Il fait gris

Did really well yesterday,up by 8.30 and raring to go! But not into the torrential rain that awaited us. So decided to wait out the rain and, meanwhile, have breakfast - perfectly cooked poached egg on toast.

Then we waited, and waited, and.........well, you get the picture. Eventually, we got out of the apartment by about 11.30 (could have had our usual late arising anyway!)

Set out for Avenue Jean Medecin, one of the main shopping streets and also on the new tram route (according to the local press, Nice Matin, it is scheduled to become totally pedestrianised soon - try doing that in the UK!). It also home to the Nice branch of FNAC, a french version of Virgin Megastores (who also have a branch on Jean Medecin). Confused? Suffice to say, we found nearly €80 worth of "stuff" to purchase - collected works of Marcel Pagnol (author of Jean de Florette); another book by some French person; a cd by Jacques Brel (joy!) and, la piece de resistance, a double dvd of Jacques Brel in concert!!! Carol is very happy - so happy she's going to let me do all the cooking!

Then off to the Ligne d'Azur office to buy our bus passes - unlimited travel on bus or tram throughout the Cote d'Azur region (Cannes in the west, Italy in the east and Grasse to the north) for 1 week for €15 each. We do love a bargain!

Then walked a little along he Promenade des Anglais as far as the Quai Etats-Unis when it was time to look at aprons before having a beer. At €9.80 for a pint of Stella and a half of shandy (panache), I think we'll stick to happy hour.

Then back to montee Desambrois, on the bus, for rest and dinner (ravioli and ratatouille (?)) before returning for happy hour. People watching and speculating what it would be like to live here took a while (but very enjoyably) then it was back to the apartment to watch a history of the French army in the original french (2 hours altogether!). We know how to enjoy ourselves!!

Then, at aout 10, the batteries ran flat (ours, not the telly) and it was off to sleep, with the alarm set for 8 as it's meant to be nice in the morning (and crap in the afternoon!)

P.S> the ratatouille did work with ravioli!