Day 6 – January 10, 2012 – Nice, Eze medieval town, and the French Riviera

           Today we went on a walk to the market in the old town of Nice.  There were fresh fruits and vegetables and beautiful bouquets of flowers.  We went on a walk along the Promenade, which is basically a concrete boardwalk beside the beach by the Mediterranean Sea.  We met up with our tour group at 11am and went on a day tour to Eze, which was a cute medieval town similar to St. Paul de Vence that we saw yesterday but it was older.  On the way to Eze we passed by Elton John's villa at the very top of the hill overlooking the entire city of Nice and the Mediterranean Sea.  In order to get to Eze we had to go along narrow winding roads on the hillside overlooking Nice and the Mediterranean Sea.  There were some points where I thought our large coach bus wouldn’t make certain turns but our bus driver came through and we all applauded.  When we got to Eze we had to walk up many steps to the medieval village within stonewalls.  The village itself was very hilly with many stone steps within it.  There were cute shops in it but most of them weren’t open.  At the top of the village was a large garden with many different types of cacti and plants.  The view from the top was of the Mediterranean Sea and hills with villas on the side of them.  It was very spectacular.

            After we walked around the village and saw the cemetery, gardens, church, and narrow walkways throughout it, we walked back down all the steps to the restaurant nearby for our 4 course lunch.  I had salad that is special from Nice, veal with French fries and green beans, cheese, and then chocolate mousse.  It was very tasty with a man playing traditional songs on an accordion at the same time that we sang along to.  My table was right beside the window and we had a view of the medieval village of Eze at the top of a hill, the Mediterranean Sea in the distance, and the valleys with villas on them far below – gorgeous.  We then came back to the hotel in Nice and enjoyed the beautiful view from the bus on the way.  My mom and I then shopped around the nearby pedestrian streets in the cute little shops.  After a quick rest in the hotel we then went back out to a café and tried to find crepes for dinner.  We could not find savoury crepes for dinner at all so we ended up having spaghetti instead and then coming back to the hotel for the night.