To recap: on Wednesday, October 31, 2011, we set out from our home port in San Diego on our way to San Francisco, where we planned to spend a couple months. We broke the trip up north into two legs: the first was 24 hours at sea, stopping in Ventura. The plan was to wait in Ventura for a good weather window around Point Conception. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long. After only 24 hours in Ventura, we were back at sea. Leg two took two days, and we arrived in San Francisco Bay on Sunday, September 4.

We docked at South Beach Harbor Marina, located right next door to the AT&T ballpark in the heart of downtown San Francisco. We picked that location because Eric could walk to work (his company also has an office in San Francisco, which he worked out of). Here is a shot of Eric in front of the ballpark and one at the back of the ballpark.

Monday, September 5 was Labor Day, so Eric had the day off work. We took a walk along the embarcadero to the famous Ferry Terminal Building. Here are some sights along the way:

This is Pier 38 right next to the marina. Along the waterfront, there are several more of these Pier buildings that all look similar.

The view of San Francisco Bay and the Bay Bridge from just past Pier 38

Fireboats docked under the Bay Bridge:

A sculpture on the Embarcadero lawn with some of the beautiful downtown skyline behind it.

A cool old building surrounded by more modern ones:

Next door to the Ferry Terminal building:

The Ferry Terminal Building:

An old street car stopped near the Ferry Terminal Building:

Inside the Ferry Terminal Building are an assortment of interesting shops:

We had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant near the Ferry Terminal building. The food was amazing! Here is a photo of the causa sampler tray. Causas are whipped potatoes topped with ají amarillo and seafood or vegetarian toppings. The ones pictured here are: Limena with dungeness crab and avocado, Nikei with raw tuna and avocado, Casera with artichokes, aspargus, avocado and tomato, and Saltidido (not sure what was in that one). We also had an amazing ceviche sampler tray and dessert sampler tray. Yummy!

This is part 4 of an 11 part series on our time in San Francisco. Read part 3 here and part 5 here. 

Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

• Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
• Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

• In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
•  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.

Christi got up with him and took him to the airport. She worked on blogs for a couple hours, took a bath, and otherwise puttered around until 0930. Sure that traffic must have cleared by then, she took the car to the town of Grasse, a mountain village north of Cannes that is the perfume capital of the world. Christi took the highway to the Cannes exit, but instead of heading south towards the beach, went north into the mountains.

Since she had gotten up so early, she was starving at this point. Right off the exit, she found a boulangerie/patisserie  (bread/dessert bakery). She ordered an individual size goat cheese quiche. She wonders if she got the right one, since it was loaded with bacon but didn’t taste much like goat cheese. She also ordered a pain du chocolate (chocolate croissant) and a beignet (donut). She sat in the car and scarfed them down before heading up the mountain.

The road was narrow and somewhat windy. She had read there were flower fields surrounding the town of Grasse, so she was surprised to see that it was completely built up along the road, with no fields to be seen anywhere. The buildings were an odd mix. Some were old, as in Medieval, some fairly new, as in probably the last few years. Commercial and residential properties were mixed, with a mechanic shop next to a private mansion. She noticed signs for three different perfumeries along the way.

The heart of Grasse looked medieval. In the center of town, there was a parking garage. She turned off the main road and headed towards the garage, but she missed the entrance. She found herself on a scary one way road back down the mountain. It had dangerously sharp switchbacks, obviously originally a horse trail, not a car trail. At a couple points the road split, in both cases, she made the wrong turn. The first time, turning around was easy because she came to a roundabout, but the second time, the road dead ended and she had to make 30 point U-turn to get out of the tight little alley.

The road ended near the bottom of the mountain. Sigh. She noticed a sign for one of the perfumeries that said it was close by and decided to go there instead of back up the hill. One, she didn’t want to drive that scary road down again and two, she really liked the name of the perfumery, Fragonard, because there is a Rococo-era (early 1700s) painter by the same name whose works she particularly likes.

The facility was new and modern looking, probably built in the 1960s or later. They had old equipment on display in the parking lot.

Inside, the woman at the front desk told her it would be a few minutes before the English speaker would be available to give her a tour, and invited her to look around their reception area. It was filled with displays showing the different flowers, leaves, woods, fruits, grasses, and so forth that scents are extracted from. The displays also showed which were grown locally, which were imported, and where they were imported from. A few display cabinets showed assorted bottles and boxes the bottles came in.

