DAY 45 - SUN 4/14 - Fabulous First Day

Today is our first full day in the Sud. Beaulieu is a few miles east of Nice, on the way to Monaco. Getting in and out of the parking in front of the apartment, right on the Basse Corniche, is quite a challenge, with cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, and bikers speeding along, no more than 3 feet from your bumper...car or otherwise. It's best to back into a spot so you can see on-coming traffic when you pull out.

FYI, there are three main routes between Nice and Monaco...each called a 'Corniche' meaning a ledge on the side on a cliff or a mountain. They are:
1) Basse Corniche - the low coast road, at sea level along the windy hilly coast...doable.
2) Moyenne Corniche - the middle coast road, half way up the mountain, hanging over the sea...scary enough, even in the daytime.
3) Grande Corniche - the great coast road, higher up on the mountain...not good for one's health...however, by far the most fun to drive...passenger blindfolds required!!

We drive into the center of the village of Beaulieu to do a little exploring and get the lay of the land.  It's  a very upscale town, with lovely shops, people in outdoor cafes eating Hache (steak tartar - raw minced steak with condiments) in the shape of a heart...how elegant!

And then we come upon La Reserve, a fabulous 'Relais et Chateau' in the middle of town, with the back of the Hotel hanging over Le Mer...to die for!

    

Even the Staff can have a fabulous venue to eat their lunch...Al Fresco!  

(Could this be the latest Shake Shack?!)

We then follow signs to the Port and we find a perfect parking place in the midst of one of the most beautiful little marinas imaginable. It's Sunday so no worries about parking tickets. Just above the marina is a road along which is a small paved area where we find a mini flea market with antiques of the highest quality. Across the street is a cafe where we have our morning ritual of deux cafe cremes and deux croissants. 

We then descend to the marina and walk past the beautiful boats docked in the harbor. Just along this tiny street are beautiful restaurants with open air seating and umbrellas for shade. All the Hollywood stars and billionards frequent 'The African Queen,' the poshest of all the restaurants. We go to 'Le Max' just next door and have wonderful salads: Nicoise and Polpe (octopus). We sit for a while in the oh-la-la atmosphere, with yachts on one side, the beautiful people strolling to see and be seen on the other side, and every few minutes a brummm brummm of just another Ferrari driving in between showing its muscle!! We LOVE it!! We then pull ourselves away for a gelato nearby.

 

 

We then stroll further along the port and see a large playing area for Petanque, the French version of Italian Bacci, or Boules, as it is also known.

We watch for a while and then notice a huge area further along, at the edge of town, right up against the mountains and along the water's edge, with hordes of people milling around. We find out that it's a once-a-year flea market, really mostly junk, but lots of fun, and...today is the once-a-year day...we are in luck!  There are literally hundreds of make-shift booths pitched every which way, creating a carnival-like atmosphere, in what is normally a huge dusty parking lot.

We walk around, ogling at the junk that is being offered and the people that are actually buying the stuff. They seem to know about this market and come looking for real bargains. It's a 'casino' (Italian for a crazy scene). We stay for several hours, not able to pull ourselves away from the atmosphere and the people-watching. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As things are finally starting to close down at around 5pm (people have been there since 5am!), some of the vendors take their junk that didn't sell and throw it into a dumpster set up there just for that purpose. Then we couldn't believe the real 'casino' at the dumpster, with people using long sticks and actually climbing into the dumpster to get any real bargains for nothing. It was out of a movie, some people seriously collecting stuff, and others seeming to do it just for sport. But in any case, we watched that for quite a while too...we didn't have any other plans, so why not? It was a real local happening! 

 

 

We finally pulled ourselves away and started walking back to the port area where our car was parked. There was a small road down into the docks which we decided to explore...it wasn't dinner time yet so we still had time to kill. As we walked further out on the docks we saw a group of people at tables seeming to eat, so we thought it was a cafe out there. As we got closer we realized that this was a private party on the dock of about 15 people. We stopped to talk and ask them what was happening there. They are boat people, some of them living on their boats all year round in this marina. This gathering was to celebrate one of the guy's 50th birthday with friends. They were drinking wine and BBQing hot dogs on the dock, to celebrate. They offered us some wine and they couldn't have been more friendly. One lady spoke English because she had lived in the states. One lady owned a beauty salon over at the port and Marty said he needed a haircut and would probably stop in this week. Then things were breaking up there too, so we decided to be on our way.

It was such a SERENDIPITOUSLY STUPENDOUS first day down south! We were exhausted, so all we wanted was a pizza and an early night. We ended up going back to Le Max where we had lunch. The maitre d' remembered us and soon he brought us two glasses of champagne! How gentil is that! We ate and said our good-byes, and went home for an early night.