Very humid and uncomfortable unless there was a breeze. Our arrival in Nice was late and we took a taxi to the hotel. After checking in we started looking for a place to eat. It is a bit of a struggle in a place where sea food is the most abundant of anywhere we have been....almost every place offers it in vast variety. Since Kathy is allergic we passed a number of places. We also must be careful since many places in this part of the world cook with peanut oil -- another major no-no.
Ironically we came back to the hotel and settled on the place next door. We ordered a pizza and a salad and shared the two. It was 9:15 by the time we sat down to eat and I was utterly exhausted. The walk in Como, the long day in the Milan train station and little sleep had caught up with me. When we finished the meal which was as usual --delicious (we had not had a bad meal in Europe) We were about to leave when the proprietress came to offer us a drink (free) we declined --but I asked if I could have a coffee to go --- Not only did she accommodate -- but she refused to accept payment for it....sending it in a little basket with some biscuits to go along with it.
After a good nights sleep we rose at 6:00 in order to be at the shore for our trip to St. Tropez. There is a wonderful tram system here --- easy to buy tickets, and it goes every 5 minutes. A young man approached us and began speaking -- I said we don't speak French and he went on. Suddenly two bullies on bikes began chasing him. It was a bit frightening. He got away and the two circled back on their bikes --- feeling their power! The tram took us to a central square near the old town, Garibaldi Place, from which you could find most streets leading to the old section of Nice or to the port where we would catch our boat. We used the map to get to the port passing the Chateau and the street of antiquities where shop after shop was filled with antiques.
The streets were quiet at this time, and as long as you stayed in the shade there was a cool breeze that made pushing the chair easy. The curbs were mostly designed for the chair but just as we reached the port there was a long steep hill. Kathy used her feet to break and I just hung on in case I was needed to halt our progress. We arrived at almost the perfect spot to buy our ticket.
The line was long and the sun hot. A woman next to us was in her 60s but she had a lot of work done --- her face was unlined, her arms when she lifted them showed the scar where the old lady flaps had been removed, her hair was impeccable colored a sunny blonde, but it was her lips that really fascinated me --- they were obviously injected to make them look pouty, sultry---they just looked so silly on this lady. She wore a filmy spaghetti strap top and pants and her bikini underneath matched. Her husband stood near her. I wondered how he felt about all this work she had done to make her feel younger.
On the other side was a woman of about the same age. She had on a long flowing cotton frock to hide the bulges. Her gray hair was pulled back and she made no attempt to cover up her obvious wrinkles---two women --- two vastly different concepts about what is important. It is interesting to see how people are dressed for this. some wear spike heals or wedges that have at least an inch platform (I wonder how they will do on the boat). Many of the young girls have garish tattoos. One has a large tattoo on her leg of a nearly naked girl (vargas like). Another has a large spider web on her calf. Many of them also have piercings in unusual places. Some on the face through the cheek. One of them has a wooden piece that goes through his ear enlarging the hole to something on the magnitude of an inch or more.
The captain with his unusual sailor hat with the red pom pom on top took Kathy on first and we got settled before the mob joined us. The boat is full this Sunday morning of people who are looking for a good time. They started out buying boxes of wine and drinking right away even though it is only 9:00 a.m. The group of them get a bit loud. It is interesting to see who is the leader. The boat is traveling at 20 knots which is the same as our big ocean liner --- of course on the liner it seemed slow, but on this boat it feels very fast! Kathy is in the stern and I joined her where we regularly were doused by sea spray. It was very cooling!
Once on S. Tropez we walked to the plaza. It is a large dust park with mostly restaurants all around. We had lunch at one which had fans and a spray of cool water to help with the heat. By noon it was very hot. You could for a set price choose to have the entree (which means salad here) the main or the main and a dessert. I chose the main and desert and had a great beef salad (really the best I have ever had) and a lemon tart for desert. Kathy chose the tomato/mozzarella salad and a ravioli in basil sauce. When I asked about the bathroom, I learned that it was up 18 stairs. I asked where there would be a handicapped restroom and was informed that all the bathrooms were upstairs.
We headed down through the maze of little shops toward the port again. These shops were mostly for very rich people featuring fine art, and designer clothing. Each shop was very small, with the merchandise in artistic arrangements -- really beautiful to look at even though we could not buy. When we got to a pharmacy we went in to buy yet another converter for electricity --- and I asked about disability arrangements. The pharmacist said that she only new of one bathroom on the entire island --- it was at the port office. We went there and found that we had to get an attendant with a key --- There was also no where we could roll up to the ocean we learned. Basically there were no accommodations on S. Tropez.
