After our three night stay in the lovely city of Barcelona we headed back to the South of France to bother our friends in Bargemon. On the last night, Barcelona won their soccer game against Madrid and the city was a cacophony of car horns, cheering, fireworks and more car horns for several hours after. It reminded me quite a bit of my time in Dusseldorf, Germany, when I had a bunch of Mexicans as my dorm mates, who would be up in the wee hours of the night causing alcohol induced havoc....
We had another two days in Bargemon, which was lazy and beautiful. So lazy that I can't be bothered editing more pictures to show you. Just imagine croissants in the morning, Nicoise salads for lunch and more bottles of rose.
However though, on our last day in France, our hosts drove with us to Nice to check out the market. Oh, I so regret not being able to spend more time here!
Hello cyclists...!
As we entered Nice, we drove by the waterside, which absolutely went on forever. It was so gorgeous. It happened to be one of those perfect days as well without a cloud in the sky, so the water glittered and danced forever into the distance. Sadly Nice doesn't really have much of a 'beach', it's kinda, road, rocks and then water. Apparently Saint Tropez is where the real sandy beaches are at....still gorgeous regardless though.
Apparently this is where Queen Victoria used to stay when she would visit Nice...
Ah, the market. Nice market was quite a colourful sight to behold, masses of people, masses of stalls, and some absolutely gorgeous looking products. I especially like the side we came in through had so many flower stalls, so bright and colourful and inviting!
Look at the white asparagus!! I died. Totally.
The above is a speciality from Provence, I can't remember exactly what it was called but they're essentially marzipan biscuits with a tiny bit of flavoured icing over the top. I loved how colourful they were and although I'm not usually the biggest fan of marzipan, I really, really, really liked these. Dense but crumbly and not overly sweet. Kind of almond-y really.
We continued from the market and walked into the old town, with it's narrow entryways and tall buildings, which were all quite colourful. You could certainly see the beachside and Italian flair expressing itself in the city.
My dad bought some 'Soca' or 'Socca' (I forget how many c's), which is apparently another local delicacy and can be bought all over the place. It's apparently a chickpea flour crepe, thicker than most crepes you come across but quite savoury and nice to nibble on.
We eventually ended up here. I can't really figure out which is the name of the restaurant, but it was quite cute and quaint. I was so tickled by how many pizza and gelateria places there were, considering we were still technically in France.
Mum's fish soup, which smelt gorgeous from my side of the table even!
I ordered the 'Salade Chvre Chaud', which came with salad, tomato, a goats cheese I think, jamon and mushrooms. Oh my goodness, the cheese was to die for, slightly warm, slightly fall apart-y, and just rich and sumptuous. Really quite delicious. Was kind of tempted to get more. Just quietly.
We also did the typical french thing and got escargots, which were quite tasty and well seasoned.
We also got frog legs, but disappointingly the meat was a bit...stringy. My parent's guess was that the legs had been frozen prior so were not as tender and dense as they should have been.
I had a bit of an obsession with windows while I was in Europe. There's just something about the old school, wooden shutters and the long rectangular shape that just appeals to me. Yeah I'm a little crazy. I knew this already!
After Nice, we bid farewell to our loveliest of hosts and hit the road again for a 4-5 hour drive to Tuscany....with a pitstop in Pisa first...
And of course some macarons I picked up at the market. Which can I say, were just perfection. They even had two macarons in that pack that were sparkly, and still delicious! Nice I hope to see you again soon....
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