"), an olive/caper/anchovy paste and an anchovy/almost paste, respectively. This was all washed down with a Provence rose. C'est parfait!
Before utilizing centrifuges to separate the extracted oil and water from the olives, they used to have to allow the liquid to settle for two hours and then start skimming.
The old mill building, and an olive grove
After returning in Nice, I snapped another photo out of our room window and then we hit the streets in pursuit of dinner. It turned out to be a longer stroll than we meant, but Maury showed me an extra special bar behind the hotel for a photo-op. At Cayenne K'fe Maury tried Nice's specialty salad nicoise and I had some very nice fish soup and goat-cheese ravioli. Mrs. Weiland finished her meal with a nice tiramisu.
Tonight I am writing the the blog over a couple of vin kir at the hotel bar, excited for another day of France!
A bientot!
-Dani
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