We stopped at a very expensive place by the beach for lemonade and water...did I mention it was hot? Once again the key is to stay in the shade as much as possible and pace activity. In the shade next to the yachts it was cool and the lemonade was refreshing --- except that it was really something like Sprite --- so many things are just a little different when you are in a country that is not yours. The water reflects like pieces of broken mirror dancing on the side of the yacht in the harbor. Glittering pieces here then there on the white side of the boat.
The return trip was equally beautiful. The water as it is churned up by the boat is turquoise and white, while further from the boat it is ultramarine. We got even wetter on the return voyage. The captain came down and suggested that we move so kathy would not get so wet -- I told him we did not get to swim in the water at S. Tropez, but at least on his boat we were going swimming!" We laughed and he went back upstairs.
The closer we come to the shore -- the more the clarity was obvious and if the water is not churned up you can look to the bottom. Two exhausted,hot travelers returned to the hotel at about 8:30. We had dinner at the same restaurant, but a sudden thunderstorm forced us to move mid meal closer to the building under the awning. Then we were off to shower and bed.
Our 2nd day in Nice began at the laundry --- or more properly at a restaurant nearant near it. You see God is good -- all the time! The lavomatique is complex. Like everything it is easy if you know how it works--it is easy, but things as simple as laundramats can be very differently designed in other countries! Thank goodness there was a woman there who spoke fairly good English. She explained, you must first find a machine that works (three are broken and there are only six) then you must find how to select the temperature --- where to put the powder (the powder machine is broken so it is good that I have brought some from our foray to the grocery in Como) -- then to start the machine there is another machine (that looks like it makes change) on the wall where you tell it which machine you use and it tells you how much money to put in and then (It doesn't take any bills -- so I found a restaurant where the owner is a Muslim --- who of course exhibits hospitality ---and gave me change so I could go back to the lavomatique and finally make the machines work.) In the meantime the restaurateur had made my coffee so I went back for it while the wash ran.
Here is is so much more expensive to sit outside (because outside there is a breeze) and inside there is no air conditioning --- but the kind man seated me outside and I prayed that I might bring him good traffic while I was there --- after all he provided an act of kindness. And just like that the tables filled up next to his restaurant. I wished him Salaam Aleichem and he returned the greeting -- originally from Algeria we chatted a bit and I thanked him before returning to the laundry. The lady who helped me learn to use the machines was still sitting waiting for her clothes to dry --- I told her she was wonderful and thanked her. I said, "today the world is filled with kind people." She responded....it is because you are kind.....something to ponder.
We spent the afternoon walking the old town in Nice and buying stocking stuffers for Kathy. We went into the Abbey which was a beautiful church with an interesting looking organ. Clearly this was a working church. There was one near the laundromat that looked very interesting --- but clearly was not open. Vagrants were on the steps at each entrance and as I walked past one of them got up and relieved himself in the bushes next to the church steps. A tree was growing from the spot under one of the windows above the main doors. It made me sad to see that here the church is largely irrelevant. We need to be sending missionaries to France not Africa. I have lighted candles at most of the old Cathedrals and at least sat and prayed, thinking how many prayers have ascended from the spot where I sat over the centuries was comforting to me, but also realizing how sad it is when people do not make a place in their lives for the practice of faith.
On the last leg of our trip to Nice we sat with and visited with a woman, Constanza, who was truly delightful. She was on her way to a retreat for a week with an Indian mystic. After talking with her -- I earned to ask if she had an exposure to Christianity, but I am not forward in the way that many evangelicals are --- I would not have invaded her privacy by asking when we only were going to have this one conversation.....but clearly.....the church has failed here....to capture...I wonder if that is happening in our country. How long did it take for the church to become irrelevant in Europe?
We spent a good deal of time trying to orient ourselves -- as Kathy said, it is always amazing when you come back to the same spot how different it can look. We spent a lot of time trying to find the way that she had used to get around the last time she was hear just a couple of years ago. She succeeded and we even found the restaurant where she had dinner last time. We ate nearby this time. I had the melon and ham salad (this doesn't do it justice --- I took a picture of it it was so large and beautiful....she had a chicken and rice dish that looked very good and she had the tomato and mozzarella salad. I had a dessert ---I don't know what it was called but it was fabulous --- sort of a caramel custard with merangue and cream....yum!! Then we found the same road we cam in on and were up in no time to the tram station and back at our hotel in good order. After a shower --- bed was most welcome.
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