Oh Very Nice (“but maybe in the next world”)
What a gorgeous day. What an insanely beautiful day. What a nice day. I set out for a coastal walk. Where the rich look down on you View looking east from the path at Cap d’Ail 100% I would have…
Not Nice
This morning I took an early commuter train to Menton, which sits on the Italian border and, architecturally, seems much more like northern Italy than southern France. The plan was to visit the Jean Cocteau museum, then spend some time…
Nice Work
Because France. The cover photo is Entrevaux; a medieval city in the Alps with a citadel that I did not go to or take a picture of. Sigh. Because France. A day like that. You know? Today I scheduled the Train de…
Nice Going
I like Nice; you can take a bus to Monaco. Leaves a few more euros in the pocket for the baccarat table. In keeping with that spirit I took the tram to Port Lympia then hopped on a #15 bus…
Nice Day
Headed to the eastern fringes of Nice today. Passed a spectacular bakery and hit real estate agents advertising villas where the elite, meet. Check out that mirror glaze. Yowza. And hey, anyone in for a 39 Euro fig tart? Let…
Nice Job
Fall colours. Could be Vermont in October. No, wait, Cote d’Azur on the cusp of Halloween. Go figure. Flight over was perhaps the best ever YVR to Europe; smooth boarding through two skybridges, boarded early, departed early, really efficient…
Without Historical Intent or the Ambition of Exhausting Reality
I read that ludicrous line, “without historical intent…” on a museum explanatory sheet today, about a curator. It’s not that I don’t care about modern art, it’s that I don’t care… Plus, look at that turbine above. That’s some historical…
Natural Wine Disaster
After breakfast we walked uphill past the National Pantheon (which house’s Portugal’s “major historical celebrities” I kid you not, that’s what it is, not a place of worship, and that’s the language used to describe it) to a Saturday market…
All the Styles
A beautiful warm morning in Lisbon. Friday in mid-November so all the tourists are off to the Pena Palace. Why not join them? After breakfast we headed off to Sintra; we walked to the Rossio station where we caught a…
One Room Bright and Neat
We said goodbye to Porto shortly after breakfast. We took a taxi to the train station, about 15 minutes drive, then caught the “express” to Lisbon; three hours centre to centre, a few stops, hit 220 km/h a couple of…