A few minutes later, the guide came out. She explained that the Fragonard Perfumery was founded in a building in the heart of Grasse in 1926, but their operation has grown so much that they have had to open two more factories, one here at the bottom of the hill and one in Eze, near Monaco. The perfumery was named after the artist, who was a native of Grasse that moved to Paris to pursue his art career as a young adult. The perfumery also owns a museum in Grasse that features Jean-Honore Fragonard’s work, along with a couple other Grasse native artists, Marguerite Gerard and Jean-Baptiste Mallet.

Perfume making actually originated in Grasse. Leather tanning required a lot of water, and since Grasse had a plentiful water supply, their primary industry was leather tanning, with a specialty in glove making. The process smelled bad, so in the 16^th century, the local craftsmen started using local made essences from flowers to scent the leather. Perfume making took off, becoming an industry of its own. The oldest perfumeries in Grasse were also tanneries, as well.

Today, Grasse is the most important perfume making area in the world with over 40 perfumeries. Most of the local factories produce the scents for brand names; the factories themselves are unheard of but their products are world renowned. They also produce food flavorings and scents for commercial products like soaps, shampoos, lotions, cleaning agents and so forth.

Most perfumes are a blend of over 200 scents, and it usually takes about two years of work to formulate a new scent. Perfume makers have a naturally gifted sense of smell. To become a perfume maker, 2 years of specialized schooling and 7 years of apprenticeship are required. Behind a counter there were shelving units after shelving units filled with bottles of essential oils.

Most flowers are distilled in much the same way as alcohol. She can’t remember how many kilos of flowers it takes to produce one liter of essential oil, but it was an ungodly number. The flowers are put into a distilling pot, and the pot is filled with water, then boiled dry. The steam is trapped into a cooling vat where the oil and water separate. The staggering number of flowers needed is why perfume is so expensive.

Some flowers are too fragile to boil. In the old days, they “cold pressed” them. They smeared animal fat on a tray and put flowers on the fat. Every day they changed the flowers until the fat had absorbed enough smell to be used as perfume. Then somehow alcohol is used to get the scent from the fat (she was unclear on how). Nowadays they use chemicals to extract the scent.

The guide explained which flowers are locally grown and which are imported, then went on to say that sometimes it was cheaper to import flowers than to use the locally grown ones. The perfumes produced in this factory are hand blended and hand packed.

She also was taken to a room where she was shown how soap was molded. They buy soap corns and add scent and color to them. Then they put them in a molding machine, which makes long tubes of soap. The tubes are sliced. The slices are put into another machine that stamps the slice into the perfect shape and embeds a design. The leftover scraps go back into the vat of soap to be molded, so nothing is wasted.

Then it was down to the showroom to smell some of the scents. The guide explained there are four categories of scents: Naturals, which use scents like apple, ginger and lemon; Fruities, which use scents like grapefruit, freesia and hyacinth; Florals, which use scents like lily, honeysuckle and rose; and Orientals, which have rose, musk and sandalwood. She had Christi smell their most popular seller of each category, as well as their top selling perfume of all time, a hybrid Fruity/Floral that smelled like green apple.

Explained the difference between perfume, eau de perfume  and cologne. The essential oil mixtures are the same, it is the amount of essential oil versus alcohol that is different. Perfumes have the most essential oil, so a little goes a long way. Cologne only has a small amount of essential oil, so you need a lot more and it doesn’t last all that long.

After tour, she walked over to the Bar and Snack next door for lunch. When she walked in, the waitress asked her if she wanted food or drinks. Christi replied food. The waitress then said “salad or sandwich?” Christi said salad. A few minutes later, out came the salad. It had no lettuce, but lots of hearts of palm, canned tuna chunks, ham, hard boiled eggs, tomato? It really wasn’t all that great, but it was large and inexpensive.

After lunch she decided to head back up to Grasse. She really wanted to see the world’s only perfume museum and the Fragonard art museum, and she thought it would be fun to explore the historic old town. She drove up the hill to the town center, ready to turn into the garage. However, before she made the turn, she saw a sign saying “garage full.” Still on the main road, she continued on, sure there would be another parking garage or some place to park on the street. There wasn’t.

