Rigo Piero Barcelona!

Ok - the title is lame riff on the Woody Allen Movie...   I couldn't resist.

Barcelona - land of beaches, architecture, art, and good food.   We arrived on Saturday after finishing off our last train ride of the trip (not counting metro here in Barcelona.)   Our apartment is just off Las Ramblas and 2 blocks from Placa de Catalunya.  A great location, but like Nice, on the loud side at night.   It's an old building with high ceilings, old tile floors, tall french doors overlooking the "street" (pedestrian alleyway) below us.  Because of the location there are people on the street all day - from about 9am... ebbing around 9pm, and picking up again between 2am and 4am.   Fortunately, unlike Nice, we have air conditioning so we can shut the windows and shutters and sleep in peace.   (Oh - and I've taken my wise sister's advice and am using ear plugs.)

Saturday was a holiday - Day of Assumption I think.  What this meant in practical terms was a lot of stuff, including the larger grocery stores and the Boqueria were closed.   We set out to explore and to find a place to buy the essentials (milk, cereal, etc.).   We were successful - we found tapas, sangria... and a small market.  

Just outside the Boqueria is a Dunkin Donuts.  I immediately thought of Linda, one of my oldest friends, who recently posted her excitement about DDs coming to her neighborhood.   She should move to Barcelona - it's readily available.

We also saw a random parade go by while on our evening Passagiatta.

Sunday we split up, Piero and I taking one of those Hop on Hop Off tours, Lou and Rigo going by foot in search of Gaudi (and other architectural interests.).   Piero and I saw Gaudi as well - hopping off the bus at Sagrada Familia and at Park Gruell.  We also saw Casa Batlla and La Pedrona from the bus.  (We're headed to tour Sagrada Familia this afternoon.)

Sagrada Familia - very much a work in progress

View over Barcelona from Park Gruell

La Pedrona.

Monday we hit the Boqueria.   Having sought out fresh veggie markets in every city we've been in our expectations were high.  It's crowded, it's pricey, and it's very touristy.  That didn't stop us from buying some produce, some paella to go, and some fried fish balls, though.  And again, today.  (The fish balls are especially yummy - a fritter of fish and flour - fried up yummy).  In the afternoon we blew the budget and toured Casa Batlla.  I didn't take pictures so I have none to post here - but it was a good tour - albeit pricey.

Afterwards we decided to walk away from the old city - and wandered into a small square with a nice restaurant... seemed to be all locals and off the tourists path.  We had very nice meat and cheese plates and some vino tinto.

This morning we headed out into the rain to see the Picasso museum.  A good way to spend a very wet morning.  On the way home we swung by the Boqueria to get paella and fishballs for our lunch.   We'll spend the afternoon at Sagrada Familia, including ascending the Passion tower for an extra 4.5Euro/person.

First impressions of Barcelona - as expensive as Paris, with anything associated with Gaudi being even more expensive. (21.5 Euro to see Casa Battla, 21.5 Euro to tour La Pedrona, 18.5 Euro for La Sagrada Familia, and 5.5 Euro to go to the part of Park Gruell that has the Gaudi buildings.).   But it's full of architecture and great food.

Tomorrow, and possibly the rest of the week, we're beaching it.   Then it's homeward bound.

Aix-en-Provence

So - it's been almost a week since we arrived in Aix-en-Provence.   As mentioned in the previous post - this is the nicest vacation rental yet.   We're also getting a bit burnt out on travel - so we're focusing on finding the balance between seeing what's here, and having some veg time.   We've managed this by alternating days - one day we go to the beach in Marseille, the next day we take in something cultural.

So - Sunday was a non-beach day.   We explored the markets, the old part of the city, and saw people spending tremendous amounts of money on designer type stuff.  Aix's old city is narrow, windy, cobblestone streets limited to pedestrians - and lined with very high end boutiques.   As a confirmed non-shopper, I just admired how many folks had big bags and the ability to spend more than I budgeted for the entire trip.  I did have fun at the open air veggie market... and we got inspired (plus we knew this kitchen was equipped properly to do serious cooking.)   A stop for veggies, a stop at the boucher, a stop at the boulangerie for some bagettes - and I had the fixins for a really nice pot roast with veggies.

