Stories of a Vagabond: Wednesday in Nice

April 30, 2010
11:16
Nice, France - Munich, Germany

Wednesday (the 28th) started off with a bang. Jessica and I thought it would be nice to see the open-air flower market that's there every day until 13:00 in the Cour Saleya, so we got up early again and hit the street after a light breakfast. The market was lovely, everyone seemed friendly, and Jessica and I both bought a baguette and fromage for later munching on. Jessica also got some fresh strawberries and a few other foodstuffs. I liked to just take pictures.

After we had our fill of the market we hopped a bus with the plan to get off at nearby Villefranch Sur Mer and later see Beaulieu Sur Mer. These two towns are both very ritzy towns on the French Riviera between Nice and Monaco with picturesque views and lots of millionaires. We missed the bus stop for Villefranch, so I got off first at Beaulieu and hit Villefranch on the way back. Jessica wanted to continue on the bus to Monaco so we once again parted ways.

For those of you familiar with Steve Martin movies, one of my favorites of all time, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, takes place in a ritzy French Riviera town. The picture was filmed largely on location in the town of Beaulieu Sur Mer (which they changed the name of in the movie to Beaumont Sur Mer). This movie is one of the primary reasons I wanted to see this little town. It didn't have much in the way of tourist attractions (except, of course, for the vista), but I walked around pretending to be Lawrence Jameson (the lead character in the movie--portrayed by Michael Caine), and had a lovely time at it. Below are all of Beaulieu

Me, getting my feet wet in the Mediterranean at Beaulieu Sur Mer

After I was done playing millionaire, I hopped back on the bus, checked out Villefranch breifly, then headed back to Nice. It was only about 15:00 by then so I hit the Massena Museum (which was lovely, though all in French so I wasn't 100% sure what it was all about).