She exited town. She started looking for places to turn around, but turning around was impossible on such a narrow, winding mountain road. She went on for many miles before finally getting to a suitable turn around spot. She knew she was well on her way back to Nice via the mountain road. She decided not to turn back. Parking was going to be a problem and she was feeling tired from being up so early.

The drive back was lovely. For a long, long way out of Grasse, the road was completely built up, looking similar to the road up to Grasse, an odd mix of eras and uses. But eventually, the construction thinned out and it became apparent when she was passing from one town to another. Even deeper into the trip, the towns seemed to go away altogether, replaced by large country estates barely visible from the road. Overall, it was a beautiful and pleasant drive, and she enjoyed the lovely forest.

She made it all the way back to Saint Laurent du Var with no problems, but got lost trying to find the hotel. She drove around town for a good twenty minutes, seeing parts of town she’d never seen before. Some were darling.

For dinner, she went to a place on the boardwalk called Le Bayside, which had an enticing prix-fixe menu. The first course was assiette d’antipasti du pays, which was a green salad topped with some fresh cheese slices, some parma ham slices, and an assortment of grilled vegetables: artichoke, bell pepper (capsicum) eggplant (aka aubergine, which was marinaded in vinegar and yummy) and garlic. It had an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. The main was two fillets of grilled loup fish (a light, flaky white fish), served with a creamy lemon-butter sauce and accompanied with rice and asparagus. For dessert, she had a  lemon meringue pie. All the food was excellent, particularly the salad.

Christi headed inland, and after a couple blocks found herself in the familiar Cours Saley street market. She wandered through the stalls to see what was for sale. The variety was incredible. Produce, cured meats, cheeses, fresh fish, olives, olive oils, dried tomatoes, jams, sauces, herbs, candied fruit, prepared foods, florists, a couple stalls with artists and/or handicrafts, and much more!

She picked a restaurant called La Storia, on Cours Saley, for lunch, because the prix-fixe menu caught her eye. The first course was Salad Nicois, with mixed greens, canned tuna, anchovies, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, celery, olives, and fresh red bell pepper.  The  main course was Porchetta of Rabbit. Looking at it, it looked like two slices of meat. But when she bit into it, she realized it was actually more of a meatloaf. The ground meat was seasoned and had chunks of green olives, light meat and dark meat mixed in. It was wrapped in a layer of fat before baking. The ground meat was soft enough to eat with a fork, the other meat chunks were firmer and needed a knife to cut into. It was different tasting and she wasn’t sure what she thought of it. The rabbit was accompanied by gnocchi in a basil pesto sauce.

Dessert was nougat ice cream (nougat flavor with lots of small pieces of nuts) and a small pastry of some sort. She had never seen anything quite like this pastry, the closest she can compare it to would be lady fingers.

After lunch, she headed east to the port. Along the way, she passed a World War I monument to commemorate the 4,000 people from Nice that died in the war. As you can see, it is carved into the face of the cliff that the park sits on top of. If you look closely at the upper left corner, you can see some of the remains of the fortress walls.

She walked around the entire port/marina area, checking out the assorted boats. Most of the boats were small (less than 40 feet), but there were a couple dozen enormous boats (well over 100 feet). Oddly, nothing in the mid-range category. The first photo is a shot of the marina. You can see the hill the park is on in the background. The second is a church devoted to seafarers in the very middle of the port. The Virgin Mary is blessing their travels.

The she turned inland. Near the port, it was mostly residential apartment buildings, but within a few blocks she found herself in a neighborhood of large private houses. Realizing she was probably moving away from the city center, she around following different streets that she hoped were taking her in the right direction.

Within a few blocks, she was back in the commercial zone, an odd mix of old and new. Here is one example: these two photos are taken at the same intersection, just facing two different directions. One is of the Museum of Modern Art, tucked between two buildings that are probably 20th century (possibly late 19th). The other is of a building that probably dates back to the 1800s.

This is a shot of a park that she liked:

At 1500, she decided it was time to head back to the hotel to meet Eric and wandered back over to the bus stop she had gotten off at. Unfortunately, there was no bus stop on the other side of the street, and she had to walk several blocks before finding it. But, the bus pulled up right as she arrived, so the timing was impeccable!

On the bus, she met some Scottish people. From eavesdropping on their conversation, she got the impression they were snow birds that spent the winters here. She asked about the explosion and was told every day at noon they shoot off a big gun at the park. The sirens were coincidental.

