France's 5th biggest city may be our favorite of ALL France's cities! There's something so inviting about this lovely, almost Italian, French city. At the end of June, we met our Swiss friends Hans & Ruth for a weekend there, & we all revelled in Nice's attractions: the weather, the Mediterranean so beautifully presented along the Promenade des Anglais, the cafes, the market, the old port, the super food.

The only bad memory we have of Nice is from many years ago, when I was woken by a noise in the middle of the night. I looked out onto our terrace, with the door open to the moonlight & the sea, to see a hooded man in black pulling himself up onto our terrace. Yikes! Thankfully, the minute he heard me yelling at him, he slipped back down from where he came. We alerted the hotel staff, of course, to find out that he'd probably been hiding in the hilltop park behind us, just waiting for some stupid tourist to leave their balcony door open!

Because Ruth had never been there, & Hans' last visit was 40 years ago, we tried to show them a little bit of everything. We started with the Promenade des Anglais, where EuroFoot had a huge presence. See our album called "Nice!" for pictures of how many soccer based outdoor games you can create. And of course there are pictures of the old port as well as the market, & lots of food.

Saturday found us at another favorite spot, the Colombe d"or, a restaurant in Vence, high above Nice. My first experience there was in 1968, when I was a student studying in Avignon. When I told a staff member how impressed I was that it hadn't changed since I'd been there in 1968, he smiled & said "Madame, I wasn't BORN in 1968!" I have no memory of how I got there, or how I paid for my delicious meal, but I will always remember it. Les & I have returned several times, & it's amazing how they've managed to maintain the simple WONDER of it. It started out as a sort of retreat for painters, so you can visit the "art gallery" indoors after you've had an incredible Provencal meal served by a caring & engaging staff. See our album titled "La Colombe d'Or" to get an idea of this special place.

From there, we went on to Les Collettes, Renoir's home & studio. This too hasn't changed since our last visit, but we'd seen a film in 2013 & wanted to compare the footage to the real thing. As usual, we learned a few new things about this painter. He, like Matisse & a few others in his group, didn't let health stop him from painting. He just kept on going, with a brush strapped to his arthrytic hands.

Grasse, the perfume city, was next. And then on to Antibes, a lovely town on the Mediterranean. And the next morning we visited both the Musee Matisse & the Musee National de Chagall, both on Cimiez hill. Chagall's "Biblical Message" series & the Song of Songs series, as well as a few other works, were fascinating. Here's a painter who painted his old life as well as his new life--many times in the same painting! I discovered his "binary universe" & his "syncretism" upon further study. If you are interested in a painter who survived the Russian revolution, then the Nazi persecution, emigrated to France (after WWI) & fled to America (during WWII), then came back & was still POSITIVE about humanity, check out our picture album titled "The Universe of Chagall".

All in all a super weekend, but with a funny story at the end of it. About an hour out of Nice, we stopped for gas & lunch at what Americans call an oasis. Les pumped the gas, we went inside, had a nice lunch, & left. About 30 minutes later, we realized we hadn't paid for the gas. We stopped at the next oasis to ask what to do. They were so kind--didn't laugh at us, tried finding a number to call, then directed us to the next exit, where there is a gendarmerie. They said the police would sort us out. The strange thing is that we had no idea where we'd been (Les had already thrown out the lunch receipt), but Les, the numbers guy, remembered we'd used pump 6, the amount was 28 litres, & the price was around 38 euros.

So on we went, & we did stop at the gendarmerie, where a most polite & engaging man tracked down a colleague of his in the jurisdiction where we'd been. The police were looking for someone who'd not paid, but it wasn't US, it was somebody else. (I guess we're not the only people who do this!). But we got the gas station's phone number, & our gendarme called them. We supplied our license plate number, our car (Peugeot 3008), & our details, & were given the address & the exact amount to write a check to pay for our gas.

Evidently, by doing what we did, we avoided a police stop as well as a fine. Whew.

We hope your summer is going well, & that you are enjoying it, wherever you are. And don't forget to pay for your gasoline!

Thanks for checking in!

Elise & Les