Up this morning and decision has been made to go to Grasse, a mountain town that is famous for perfume. We think that our pass on Andres phone will get us there, and from the first clock in we are not certain how long we will have before we need to arrive at destination, so we wait it out at the apartment as long as possible before we start our adventure. Stop 1, walk about 2 minutes to get to the tram that will take us to the bus stop to grab the bus. All goes well until the tram stops part way along and announcement is made that someone has fallen on the tram in front of us. We are stopped. Does this mean someone fell on the tracks, someone fell getting off the tram? We will never know. About 10 minutes later we were on our way again, no sign of dead bodies or ambulances, so who knows. Get off at the right spot, but no idea where to get the bus. Ask as bus driver and they say it is on the other side of the tracks, Andre sees a bus office, goes in there and they are not even sure where the bus goes from, finally find a sign with bus 650 number on it, we have found our way. Get on the bus, our pass does not work except for municipal busses, so we have to pay. We bought that card the other day and find out that gives us 30% off, so for a grand total of 3.00 Euro the two of us take the bus from Nice to Grasse, about 40KM. It was a little over 1 hour on the bus, just enough time for a little nap and to see a bit of nice scenery.
Arrive at the bus station in Grasse, tourist info has moved, follow along to the new tourist info, it is closed for the season, but another tourist info location is given. No idea why they didn't point us to this tourist info spot in the first place, it was a very nice office with lots of great info. There are brass decal things on the pavement for a walking tour which we followed, kind of like the one we did in Boston.
We spent most of our time in the old town, which was very pretty. Lots of pedestrian streets and tiny alley ways. Went for a tour of a perfume factory, I now know more about perfume than I ever thought
I would, or will ever need to know. It was an interesting tour, but we will not be going back here with Joey, she can go on her own if she wants to.
Stop for a delicious chapati sandwich, interesting bread with an omelet and cheese inside, total 4.00 Euro and it was plenty big to split. First time we have seen affordable ice cream or gelato this trip, and both places were closed! Very unhappy Andre.
Spent the rest of our time in Grasse just enjoying the views towards Cannes at different lookouts and exploring the tiny streets. Decided to get the 2PM bus back to Nice. Debated on taking the train back, but Grasse is at the top of a hill, train is at the bottom of the hill, a bit of a walk away and we hadn't had a lot of luck with the GPS today so who knows where we would have ended up.
Uneventful train ride back to Nice. Another nap had by both of us. Saw lots of beautiful Mimosa trees in bloom, I will pick up some flowers from the market soon, they are so pretty and we are here for the perfect time of year for them. One thing we did learn, when you exit a bus here you call out Merci and Au Revoir to the bus driver. Nearly everyone does this, we love this tradition and are doing it now too.
Took the tram one stop past our apartment to pick up some rotisserie chicken for dinner. Holy crap, the streets are so busy with people. Not sure if it is like this every weekend or because of carnival, but what a difference. Got to the butcher shop where we have seen beautiful rotisserie chicken, all gone, not surprised with all the people here. Walk by a place that is selling take away pizza for 10Euro, choice of about 15 different pizzas, all the same price, supper is done, take away pizza it is. It was delicious and fairly big, will do again.
Home for about 2 hours, then head out again to the Opera House. If you are dressed in costume tonight you get into the carnival ball at the Opera House. Unfortunately we didn't bring our gowns and tuxes and masks, so we just go for the pictures. Some of the costumes were amazing. We just staying to walk through the line up of people waiting to get it.
Walked around to the shore and then back towards home. Lots and lots of barriers up now as the carnival parades start tomorrow. Haven't quite figures out which streets we will actually be able to walk on. This is the first night we see lights up on the buildings by the ferris wheel. We heard about this yesterday on our tour, these apartments must leave their shutters open during festivals or they are fined. These apartments must cost big bucks, some definitely do not care about the fines.
Plans for tomorrow have changed a couple of times. Final decision made and we will walk along the Promenade des Anglais to the castle hill (that has no castle) and then to the port. It is supposed to be another nice day here. Interesting fact we found out on our tour yesterday, Nice is a pebbly beach now, but it is actually a sandy beach that they have to keep adding pebbles to. The pebbles were added years ago to stop sand from flying up on the people walking the Promenade des Anglais in the winter when it is blowing. Also we hear lots about the English moving here, English money etc. English does not mean people from England, it is anyone that it not French, could be England, Germany, Italian etc.
On the bus after taking the tram.
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