Eric got back around 1700. We went for a walk along the boardwalk, spending quite a bit of time wandering through the marina, checking out the boats. After four days here in France, this was Eric’s very first chance to sightsee. He was too tired to go into Nice, so we stayed local for dinner, choosing a restaurant on the boardwalk called Le Maree, which offered some attractive prix-fixe menu choices.

Eric’s starter was salmon carpaccio, served with a lemon sauce and a side of greens with tomato slices. Christi got a hot goat cheese salad, which was a plate of mixed greens with tomatoes and three thick slices of goat cheese on crostini.

Eric’s main was monkfish in lobster sauce (monkfish has a texture similar to lobster), Christi’s salmon in a saffron sauce. Both mains were accompanied with potatoes au gratin (potatoes baked in a cheese sauce), ratatouille (roasted mixed vegetables), and a broiled tomato.

For dessert, we shared a tarte flambee, an apple tart doused with Calvados liquor and lit on fire. We were bummed because they didn’t light it in front of us, so we missed the flames. When we cut into it, it was broiling hot and tasted like booze, so we are sure it really was lit on fire. All the food was absolutely delicious.

Christi was moving slow, still tired from jet lag and worn out from doing so much walking the previous two days. She spent the morning working on blog posts and took a long bath. Suddenly, it was noon and time to eat.

Wanting another really good meal, she went back to Cafe Sud, which was tried and true great food. This time, she ordered the seafood salad as a starter. Squid, shrimp, mussels, octopus and an unidentified little critter that looked like rings were served on a bed of lettuce with some chopped tomatoes, olive oil and lemon.

For her main, she got steak in a roquefort cheese sauce. The sauce had a lighter flavor than she expected. The cut of meat was a bit fatty, but she supposes the reason it was so amazingly tender and flavorful was because of the high fat content.  It was served with French fries. For dessert, she got a chocolate mousse, which was a rich dark chocolate, served with a small cookie on top.

It was a sunny day and lots of people were out, particularly mothers with small children, and she enjoyed people watching.

After lunch, she decided she wasn’t up for sightseeing today. She went back to the hotel and rested until Eric got back. Eric had a mixed day. Some of the meetings were good, some were not. He finished for the day at 1800 (6:00 pm),  but thanks to two heinous accidents on the road, didn’t actually reach the hotel until 1930.

For dinner, we went back to Nature Dame. Eric ordered the same thing as last time. Christi got an Autumn Salad, with mixed greens, cheese, beets, sprouts, cucumber, radishes, lots of sesame crusted chicken, apple slices and pumpkin (though she didn’t notice the pumpkin), and croutons.

After dinner, we were up late. Eric had a lot of emails regarding work back at the office that he needed to get caught up on.

Christi decided to spend the day sightseeing in Cannes, so we drove together to the conference center. Unlike yesterday, Eric was able to navigate there without any problems. Traffic was light since it wasn’t rush hour. The parking garage was under the conference center (and apparently visitor’s center and casino, too), which happens to be right on the waterfront, next to the marina.

Christi started her sightseeing tour by walking through the marina. The marina was filled with many high end yachts; though unlike Monaco, there were plenty of “regular” boats in there, as well. Quite a few yachts had been rented by companies affiliated with the convention, where they wined and dined potential clients.

From there, she wandered the boardwalk for several blocks. The beach was a lovely white sand; the water in the bay a beautiful azure blue and completely flat. It beckoned people to come out for a swim.

The boardwalk was wide. While it was mostly open space, it was dotted with some fountains, some patches of greenery with lovely flowers currently in bloom, a few mobile vendors, a few carnival type rides, a children’s jungle gym; enough color and character to make it feel more attractive and festive than an ordinary boardwalk.

Then she turned and headed into the commercial district. Cannes has that same “old Mediterranean” look that Nice and St. Tropez have. Most of the buildings looked like they date back to the 18^th or 19^th century.

In a few areas, like along one of the main highways, the buildings looked to be 20th century. It was funny to see the clusters of modern buildings in and amongst the old ones.

Nice has far more fancy old buildings (meaning with architectural character and/or fancy appointments) than Cannes does, so it was clear that once upon a time Nice was a much wealthier town than Cannes. But today, it is clear from the types of shops housed within the buildings that Cannes is more exclusive than Nice. With such a beautiful beach, it is no wonder Cannes became the playground of the rich.

