K Pitty in the City: Nice was nice...

Okay, okay, I'm a little behind! I've been travelling to places near and far for the past 2 weeks, so I'm finally getting a chance to update my blog. Over Easter weekend, my faithful travel buddy Kristin Jones (KJ) joined me for a weekend of food, friends, and fun in Nice (pronounced like niece), which is on the French Riviera. I had been wanting to go there to take a cooking class, and was so happy that she wanted to come with me. The only problem was that I had had a killer cold the entire week before, so having no sense of taste was a bit of an issue... but that didn't stop me! :) So, this is what I arrived to:

Beautiful beaches (okay, they were rocky instead of sandy, but I'll take what I can get!)

Palm trees & blue sky

I arrived in Nice around 6:30pm, and managed to figure out the public transportation to get to our hotel. This was the lovely "full bathroom":

Gotta love the bathroom configurations in Europe - KJ and I were terrified of sitting on this toilet, because it didn't exactly feel bolted to the floor! Puts a new meaning to the word "PortaPotty"!

KJ came in on a later flight, so I took some time to explore the city on my own. I enjoyed a lovely beach-front dinner that night, and then made my way back to the hotel just in time to help KJ find it. :) We went to bed pretty early that night, as we were both exhausted (KJ from the late flight and me from the cold I was fighting.)

Saturday, we got up early and met Rosa Jackson, the woman who would be teaching us our cooking class. Shopping at fresh markets is a big part of the culture in Nice, so we started out with an overview of the market, where we learned how to pick out things like vegetables, oils, spices, and chickens (they actually leave the claws on in Nice to prove that a chicken was free-range or not! Yikes!). We then went back to Rosa's home to prepare an appetizer (onion tart), side dish (wine-marinated artichokes), main course, (salt-encrusted lamb shank) and dessert (lemon souflee), along with sampling wine and cheese along the way. It was truly a lovely day, and, despite not being able to taste anything that I prepared, I really enjoyed it. :)

Different types of olives - samples were free!

Our lovely instructor, Rosa, wrapping the lamb in a salt bread crust - sounds yummy, but with a proportion of salt:flour as 1:1, you don't want to eat this!

KP making the onion tart

The finished product - yum city!!!

The next day was Easter, so KJ and I wanted to go to church. There is a pretty famous Russian Orthodox church in Nice, so we decided to go there. Now, half the service was in Russian and half was in French, so, all in all, I understood about 0%. We weren't even sure if it was the Easter service, because we think that the Russian Orthodox church is on a slightly different calendar. Oh well, it was a beautiful service and we enjoyed getting to experience something different. :)

The Russian Orthodox Church

Our Easter lunch was topped off with some gelato (which is kind of an Italian thing, but Nice actually used to be an Italian provence, so often times I felt like I was surrounded by French people but visiting Italy - mind trip!).

KJ with her gelato

After lunch, we took a 45 minute bus ride to get to Monte Carlo, or Monaco, as the Frenchies call it. :) It was beautiful that day - no need for winter coats. The big features of Monaco (which is in fact it's own country) are the yachts and the casino... we visited both. I think there is some special kind of tax shelter for living there, so there are all kinds of ridiculously weathy folks. I managed to win a net profit of 2 euros and 30 cents at the casino, and decided to quit while I was ahead. KJ didn't fare as well (but don't worry folks, we only started with 5 euros each!).

Monaco Casino

Yes, this yacht is equipped with a helicopter pad. Rough life!

Monday, KJ had an early flight, while mine wasn't until 6:00pm, so I was on my own for the last day. It was the best day weather-wise by far, so I spent a good portion of it enjoying the outdoors. I ran for the first time in a week (darn cold!), and then walked all the way to the Chagall Museum, which houses a lot of his famous works. It was breath-taking to see the stain-glass windows that he had designed and some of this other works. I've really learned to enjoy this kind of thing... After the museum, well... all of the shops have their spring lines in now, and I couldn't resist. I bought a bunch of new "euro" clothes, so I could try to fit in here, and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the beach. A terrific end to a terrific trip! :)