Monday, September 15, 2008
When we wake up in the morning, it is still overcast and chilly in Orpierre. We putter around trying to make a decision. On the one hand, the weather for the day is slightly better than the day before. On the other hand, though, our impression is that over the next 4 or 5 days, the weather will keep improving. So if we were to leave for the coast now, we could enjoy the generally better weather there, and we could then return to Orpierre in a few days to good weather without having to sit through the "improvement period." So that's what we eventually decide to do. I feel a little guilty for bailing out of Orpierre early, but I know we're coming back so it'll be okay. So Nick packs up the campsite, and we drive back to the main road and then down to the coast.
The drive down takes us through some pretty little French villages, and then practically through the Verdon Gorge. There is tons of mountainside cliffs all throughout this area (not just Verdon) that all look as if they should have interesting potential climbing on them. We stop for lunch somewhere in the Verdon area near a bright turquoise lake. At this point, our French (well, mine anyway) is getting better, so we are able to translate the sign to figure out that it is an artificial lake run by the big French power company for hydroelectric power.
When we arrive in Nice, we start to rely heavily on the 9-year-old guidebook to Provence that we have from the Baldock town library that still lists all prices in Francs. The first step is trying to figure out what to do with the car. There is no parking. We spend about an hour trying to figure out the city based on the tiny map in the guidebook, the TomTom ("Turn around where possible"), and the difficult-to-find street signs. Eventually, we find parking on the wide boulevard that divides the southernmost stretch of town from the sea. Parking is paid for by the half-hour, and turns free at 6. It's 5:22. So we kill 8 minutes by the car until it's 5:30, and then go off on a hotel/hostel hunt, with a bit of help from the guidebook.
There are cheap hostels near the train station, so we go to check those out. The one that the guidebook spoke highly of is easy enough to find, and looks good/interesting, but even though the front desk is supposed to be open, it's unmanned. A cranky girl is also waiting to speak to the front desk. So we start looking at our other options in the area. We eventually find a one-star hotel with a vacancy on the Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine. There are rooms with en suite bathrooms, and without. We try to get one without, but they only have one available with, for 55 euros. Okay, fine -- that's about as cheap as anything else that's in Nice-proper. The other problem is that we had initially planned to spend two nights in Nice, but the room is only available for the one night. We decide to worry about that tomorrow.
The next step is to get everything up to the room. The problem is that, like I said, onstreet parking is extremely limited, the car is over a mile away, and Nick wants to get everything out of the car (tent, sleeping bags, crash pad, chairs, etc.) overnight in case he has to leave it in a less-than-desireable area. So we go back to the car, and drive it up to the area in front of the hotel. No parking anywhere. Nick tells me to get out and just move over the barriers blocking the space directly in front of the hotel. "Ummmm, I don't think we're really supposed to do that." Makes me do it anyway. Miraculously, we don't get yelled at unloading the car. At first, Nick thinks it would be best for him to stay with the car while I carry stuff up to our room on the (European) third floor (no elevators) so that he can move it if we get yelled at, or if a parking space opens up. After seeing how long it takes me to make one trip, he decides it would be better for us to switch off, so we take turns lugging everything up to the room. On one of the very last loads, though, a space finally opens up across the street. When I come down the stairs, Nick appears to be gone, and I think I've been abandoned -- but then I see him parking across the street. Oh good.
We had a nice little balcony overlooking the street that I quite liked.
After that, we went out in search of dinner. We found a decent-looking restaurant that had a fixed-price menu for only 12 euros each that included wine and tips and everything. It ended up being really pretty good. Nick made the claim that in France it's the law that every restaurant has to have a fixed price menu. I wasn't totally convinced.
My favorite part of dinner was when the waiter was making friends with us and practicing his English on us. We got bread as an appetizer, and when we ate the whole bowl of it the waiter brought more, but also told Nick to not eat too much, "because when you get to be my age, then you'll have this!" pointing at his stomach. I was in hysterics. It was white bread, too, so Mombie would have enjoyed that exchange also.
Then, after dinner, we wandered around downtown Nice seeing some of the major sights at night, before heading back to the hotel for bed.
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