Monday we decided to see the beaches on the "Blue Coast" - that's the area west of Marseilles.  It's known for surfing, bigger waves, etc.   We drove over to Sausset Le Pins.  We found free parking, and beaches with lifeguards.   The beaches were ok - small gravel (vs the stones at Nice.)  But it was close to impossible to get into the water without proper water shoes... there were sharp rocks, coated with algae, as the entry to the waves.  Even the surfers had neoprene booties on.   After a few failed attempts to get into the water, we bailed... We looked for better beaches, heading west towards Carry Le Rouet... no luck.  So we drove to a beach I'd read about in Marseille.  Borely Beach, aka Prado Beach is a family oriented beach...  Small stones (gravel size) so comfortable to lay out on, a quick drop off - but ok sized waves.   The water wasn't as warm as Nice - but it was still refreshing.

Tuesday was another in town day - Explored the markets (multiple were available on Tuesdays), saw the old Cathedral, and then went to Musee Granet.   This is one of the top museums in France.  Not only does it have a decent collection of Cezanne (home town boy) but it had a traveling collection from the San Francisco MOMA - including several Warhols, Lichtensteins, etc.   Very cool.  As usual the boys were bored by the museum.

Wed - back to the beach.  We went straight to Borely Beach.  We followed with a gourmet meal at

Today - was all about the Romans.  We went to Arles, home to an ancient roman amplitheater and an ancient Roman theater.  Then we headed over to Pont du Gard.... Spectacular roman acquaduct.   Unfortunately, the skies opened up and poured on us.

Tomorrow it's back to the beach then on to Spain on Saturday.

Markets in Aix:

Beaches:

Art: - Specifically the portrait of Roy Lichtenstein by Chuck Close at Musee Granet

And Roman Stuff

Finally - FOOD PORN - some of the courses we ate at Ze Bistro - a Michelin listed restaurant we went to for our 'big night out'.

An amazing shrimp starter with a lovely fishy hollandaise sauce

My favorite dish - a savory tart topped with a puree of fish and eggplant, topped with crispy sardines.

I don't remember all the details - but it had a fig bread, baby artichoke, potatoes from Normandy... I think there was a fish as well.

The land based course - a pork run, some seasoned rice, and the most amazing candied tomato

I forgot to get a shot of the cheese course - but this was the desert - Cantaloupe with a lavender sauce, topped with a cornette of glazed sugar filled with an almond whipped cream.

Creature comforts....

While planning this trip I tried to balance budget and comfort.   Some locations are more expensive than others (cough cough LONDON).  As a general rule I tried to keep the weekly rentals to 1000 Euro/week.   I blew the budget by a lot in London, by a bit in Paris, and by a smidge in Nice.   Even then I had to compromise... My non negotiables were: Wifi and Washing Machine.  I skipped the 2nd bedroom in Bologna in favor of location.  (No regrets - we were where we wanted to be.)   I skipped AC in the Northern locales - which was an issue during the heatwave in Prague, but not an issue in Berlin, Amsterdam, or London.

I skipped AC in Nice.   And an elevator.   Even with those compromises it was just over my 1K euro threshold because I wanted to be in old Nice, close to the beach and market.  It was on the 3rd floor (4th floor for Americans) and at the top of a big hill...   So to run out for some food or wine meant a lot of stairs after a hike up a steep street.   It was hot in Nice - so there was no relief after climbing to the apartment.  And there were mosquitos and party goers outside our windows... so the choice at night was drunken young people and mosquitos, but a chance to cool the apartment, or quiet and HOT.   I found myself doing a dance of timing when to open and shut the windows...  Leave them open in the evening and mornings and the start of sleep time... shut them around midnight when the partygoers would make their way to our dead end pedestrian hill as a "private" place to party.  Then re-open them around 3am when they were gone.    Sleep was not the best in Nice.