She could see what looked like a castle at the top of a hill.

She left the commercial district and wandered up the hill towards the castle. This area was definitely older; the whole hill was a maze of medieval residential streets. Most had no car access; the “roads” they were on were actually staircases! The people who live in those homes have to park down the hill and walk up to their homes. The few residences that did have car access had garages; it looked like the space on the first floor that once upon a time had been a shop had been converted to the garage.

When she made it up there, she saw that in addition to the castle (1st photo below), there was also a large church (2nd photo) at the top of the hill.

Unfortunately, both were closed. It was a lovely viewpoint, though, with great vistas of the two islands that protect Cannes Bay.

She headed down the hill via different streets altogether and followed the beach back to the conference center. Tired from the lack of sleep the night before, she spent the rest of the day close to the conference center, hanging out in assorted cafes and wandering through shops to kill time. Eric didn’t finish with meetings until 2030 (8:30 pm), so she had a lot of time to kill! His meetings were much better today than yesterday.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called La Potiniere, located near the conference center. Christi got a cup of pumpkin soup as a starter. It cost about $18 USD, so she was expecting it to be a huge and extraordinarily tasty soup. She was greatly disappointed to see it was small, maybe 10 ounces. Texture wise, it was thick but airy, as if it had been whipped in a cappuccino maker. Taste wise it was good, but nothing amazing. She was really let down. The main course was no better. She ordered scallops and shrimp in a light orange butter sauce, which was served with a little rice and some small pieces of veggies. Last night’s dinner at Dame Nature had twice as much food, better tasting food, and was less money.

Eric got a nicoise pizza with tomato, cheese, anchovies, tuna, roasted red bell peppers, and olives baked in the pizza. It was topped with a raw egg and lettuce. He liked it, though he agreed that the food was not worth the price.

After dinner, we drove back to the hotel and crashed.

After passing the airport, the bus took a road paralleling the ocean. Christi noticed that the farther east the bus went, the older the buildings on the other side of the street were starting to look, like they dated back to the 19^th and then 18^th centuries. Many were ornate, and many were in the more traditional French architecture styles. She wasn’t sure exactly where to be dropped off, so she picked a stop that seemed to be in what she hoped was the heart of town. Here is a view of the shoreline from the bus stop.

She had made a good guess. After walking only two blocks north, she found herself at the east end of the Massena shopping area, a street blocked off to car traffic that is considered the heart of the modern city. The street was jam packed with people strolling around and having coffee in the many cafes, which surprised her since it was the middle of the work day.

She walked along for several blocks, enjoying the architectural diversity and energetic vibe, until she got to a large square at the other end of the pedestrian only area. She noticed a sign that said “historic district” and followed it south a couple blocks. She crossed over a wide, park-like promenade area that was the gateway into the original medieval city of Nice. This is part of the promenade area:

The Vieux-Ville (Old City) is similar to many other medieval European “old towns” we have seen, such as St. Tropez. The streets are narrow, most barely wide enough to accommodate one car–some not even that wide! The buildings are mostly three to four stories and packed in tightly one on top of another. Some of the streets are still cobbled. The first floor of most of the buildings house tiny boutiques shops and cafes.

In and amongst the shops and residences, she passed a couple ornate churches, a couple fancy hotels, and an impressive government building before stumbling across the “market.”

In what has to be the old town’s widest street, Cours Saley, every day vendors set up tables in the middle of the road to peddle their wares. Most days foods are sold, but Mondays are antiques day. The tables of vendors stretched for several blocks, most selling old house wares. Here is a shot of one of the city gates, at the end of Cours Salay.

Part of the old city is on flat land, part on a steep hill. She chose to stay in the flat area. After wandering around the old city for about an hour, she realized it was getting late and she should head back to the hotel to meet Eric. In order to get in more sight seeing, she took different streets back, making sure they paralleled the roads she had taken in until returning back to her bus stop. Here are a few random shots of buildings she passed along the way:

She expected there to be another bus stop across the street from where sh’d been dropped off. There wasn’t. She figured the bus did a loop and waited at the stop she was dropped off at, knowing it wouldn’t go much farther east before turning back west. After forty minutes, two 200 busses passed her by, both drivers shaking their head no when she tried to board. The 217 hadn’t come.

