Maggi and I rose around 8 am, which meant a solid 8 hours sleep for me. We had our breakfast and Jane and Ray arrived around 9:30. This gave us time to shower, dress and all the other morning necessities.
I keep noticing Ray taking what seems like more than a normal share of the breakfast food. Today he poured out a whole load of walnuts on to his plate, he covered his bread in very thick spread of butter and then covered that in both marmalade and plum jam. Of course he didn’t help clear anything from the table except his coffee cup. On the other hand Jane did more than her share.
In Nice we had arranged to meet Mad and Tom at the Acchiardo Restaurant at 1 pm. Before then we had wandered through the Cours Saleya browsing the bric a brac on the stalls.
I have always liked ambling through markets, but rarely inspired to buy. I don’t have the patience to sift through the junk to find the gem.
We arrived at our destination restaurant at 1 pm. The maitre d’ found Madeleine’s reservation for 1 pm and we waited. By quarter past one we began to wonder if Tom had a problem, given his forthcoming heart surgery.
They entered the restaurant at 1:25 pm saying I thought I had arranged to meet you at 1:30. How weird when she had booked for 1 and subsequently told Maggi to meet at 1.
Any we had a nice meal. I had smoked tuna, a very large tasty starter. Had I known the size of the plate I would have shared, but we all made the same mistake. I chose the veal liver as my main course and we all shared chips and green beans as an accompaniment. All very good and topped off with a cup of noisette.
We left Acchiardo, said goodbye to Mads and Tom and walked the short distance to the Hotel Suise. Here sits a plaque declaring James Joyce began his unreadable Finnegan’s Wake during a short stay at the hotel.
The wind had whipped up the sea made the flags of the promenade flap madly as Jane and Ray took the lift up towards the gardens above the promenade. Maggi and I stayed at the bottom and waited for their return.
When we reunited we walked back to the car stopping at the Dominican Church for a quick photo before descending to the depths of the car park.
One more stop before we reached La Colle. A quick visit to Grand Frais where we picked up a few provisions for this evening and maybe tomorrow.
