France 2024

The Musee des Beaux-Arts is closed on Mondays and with this being our last day in Nice it was our only opportunity to visit. The museum is not far from the apartment we were staying at and right behind the brasserie next to the tram station near the apartment, so we used it as an excuse to revisit for breakfast this morning. This time we did two croissants, two orange juices, and a café au lait. The café au lait is definitely better than the cafe flat white I got yesterday.

After enjoying breakfast we walked over to the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nice with still a few minutes before they opened. Due to construction for a new exhibit most of the museum was closed and therefore they did not charge admission. The paintings were very interesting and in one case immense. We noticed that there were many places where the paint was chipping away and there were frescos hidden behind. I tried asking someone who worked there why that was, but her English was about as good as my French.

In the afternoon we decided to spend some time relaxing at the beach. Unfortunately it was extremely windy causing great big waves and lots of white caps and making it difficult to even lay down a beach towel. The beach in Nice is very rocky with little sand and mostly rocks and pebbles that are difficult and not very comfortable to walk on. I tried going into the water, but the waves just brought more rocks that hit my ankles when I went in. Instead we watched the kiteboarders who must love conditions like this. They were traveling quite fast in foiling kite boards and sometimes launching as high as twenty or thirty feet into the air. It was incredible to watch, especially with the beautiful blue and green colors of the Med.

Dinner was at Maison Margaux. They seated us near a bunch of people from England and it was interesting to see how you can distinguish people from different countries and how easily restaurant staff can tell who's from where. On our way to the restaurant we had bought a magnet for our refrigerator collection, but somehow it wasn't in my bag when we arrived back home, so either it fell out of my pocket or we left it at the apartment. Unfortunately that was the one that Alexandra liked best.

After dinner we walked along the beach and found a nice place to sit while we waited for the sun to set. As it was getting a little chilly for my taste, I went back to the apartment to put on warmer clothes and brought back what was left of our bottle of wine.