Nice to Venice

So I arrived in Nice on Wednesday and had big plans for Thursday and Friday.  I was going to take a tour to Grasse and the Fragonard factory with a tour group on Thursday.  I received a message Wednesday that I was the only one signed up for the tour and therefore they would have to cancel because they required at least two people for the tour.  So while on the train from Marseille to Nice I found out that the Cannes film festival had started.  I then planned to go to Cannes to do some possible star watching.  However, when I went to the tram station to take the tram to the train station it showed a message that the trains were once again on strike and not even the trams were running.  Since I had not been to Nice before and I needed to be back to the apartment for a conference call at 5 pm I decided to walk following the tram line for an hour or two and turn around to come back to the apartment.  So Thursday was a basically a bust in Nice because I realized on Friday that I stopped only a quarter mile from the coastline.

Then on Thursday night I received several messages about the tour group I scheduled for Friday morning.  I was to go on a 3 hour bike tour of Nice with several scenic spots to take pictures.  The messages were from a different tour company stating that I was the only one signed up for that tour and therefore they would have to cancel.  They however offered to allow me to join a wine tasting tour that evening.  I ended up going to the center of Nice, enjoyed the beach and the parks around the Opera de Ville.

Friday night I met with a woman who was introduced to me by a former colleague.  I met her Monaco for drinks and dinner.  However, Monaco was pretty much unaccessible due to the Gran Prix Historical Race that was being run this weekend beginning yesterday.  As I got off the train from Nice I could hear the race cars going by but I ended up missing the actual action because not only was I late it took a few extra minutes to meet up with my contact.  She was great and introduced me to several of her very good friends and we shared some laughs and gawked at the all of the huge yachts in the Monaco Yacht club.

This morning I went back down to the beach to listen to the waves and take a few more pictures.  I was enjoying my quiet time until some kid from Tunisia decided to intrude on my solitude and then an Akita puppy made a beeline for my purse and lap because he could smell breakfast in the form of a pain au chocolat.  I didn’t mind the puppy but the young kid had several opinions about US politics that I did not want to discuss.  I ended up leaving my spot and headed back to the apartment to wait for my ride to the airport.  I am sure there are many, many wonderful spots in Nice I missed but frankly I was anxious to get to Italy.

I arrived in Venice today and the place I am staying is in a great location, just 4 tram stops from Palazzo de Roma.  I ended up there late this afternoon and spent two hours just walking around and getting lost in the center.  On the way home it began to rain so by the time I walked back to the apartment from the tram stop I was soaked.  The host for this apartment left me a list of local restaurants that were just three blocks away.  I changed into a warmer shirt, put on the dreaded raincoat and grabbed my umbrella.  Within a couple of minutes of leaving the apartment the heavens opened and it began to rain in earnest.  Then as I was dodging puddles walking to the restaurant a car drove by and it was scene from the movies where the wave just consumes the person walking.  It soaked through my raincoat and my shirt along with  my pants, shoes and socks.  I got to the restaurant 10 minutes later and ate pizza while trying to keep my teeth from chattering I was so cold.

I am going to enjoy tomorrow as it is supposed to be partly cloudy with only a 20 percent chance of rain.  Wish me luck!!  I am looking forward to taking lots and lots of pictures.