Contrast that to the apartment we just arrived at in Aix-en-Provence.    AC.  Elevator.  The nicest apartment so far.   Lots of space.  Good working kitchen.  And a few blocks from Cours Mirabeau - the main drag in Aix-en-Provence.   It feels like luxury.   And it's 150Euro cheaper per week.

I guess I'm dwelling on this because we had a TGV train coach with no AC.  We were able to poach seats in other cars till Toulon - but were forced back to our seats for the last 90 minutes of the ride.  It was over 100F.  The good news is that we'll get "compensation" if I can navigate the SNCF website to request it.  It should be about 6Euro/ticket compensation.  Oh... and they gave us free water bottles.   LOL.

I love AC.  It's 85 outside now (was over 90 when we arrived - but it felt cool compared to the train). The landlady left us a nice bottle of chilled Rose.  The kids are quiet in the other room on their screens.   Life is good.

More Nice plus Monte Carlo

Tuesday we took the 15 minute train ride to Monte Carlo, Monaco.   No, I didn't see Prince Albert (in a can, or out of a can), nor Princess Stephanie... but we did visit the very cool Oceanographic Museum there.   It's up on the rock, above Port Hercule.   We took escalators and stairs down from the train station, then walked along the port, admiring the mega yachts.  There were yachts so big I had to ask if they were mini-cruise ships or yachts... turns out they were yachts.   At the end is the cruise terminal and a sea wall... you go out along the seawall then duck into a parking garage, to catch an elevator up to Monaco-vieux... the part up on the hill with the museum and palace.  At the oceanographic museum, one of the exhibits promoting saving sharks suggested that mosquitoes kill far more people than sharks each year.  Interesting given the fact that we've YET to encounter a window screen in any of the vacation rentals in our travel and have lots of mosquito bites.  Perhaps they should mitigate against mosquitoes by promoting window screens.

 After the museum and lunch we took a bus to the public beach, Plage du Larvatto.  Rather than the large stones at Nice's beaches - it's small gravel stones... much easier on the feet.  The water wasn't as blue.  The people were more fabulous though - perfect bodies, some obviously augmented.

About the beaches...  I am noticing that they do not have the same concern about skin cancer... there are a lot of very dark tans - and very leathery skin.  I find myself humming the ad-song from my youth.... "Bandosoleil for the St. Tropez tan...." I'm also noticing that here in Nice, the topless thing seems to be generational... women of 40 or more are more likely to be topless than women in their 20's.    In Monaco, there were perfect bodied young women topless....  but I didn't see many older women on the beach.

We decided not to do  more touring after our visit to Monaco.   The kids are done with  museums... stick a fork in them.   So we're staying local at the local beach here in Nice.   Nice has beautiful water, but no sand.  As mentioned previously it's these large cobble stones called "galets".   The Nice folks are proud of their galets - there is a 38 euro fine for stealing one.  The beach is also semi-terraced... there's a flat section, then a slope, then a smaller flat section, then a step slope into the water.   Traversing the slopes is treacherous as the galets slip and slide under your feet.   It can be painful.   Some folks wear sandles or water shoes into the water, others hobble in and hobble out.   I wore my shoes into and out of the first day - but am determined to master getting in and out of the water without my croc flip-flops.  I'm amazed to see people going in with shoes that aren't designed for ocean going - leather/bejeweled sandels, espadrilles, etc...

Some pics:

View of Nice Vieux - our apartment is pretty much center of the foreground just below the whitish building... with the shutters out.

This is our street - it's steeper than this photo shows.  

Oh thank heaven...  Le 7Eleven.   A bar (closed) near Nice Riquier train station.

Lou and Rigo at the Oceanography museum

Monte Carlo 

The beach and galets.   Blue water, freckled legs, and mosquito bites.

Hangin' in the south of france.

After the hustle and bustle of several big cities in a row (Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Paris...) we've arrived at the smaller/slower paced Nice, France.   The tiny cobblestone streets in the Nice Vieux (where we're staying) remind me of the old parts of Riposto and Bologna, and of course, Venice....  No cars allowed...  motorcycles are limited to certain hours, and streets randomly turn into stairs, making it vehicle unfriendly.   We celebrated our arrival by having Thai food near our apartment.

