We left yesterday from Solomons and drove up to Newark, NJ for a flight to Nice via Montreal. It was pretty uneventful except for the usual lively discussions about my driving and her navigating. Newark's a great place to fly out of, it's easy to get to, not very crowded, has good connections, and less expensive flights than most other airports . We got through TSA precheck in 2 minutes, had an awful lunch before catching the flight to Montreal, which by-the-way is a beautiful airport. I wish we could have spent more time there, although we did manage to squeeze in enough time for a quick glass of wine. The flight from Montreal to Nice was half full, or half empty depending which one of us you are talking to. Sylvia managed to find three center aisle seats that were perfect for sleeping. I spent the 7 hour overnight flight sitting up watching the first half of 4 or 5 terrible movies, and playing games. I should know better. We landed at 8 in the morning and I was whipped. We took the bus to the Hotel Massena, which of course didn't have our room ready. So we left our bags there and walked around town for the next four hours and got re-acquainted with Nice. What a great place Nice is, fantastic markets, foods, and sights. There's so much activity that it's hard not to be excited.
We finally checked in around 2 o'clock, unpacked and went right out again. By this time I was exhausted and I knew if I stayed in the room I would fall asleep and be out of sync for the rest of the trip. We had just started to walk the Promenade des Anglais (where the guy ran over and killed 86 people in August) when it began to drizzle. Surprise, we magically found a bistro just as it began to pour. We suffered through two hours waiting there for the rain to stop. It wasn't so bad though, the wine was both good and inexpensive. By now I was getting real tired and all I wanted to do was get something to eat then go back to the hotel and sleep. However, it was only 6 o'clock and to early for most restaurants to start serving dinner. After some lively discussions, we stumbled across a restaurant that I saw written up called Peixes. It's a smallish bistro that specializes in raw fish. Luckily they were willing to serve us an early dinner. What a find! We ordered two appetizers: a ceviche of fish, squid, prawns, mussels, etc. with a white bean puree, and a salmon tartare with fennel cream and a granny smith apple. Of course a bottle of wine too. The ceviche was by far the best ceviche I ever had, absolutely fantastic: spicy, lemony, super fresh, terrific . These alone would have been enough, but they were so good that I had to try more. So we ordered grilled smoked sea bass and an order of fried anchovies. Both were unbelievable. I would be willing to eat there twice a day for the rest of our stay in Nice, but there's so many other great restaurants. But I've got to get back to Peixes at least one more time. I crashed at the hotel by 8...finally. What a wimp.
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| Porchetta - Roasted pig stuffed with meat, herbs, garlic |
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| Ceviche and Salmon Tartare |
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