Wednesday Morning in Nice

Finally, I have arrived! Priscilla welcomed me to France at the Nice Cote d’Azure International Airport at 2:30 yesterday afternoon, after a painless and seemingly short overnight flight from Dulles International via Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. All my luggage arrived with me in good form, and we were able to fit it all into Priscilla’s small Honda without too much trouble. We drove to Christiane’s apartment in the city, where I will be staying until I find an apartment, and spent the afternoon catching up with each other’s lives since we were all last together in April.

After a lovely and simple salad and baguette dinner on Christiane’s balcony, Priscilla headed home. Christiane and I sat out on her balcony over a glass of wine for awhile longer, as the sun went over the hills, but soon I was longing to get to bed. As I have written here often, I have not been sleeping well (for more than five hours a night) for a good long time, and I was hoping that my arrival here in Nice, after 8 months of planning) would mean that my mind would finally relax.

Indeed, it did. I went to bed around 8:30 p.m. and slept until 2:30 or so, drank some water and headed back to bed. I woke up again around 7 a.m., as the sun was hitting the hills across from the apartment (seen through the sliding glass door in my bedroom), but I stayed in bed (and fell back asleep again) until 8. Almost 12 hours! Excellent. I was ready for a run. I put on my new black running shorts, happy to find that they had two front pockets for my keys. On the list of things to do before I left on Monday, I finally checked out Pacers Running Store in Clarendon to buy some shorts that didn’t look as baggy on me as the ones I have been wearing for two years. I had not tried them on however, in my race to finish all the things I had to do that day. Putting on my sunglasses and a 10 Euro bill in my pocket, I headed down the hill toward the sea.

It is a brilliant day on the Riviera. The sea was shimmering in the sun, and there were many people in the water at 9 a.m. The beach was already fairly crowded – the public beach, that is. There were rows and rows of beach chairs and parasols set up on the private beach clubs along the water, but at this hour, they were empty. There were many people walking, running and biking along the Promenade des Anglais, which hugs the seaside, seemingly from the airport to the West (I’ll have to do a longer run to confirm this) to the port on the east side of the city. I headed east, toward the old port, which is where I think I’d like to live, but more on that later. It is the end of the summer here, but there were still tourists and visitors in evidence as I ran along the Promenade. I love the water, and the beach, and the sun. This week is expected to be sunny and warm, so I will definitely be heading to the beach, and planning to spend some time in the water too.

On my way back to the apartment, I stopped by the corner market to pick up a Nice-Matin newspaper (Madonna did a show in Nice last night – four pages of pictures in the newspaper!) and some water, and then found a bakery next door to buy a pain au chocolat and some croissant for breakfast. Soon I was on the balcony, with breakfast of coffee, banana and pain au chocolat, reading the morning newspaper, while looking out at the Mediterranean. Dreams do come true!

Now the reality sets in, of course, too. My morning reading matter included the local circular, with apartment advertisements. My job for the next few days will be to find a place to live. But for the moment, I am enjoying the luxury of having somewhere to stay and exhale while I become accustomed to my new surroundings.