She crossed the street and walked several blocks until she found a bus stop. A few minutes later, she was picked up by one of the same drivers who had told her no on the other side. He asked where she was going and she replied Saint Laurent. She sat near him.

The 200 route was different than the 217. She got lost in the scenery, never seeing anything that looked familiar. Eventually, the bus driver started talking to her insistently. He spoke way too fast and her French was too rusty to understand anything he said. She apologized and said she didn’t understand. He said in English to take another bus. She asked in French if we were in Saint Laurent, wondering if he was sending her to a connecting bus. He waved his hands to indicate back. She suddenly understood. She had missed her stop. Darn!

She crossed the street and caught the next 200 bus. When it passed the airport, she knew she missed her stop again. Darn! Knowing it could be another 20 minutes for the next 200 bus, she walked back to the hotel, arriving just minutes before she was supposed to meet Eric at 2030 (8:30). But since he’d gotten lost, as well, he didn’t arrive until closer to 2100.

We went down to the boardwalk again, choosing a restaurant called Dame Nature that had a lot of organic menu choices. Eric ordered fish soup for an appetizer. It was creamy and rich, with sherry, similar to a lobster bisque. It was accompanied by crostinis (toasted slices of baguette) that were coated with garlic butter and topped with a yummy sauce. The only ingredient we could pinpoint in the sauce was mayo, but it was bright yellow, so we are guessing it had curry, saffron or mustard powder, as well.

We both ordered the grilled sea scallops. They were perfectly cooked and served with a rich brown sauce that was probably also made with sherry. They were amazing. There was also fresh foie gras on the plate that was delicious. The meats were accompanied with mashed potatoes, thin slices of grilled carrot and zucchini, and one thick slice of a mystery veggie. Visually speaking, Eric thought was a potato and Christi thought it was an onion. It wasn’t either.

We both crashed shortly after dinner.

Christi had a leisurely morning. She reviewed French vocabulary words, did a little work on the Internet for her Parentella job, and took a long bath (with no bathtub aboard Kosmos, baths are a rare luxury for her!) before setting off at 1100. Unlike yesterday, which was warm and sunny and full of people, today it was cool, overcast and almost deserted.

She walked west to the end of the boardwalk. The beach area didn’t continue for much farther past the Snack we’d eaten at last night. Beyond the beach was a very large marina, filled mostly with boats under 50 feet.

The boardwalk continued for the length of the marina, and except for three or four marine chandleries near the marina, pretty much every shop was a restaurant.

At the end of the boardwalk was a tourist information center. Christi went in and found out that our hotel isn’t really in Nice! We are staying in the town of Ville de Saint Laurent du Var. The agent gave her maps and told her how to get to Nice: go to the bus stop at the shopping mall near the hotel and catch the 200 bus. Piece of cake!

The area beyond the boardwalk looked primarily residential, so she turned around and took the boardwalk east. From this direction, she could see the airport runway clearly. Planes were constantly coming and going, with two planes on the run way most of the time–once there was even three!

The portion of boardwalk east of our hotel became completely residential. We got lucky when we headed west last night. Had we gone east, we would have thought there were no places to eat!

Christi came to the large indoor mall, which was located at the corner where the river met the ocean. The boardwalk goes around the backside of the mall, then turns north and follows the river. Christi turned back when she got to the river. She scouted out the bus stop, then took some side streets back to the hotel. Only commercial businesses were on these streets.

At noon on the button (when the restaurants finally opened!) she was back on the boardwalk to get lunch at a restaurant called Cafe Sud, whose menu she had eyed earlier. She noticed more people were out now, but it was still empty compared to yesterday’s crowd.

She ordered a prix-fixe meal. The first course was called Dolce Vita Salad. It had mixed greens topped with several slices of tender carpaccio (thin slices of raw beef), walnuts, kalmata olives, tomatoes, and a crostini with goat cheese. The dressing was creamy and had mustard and horseradish in it.

The main course was a filet of sole in a tarragon sauce. The sauce tasted like a basic cream sauce made with cream, butter and lots of fresh tarragon. The tarragon taste was strong, which she liked. It was accompanied with grilled zucchini and rice. For dessert, she got an apple tart. The base was pie crust, topped with a layer of thick cream (similar in texture to crème brulee), a layer of apples and a sweet glaze over the top. It was dusted with powdered sugar and caramel and served warm. Lunch was to die for good.

