Nice Day Three

We had thoughts of taking the bus along the coast, either to Antibes, Cannes or Monaco. This idea appealed to me because it meant no walking. But we decided that Nice is so pleasant to hang out in - no need to go anywhere else.

But we hopped on a bus which got us nearer the Old Town. We're beginning to recognise places - JR has a very good sense of direction, but I haven't a clue.

We arrived to find the market in full swing, where they seemed to be selling toddlers as well as pumpkins. We found a really good cafe and grabbed a couple of prime people-watching seats on the pavement. So many posh looking older ladies with tiny wee dogs. And two in a pram (the dogs).

A delicious breakfast of pancakes for me and French toast for JR. Coffee in those nice but impractical cups with no handles. The girl next to us had a humungous plateful called the 'Elvis breakfast', and she finished it all.

Thus fortified, we wandered some more, and came back to the square by the cathedral. Yes, the wee lady juggling with two balls was still there. Actually, she was throwing one ball up and catching it, then throwing the other one up and catching it. Technically, not juggling. But we'd given her the benefit of the doubt and a few euros yesterday.

We headed for the gardens and spent ages there. The first part is full of the most wonderful huge wooden structures for kids to climb about on. Ships, castles, slides and ropes. We stayed there for ages.

Further on we came to the water fountains - what fun that was. We sat for ages watching the daft folk walking around taking photos and the fountains would suddenly spurt. But the best shot would have been the wee fox terrier who went totally berserk at each fountain, but he was away on the other side.

The wee old lady next to us on the bench had an elaborate picnic, setting out a checkered cloth on her lap, her bottle of wine (possibly water) was in a cooler bag, she tucked into pasta, then yoghurt and grapes, then took out a toothbrush and toothpaste, cleaned her teeth and popped everything back into her large backpack, and trotted off. But we weren't jealous - we had a flan, my absolute favourite when in France.

We've just been out to the 'hippest wine bar in Nice', Tribeca, which just happens to be round the corner from our hotel. We had quite an expensive wine (they all were) but it came with very lovely nibbles. Despite the fact that we were not, er, the target customers, the staff were very friendly, and the owner chatted to us about NZ wine.

We left as the real trendies started to arrive.

Last day tomorrow.