Greetings from the French Riviera! We are very happy in Nice and so glad we changed our plans. Our hotel room is spacious and stylish with functioning air conditioning, and the ocean is as beautiful as we remember. It is still very hot, but that's always more bearable at the beach!
Our arrival in Nice yesterday coincided with the Ironman France competition - a 3.8km swim in the sea, then a 180km hilly bike ride, then a full marathon. Whoa. It made getting to our hotel difficult, as most of the waterfront drive was closed for the race. However, we did get to drive right past it, which was way fun!
At one point we came up alongside a bike rider in an aerodynamic helmet pedaling faster than we were driving. As he passed by my window he smiled and stuck out his tongue, Gene Simmons style. It was awesome.
After several loops around the city, we found our hotel just in time for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. We relaxed in the A/C while that was on, then headed out to the boardwalk. There is so much to see and do here. Quite a change from the one-horse towns we've been hanging out in most of the time.
The most popular activity at the beach is, of course, sunbathing, but there are several other fun things to do also, including:
Finally we made it to the Ironman finish line, with considerably less effort than the participants. The time clock read about ten and a half hours - which is not too long after the winner finished (we later learned) at 9:34. That is a really, really, ridiculously long time to exercise in the heat. But it sure was fun watching them cross the finish line - it made us want to be more athletic. I imagine it will pass.
After all that excitement, we had a nice early dinner at a Parisian-style cafe across from the boardwalk. Based on its prime location we set our expectations low, and watched with interest as one group (French, I think) stormed out complaining about the service to the waiter, who was very frank about not giving a crap.
Shortly thereafter, two American old men next to us received their coffee and immediately called the waiter back, declaring indignantly, "we ordered an American coffee and this is not an American coffee." The waiter rolled his eyes and argued that actually, it is. He concluded by bending over to yell in the man's ear, very slowly so the simpleton could understand: "An American coffee is a BLACK COF-FEE." Ah, only in France do you get to abuse your customers the way they abuse you. The waiter was right, of course, and we don't know what the men were expecting.
Happily, despite the drama around us, we received our drinks and food amazingly quickly, the same waiter was perfectly nice to us, and our American club sandwiches were quite delicious.
We haven't done much of anything yet today, but we plan to go for a swim later this afternoon! We'll also take a day trip or two while we're here, and I hope to get caught up on the blog and some website work. We'll be here until Friday, when we head back west towards Arles.