To say the water is blue here would be an understatement...   There's a reason they call this the Côte d'Azur.   The local beaches are not sand - but cobblestones... with very steep banks to get in and out...  tough on the feet and balance - but worth it.  There's a smattering of topless women - which intrigues the kids.  (HA!)  Or at least it intrigued
them until I threatened to go topless.... their interest turned to horror.  LOL.

Our apartment is on a quaint street - it seems idylic until around midnight... that seems to be the time the restaurants close down and young people choose our dead end street to party...If we had  AC it  would be better... but our choice is stuffy and hot or noisy.   We've asked the landlord for another fan since the boys think it's horribly unfair that Lou and I are using the only fan in the place.

Now a rant and a solution...   Rant:  Every apartment we go to has a different coffee method....  We adapt... we're comfortable with Moka pots, french press, american style drip machines, etc.   In Amsterdam the only method was a pod style espresso machine.  We didn't like the product, but at that point we'd purchased pods... so we brought them with us in our "supplies".  (Supplies tends to be: laundry soap, olive oil, spices we've purchased along the way, tp, bar soap, and shampoo.)   In Amsterdam we purchased a mini moka pot to get better coffee than the pod machine could produce.   Well... we arrive here in Nice and sure enough - another pod machine... but it uses different pods.   Lou is convinced the landlords get a kickback from the stores that sell the pods.   No problem, we'll use the moka pot on the stove....  Wait, not so fast - it's an induction stove and the moka pot is aluminum....

Here is our solution - it works just fine.

The pan heats on the stove - providing a hot plate for the moka pot.

Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, and LOTS of stairs.

Yesterday we made the pilgrimage to Sacre Coeur... not the religious pilgrimage, but the "best view" pilgrimage.   One of the highlights of my less than wonderful trip 20 years ago was climbing the dome at Sacre Coeur.

Most people, when you say you climbed to the top of Sacre Coeur, assume you mean you climbed up the 100 steps from the Moulon Rouge to the base of the Church.  Nope - there's an additional 300 steps you can take up to the top of the big dome.   We saw the church - beautiful, then paid our admission to go up to the top of the dome.  Our calves and butts felt it - but we made it.  I've heard it's the 2nd  highest spot in Paris - behind the top of the Eiffel Tower.   (I suspect some of the high rises west of the city may be taller.)  Here are some pics:

That last pic - I think Piero is trying to do the can-can.  LOL.

So - 400 steps for Sacre Coeur yesterday... how to top it?  422 steps to the top of Notre Dame.   We had a light schedule today - I'd promised to take the boys on some rides at the Jardin Tuileries... and Notre Dame is on the way...  So I stopped in the queue.  We'd walked past the queue 4 times this week - blowing it off because it was so long.   This time, I stopped.  The boys whined, but I promised them equivalent screen time (tablets) to line time.  That shut them up.  (They're both on their tablets as I type this.).   1 hr and 45 minutes of screen time earned - but actually less for bad behavior.  We also had our first crepe while waiting - with Nutella... Meh... (more on crepes later).   Notre Dame is the classic gothic church - lots of gargoyles, etc.  This tour/climb involves going up the parapet and to the top of the bell tower.  So basically - in Quasimodo's large footsteps.  But the views were amazing.  More pics.

From there - we split up... Lou to find a place to draw Notre Dame... Me to take the boys on rides.  I'd also promised we'd be ham and cheese crepes on the way, for lunch.  By luck we found a creperie that wasn't using premade crepes and reheating them - but starting from the batter.... (Literally every other street facing to-go crepery seemed to be the premade ones.).   OMG... what a huge difference.  The gal made them perfect - lots of cheese and ham, and PERFECT crepes.  I had almost finished mine before I remembered to take a picture.   This picture doesn't do justice to how good it was.

Finally - the annoying selfy picture from the ferris wheel with the Eiffel tower in the back.

Tomorrow it's off to Nice and some beach time.