Nice – Day 1

Wednesday 5/8/19 – Well I guess all that prayin’ and churchin’ wore off because it rained all day today. But I guess if I look on the bright side, it was a long travel day and so the rain really didn’t affect me much! And it looks like the next few days should be good weather (so thanks Big Guy!). I started out at 7:30 AM this morning in Annecy and made two train changes in Lyon and Avignon and arrived in Nice around 4 PM.

As I mentioned before, Nice is part of what’s called the French Riviera. A hundred years ago, celebrities from London to Moscow flocked here to socialize, gamble, and escape the dreary weather at home. Also called La Côte d’Azure, it is made up of other towns along the Mediterranean coast other than Nice – like Cannes (where the Cannes Film Festival will be starting in a few days, hey maybe I’ll be hanging with Brad Pitt and George Clooney!), Monaco/Monte Carlo (where the Grand Prix kicks off later this month and Prince Albert hangs out), St. Tropez, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Eze-Le-Village, Cap Ferrat, Antibes and others. I hope to hit a lot of them while I’m here.

Nice (pronounced niece) is the region’s capital and France’s fifth-largest city (population 350,000). The list of artists who have painted the Riviera reads like a Who’s Who of 20th century art. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, Fernand Leger, and Pablo Picasso all lived and worked here – and raved about the region’s wonderful light.

It’s pretty bizarre when I think that yesterday I was at almost 13,000 feet staring at the Alps and today I’m at sea level along the coast. Was that loud sound my ears popping?? Lol. And what’s cool is, you can see the snow capped Alps from the beach. Crazy!

So I walked around a little after checking into my hotel but given the overcast clouds and on and off rain, I didn’t get any good pics (there’ll be lots more tomorrow!) so I’ll just leave you with a video from yesterday at the top of the Alps watching the skiers enjoying their passion. Happy Hump Day to all!

Jeff