13-8

In Nice, we attempted to visit the Chagall museum, to be told in no uncertain terms, that they would 'evacuate the museum 15 minutes before the building closed. So instead of us having 30 mins we would have had 15 - and as it is quite a big place - we decided against it.

Ah well - we'd taken the bus up here and had a nice walk down past some very luxurious villas indeed. We had a nice drink in Place Garibaldi. For some reason, I have no record of where we had dinner this night. We took a couple of pictures at Place Massena before turning in. Dinner was near Cours Selaya, where we had some French food just off to Boulevard Jean Jaure. Although, I have no record of what we ate for mains except I was still hungry and ate more bread than normal; I do remember there being a misunderstanding about the dessert - the menu had been unclear as it implied that the pudding would have berries in it, but it was apple pie which our trusty waiter flambéed with armagnac - I didn't mind actually - even though I didn't ask for this, it was very tasty!

14-8

We started by having a nice leisurely walk along the Promenade des Anglais, which, is certainly an unusual name. This probably stems from the fact that in the second half of the 18th century the British upper class began to flock here. Queen Victoria for one, stayed at he Excelsior Regina hotel, which is quite a sight even now. Also, worthy of mention is the Negresco building, names after its founder Henri Negresco (1868-1920), a Romanian hotelier who left his mark during the Belle Époque period in Bucharest, his city of birth and moved on to even bigger and better things with his pièce de résistance; this gloriously over the top but beautiful beach front hotel. Sadly, he had died bankrupt when his hotel was commandeered as a field hospital during World War I. History repeated itself when the senseless terrorist attack occurred on 14 July 2016, and, once again, the Negresco building was used to house injured victims. We noticed there is a memorial to the victims at Musée Massena, which we would visit later. We stopped for a tasty cake at Armand and took the bus 5 to Musée Matisse (1963), housed in a Genoan villa. This time we arrived at a civilised time and were impressed by what is one of the world's largest collections of his work, which includes paintings and sculptures. We learned that his final resting place is a short walk from the museum across the grounds at the Notre Dame de Cimiez Monastery, isolated and alone away from the other tombs; and the tomb itself was plain giving one the impression that Matisse was a very humble and unassuming man. On to Vieux Nice, which is mostly uphill and characterful. We saw a waterfall and found the very best viewpoints up in the Colline du Chateau park that really were stunning. There was also a Jewish cemetery there. Next, we went to the Musée du Palais Lascalis, which is not very easy to find. Housed in a 17th century aristocratic mansion, the museum exhibits a rare and extensive collection of harps and other historical musical instruments. The decor is a delight. Lastly, we visited the Musée Massena (1921), which is housed in an impeccably kept 19th century villa with all kinds of interesting artifacts focusing on the history of Nice from 1792-1939 and more. Dinner was at a Thai place a couple of doors away from where we went last night. The food came quickly and was delicious.

15-8

See Cannes

Dinner was a fantastic fish dinner at Course Saleya. La Grand Bleue hadn't answered my email booking request and it was easy to see why; there were only a handful of diners and plenty of tables free when we arrived. There was a rather severe looking Russian lady in charge of seating customers, but one thing that had gone unnoticed is that we had been served dinner, but not given any cutlery. This was remedied after we were able to bring it to their attention (after a few minutes). I had a terrific shellfish platter with oysters, mussels, prawns, winkles, langoustines and crab. Dumi had a far less messy dish, which didn't entail cracking shells and such.

16-8

We started searching optimistically for the 100 bus stop, but it wasn't where the lady at the hotel had drawn it on the map; that was the stop which one uses when returning from Monaco. After asking a bus driver, we were on our way. The bus ride is fantastically good value at 1 Euro fifty with spectacular views of the three corniches with stunning rock formations and sweeping views of the water below.

See Monaco

Dinner was at O'Crazy, a strange name for a Vietnamese restaurant grated, but the quality was excellent. We sat inside with the doors wide open. At the next table was a lady who sounded a bit like the Colombian-American actress Sofia Vergara, who was a little loud and had quite a lot of botox. Her child dropped a beaker of lemonade and it smashed into a million pieces. The waitress had her hands full, and seemed to have botched the price on our bill as she took the money and then said she'd given me a free beer, implying that she made a mistake but that was her mistake and that was that.