Nice is nice

Judy. Remember Mikaela, the young Swedish woman who stayed with us in Atlanta, and with whom we met up in Auckland, New Zealand?  Quite an intrepid young woman, who

Mikaela leaving  Cape Town

subsequently got a job on a sailboat, theTenacious, sailing from Australia to New Zealand. She wound up in South Africa (where we were able to virtually introduce her to some friends there), crewing the same ship from South Africa to Antigua. Yeah. Pretty amazing woman., and absolutely fearless.
 Well, back in Atlanta, Mikaela insisted that we needed to meet her parents, who also share a love of travel, and who live half of the year in Nice.  Lo and behold, when we told her we were in Provence for a month, we got an invitation from her folks to visit them in Nice. You know we’re all about people, and anyone who raised that young woman must be amazing. So who were we to say no? Besides, Nice is supposed to be really nice (sorry—couldn’t resist), sunshiny and warm.

Last week we boarded a bus in the pouring rain and rode the 2½ hours to Nice, where Malou and Björn greeted us with hugs and umbrellas—and a car. 

View of the Mediterranean

They drove us to their lovely apartment overlooking the port and prepared a traditional Nicoise lunch of lentils, sausages, and soft-boiled eggs, accompanied by a light rosé wine. The view is to die for. Rain or no, we were hooked.

After lunch and getting-to-know-you conversation, the rain had stopped, so they handed us umbrellas and started a tour of the Old Town in the city they’ve grown to love.  

Boats at the port

As you know, we always prefer to see a city through the eyes of residents, and Björn and Malou brought the town to life, despite the gray day. As we ventured past the port to the top of the cliff where the original city stood, then down through the streets of the old city and along the Mediterranean, they both peppered their tour with historical and recent stories. They pointed out where Napoleon Bonaparte stayed, the recreation of the huge plaza, the raised walkway where the English could see the sea without getting sand in their shoes or 

View from the cliff

Beautiful colored buildings

 clothes. A frightening story was about being on the seaside on the 14 July terrorist attack, seeing people screaming and running their way, then hearing the shots as they headed for home.

Place Masséna

Because of the low clouds, we couldn’t quite see the snow-capped Alps behind the city, a sight I really missed. Then the rain started again and we headed back to their place, where we warmed ourselves with champagne and snacks. We felt as though we had known Malou and Björn for years, it was so comfortable being with them.

Dinner was another local delight-confit de canard with red onion, along with broccoli mousse and carrots with curry, and a Languedoc wine.  These people KNOW us!

The next day the wind and rain were out in full force, so armed with umbrellas and a car, we headed to the Museé Matisse—which was closed! Seems that one has to walk through Matisse’s garden in order to reach his house, which is the museum, and there was fear that the high winds might break off tree branches and hurt patrons on their way in. Sigh. We did get to see the Roman arena next door.

Matisse home--from afar

So we decided to head to lunch early. Björn stopped to give us a view of Cap Ferrat and the Mediterranean—a really inspiring view! By the time we detoured around the small landslides caused by the rain, we arrived at the restaurant almost on time.

And, ah, the restaurant! Au Rondez-vous des Amis—could there be a more perfect name for a place to have lunch with our new friends? It’s a small auberge in the mountains, cozy and charming, and my first Guide Michelin “Bib Gourmand” restaurant. It’s one of Malou and Björn’s favorite places, and it’s easy to see why. The food was tasty and local and served beautifully, with the servers giving us plenty of leeway to sit and chat as long as we wanted. Two hours. Two hours and a meal with our friends I will not soon forget.

Cozy dining

With the Matisse Museum closed, we decided to try the Museé Chagall, which was packed with the students and patrons who were turned away from Matisse. But the museum, designed by Chagall himself, is well laid out, so we seldom felt too crowded. (Besides, most of the students sat on benches and checked their cellphones.)

Song of Songs series

Stained glass window

Chagall is another of my favorite artists, so I was in heaven for the next couple of hours, ogling his fantasy world peeking from his main subjects. There was a room with his Biblical series, another with his Prophet series, still others of circuses, the Song of Songs series, stained glass windows, mosaics and more, each with his signature symbols recalling his wife and his home village. Good art, Ted often tells me, should provide more questions than answers, and Chagall certainly does that.

All too soon it was time to leave to catch our bus back to Aix. The bus station doesn’t have much of a waiting room, so Malou and Björn sat with us in their car, finishing up conversations and starting new ones to be finished later. Their travels have inspired us, so we’re now considering a couple of new countries we’d not thought about visiting. We have new wines to explore, and Malou has me interested in trying some new art techniques. As we left, we agreed that Mikaela did well in introducing us, and that another meeting is definitely in the cards.

The selfie we sent Mikaela