Nice and the French Riviera

Today it is windy as hell outside. The remains of the tropical storm Katja has now crossed the Atlantic ocean and reached Sweden. It was a real struggle for me to bike against the hard wind this morning to work. Today it feels like fall has arrived with a sudden strenght and force. I was looking through my picture folders yesterday and realized I still have some things from our vacation in France left to share.

Today I would like to take you a long to Nice and the French Riviera. This is one of those classical weekend and city destinations in Europe. Nice probably draws tourists spring, summer and fall for the most part. Spring and fall are mild and nice. Summer is hot but then there is the beach rich outside the city which you can easily reach by fot. When we were here in the beginning of August there were a lot of tourists here. Actually there were a lot of Swedes here. I think I heard people speaking in Swedish on every other street that we passed (I was not totally thrilled about that, when on vacation outside of Sweden I want to escape the Swedes).

The blue clear ocean was refreshing. The beach here is stony rather than sandy but equally beautiful. White waves crashing against the shore and people swimming and lying in the sun.

For our last evening in France here in Nice we did not have any particular dinner plans. We had the guide book of course but none of the choices listed there really appealed to us so we decided to just walk a long the city streets and see where we ended up for dinner. We by accident stumbled upon this shop and restaurant serving Italian food. They had a few tables outside but none available when we came so we were offered to sit inside. The place seemed very popular so we decided to stay even if we were seated inside. This place turned out to be a true hidden gem! Not only was the food amazingly fantastic but by sitting inside we got quite a show of everything going on. It was actually very entertaining.

I ordered a seaside salad as a starter and I got this really super delicious salad. It looked spectacular and it tasted great. It was quite a big salad too so it could well have served as a main course.

It was really cool to sit inside and see everything that was going on. There was lot going on. People were coming in to buy things. Others were coming to eat just like us. By the counter they were preparing many of the cold dishes. Hams and cheeses were sliced and cut. Wine was poured, coffee made and the atmosphere was very lively. The air was filled with a mix of French and Italian.

Drinks and cocktails were also made and ordered here. The final garnish was done up here before the dishes were handed out. You can see the gigantic pieces of parmesan cheese. These must have weighed several kilos. The woman working and serving the cold cuts was a muscular and heavy set woman. She had no problems lifting these huge hams and pieces of cheese.

So much good stuff. I had a simple vegetarian pasta for my main dish that also was so big I could not finish it.

We did not plan on having any dessert at first. But we saw these jars that they dusted with some dark powder that arouse our curiosity. We had to ask what it was and of course it was Tiramisu dusted with a final touch of cocoa powder. I am not a super huge fan of Tiramisu but this one was just to die for! This is the best Tiramisu I have ever had. We ordered one jar to share. Man, did we scrape that jar clean! I even said to see that I wished I were a dog and had a real long tounge so that I could have liked that jar on the inside.