Walking Nice


Thursday, February 22, 2018  Nice

We spent the day walking Nice.  All over there are fanciful reminders of the Carnival underway.  Here are two:




We walked past the grandstands where those who buy the expensive A-level seats will sit to watch the parades:



The theme of this year’s carnival is Space, and I guess this is the King and Queen, flanking a classical-era statue:



There is an antiques area which we spent considerable time in, but bought nothing in the lovely shops.  At the foot of the street with the heaviest concentration of antique stores is the brocante section.  A brocante shop may be best translated as something between flea market and the kind of market which sells inexpensive antiques.  This market consists of more than 30 shops both indoor and overflowing to outdoor:



Again, we bought nothing.  We then walked to the large, sheltered boat basin where, in addition to rather ordinary 50-foot yachts, are rows of these gorgeous boats:




And in the ultimate iteration of “mine’s bigger than yours” was this boat, named “Quantum Blue”. 


 A little internet research reveals that it was built for a Russian, Sergey Galitskiy.  It’s 330 feet long and cost $250,000,000.  We were not invited aboard for lunch—rather we had small sandwiches on delicious baguettes, went back to the hotel and, in late afternoon, took a nap.  Jet lag is not over yet. 

Comments

  1. Rwa442February 22, 2018 at 10:43 AM

    Does French flea market stuff seem in anyway different than that in the US? Is there a culture or cultural signal?
    As you move to not buying any antiques to the yacht club, I was in anticipation of a boat purchase!

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    Replies
    1. Victor PoleshuckFebruary 22, 2018 at 12:17 PM

      It is different, as the things are French, but the feel is the same as in our clustered shops. We considered a boat purchase, but the moorings here were all reserved and we wouldn't have gone anywhere else. Of course.

      Delete
  2. LizFebruary 22, 2018 at 11:51 AM

    After all of those "... and we bought nothing" comments I was SURE you were going to by one of those adorable "little" boats. I know -- it wouldn't fit in your luggage :-) !!!

    ReplyDelete

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