Christi went back to the hotel and took a nap before walking over to the bus stop. The sign at the bus stop did not include bus number 200. Hmmm…. She asked a bus driver if this was the correct stop for 200 and he said yes. Another woman said “The 217 that just pulled up with take you to Nice. Get on that one.” So Christi did.

After passing the airport, the bus took a road paralleling the ocean. Christi noticed that the farther east the bus went, the older the buildings on the other side of the street were starting to look, like they dated back to the 19^th and then 18^th centuries. Many were ornate, and many were in the more traditional French architecture styles. She wasn’t sure exactly where to be dropped off, so she picked a stop that she hoped was the heart of town.

To be continued tomorrow…

Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in an area called Cote d’Azur (AKA the French Riviera). On our world circumnavigation, we made four stops in Cote d’Azur: Monaco,  Saint Tropez , Le Lavandou, and  Isle de Porquerrolles, so we were excited to be able to visit some of the places we had missed.

On Saturday morning, we left the boat at 0800. When we got to the airport, we were shocked to see it was shut down, with a fire truck and police cars outside the baggage claim area. We were told the building had been evacuated a half hour ago due to a fire. Whatever the problem was, it was clearly at the opposite end of the terminal from our gate. We were terrified our plane would leave late and we’d miss our connecting flight. After another half hour, everyone was allowed back in. Fortunately, things returned to normal quickly and our flight left on time.

Leg one was uneventful. During the first layover, we found out that on Friday, a Southwest plane had a small piece of the roof come off mid-flight and the cabin de-pressurized. They had to make an emergency landing. Not everyone could get their oxygen masks on in time and some suffered injuries as a result. 10% of the Southwest flights scheduled for Saturday had been cancelled for further plane inspections. Oy vey. We were relieved we were on a different airline.

Fortunately, both the second and third legs were also totally uneventful for us. We arrived at the Nice airport, where we rented a car. Our hotel was just a few thousand yards from the airport as the bird flies, but for the life of us, we couldn’t find the right road to get there. After being seriously lost for about fifteen minutes, we eventually found the hotel, the Holiday Inn. Our initial impression of Nice was that it looks like a typical Mediterranean town, with many 4 – 10 story blocky concrete apartment houses. Most are painted a pastel color and either have flat roofs or red tiled pitched roofs. Most of the buildings we saw look like they were from the 20th century, though we did pass an area that looked like it may have been more historic.

Our hotel is located right on the L’Atoll beach. Our room is charming and has a lovely view of the ocean.

By the time we checked in, it was Sunday at 1730 (5:30 pm) local time. We had been traveling for 23.5 hours. We were exhausted and hungry. Our first task was to get food. We went down to the boardwalk and headed west. Tons of people were out, taking advantage of the sunny, warm evening. The beach to our left was pebbly and uninviting, but people were laying out nonetheless. The water was a beautiful azure blue. Several small islands had been constructed in the little bay to create a calm swimming area near the shore. (The photos below were taken the next day when it was cloudy and few people were out).

To our right was an endless row of restaurants.

We passed a couple restaurants that were either closed or only serving beverages. We suddenly remembered our biggest pet peeve about both France and Italy: it is hard to find food outside of standard lunch and dinner hours. And dinner hours didn’t start until 2000 (8:00 pm)!

We continued down the boardwalk. After passing at least a dozen more closed restaurants, we stumbled upon a Snack, which as the name implies, serves light food, usually at all hours. For some unknown reason, we hadn’t bothered to brush up on our French before arriving here, and we had trouble asking if they were serving food or only beverages. Christi finally managed “I hungry.” Fortunately, the man behind the counter handed us a menu and pointed to crepes and sandwiches. Yes!

We both got a savory crepe. Christi got the Indienne (Indian), with chicken, cheese and onions in a curry sauce. Eric got a tuna and tomato with emmenthal cheese. They were both large, filling and tasty.

Satiated, we strolled back towards the hotel, enjoying the lovely scenery. From this direction, we could clearly see the airport’s run way and we saw a couple of planes take off. The minute we got back to our room, we crashed for the night.

• Prologue: How we formed the dream and the early planning stages.
• The entire 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva has been re-written. At that point, the blog was in real time and we didn’t want people to worry about us. But the truth was that it was tough!
• Many new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, and the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!