Ola amigos, I hope this finds you well. We're in good health but maybe a little chubbier after our trip to the south of France
After waiting to get through tax season, in both the U.S. and in Portugal, we were finally able to start traveling once again and chose to visit Nice, France where we could enjoy some warmer weather. It was a fantastic trip and Nick's first time in the Côte d' Azur, which he's fallen in love with. The most beautiful Airbnb studio apartment (huge for a studio) was our base for the trip and was in walking distance to most of the popular areas of Nice, including Old Town, the Port of Nice and Place Massena, as well as the train station.
I could literally just post photos just of this place! But I digress. We spent the next few days walking everywhere and enjoying the sights. Just down the street from us was the Port of Nice. As we wandered along the waterfront, I saw from a distance what looked like a mass of dead bodies but, as I got closer, I realized it was just a bunch of young people taking a nap, literally on top of one another.
A boat tour took us to Villefranche-sur-Mer, where the water is a deep clear blue, because, we were told, it's without pollution. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and get a glimpse of the surrounding area, including Elton John's hilltop summer home.
Our daily explorations took us more than once to Old Town, a very popular area with winding little streets filled with restaurants and shops which eventually lead to the big open-air produce and flower market. Tuesdays through Sundays it is bustling with people, tourists and locals alike. On Mondays, the produce and flower vendors disappear to be replaced with the Antique and Flea market vendors, which I had high hopes for, but sadly, found disappointing ... far too much used designer wear and none of the cool French enamel ware that I had hoped to find. The beach in Nice is very rocky, which I recall from my first visit there in 1994, yet there were plenty of people out sunbathing, regardless. A French woman we chatted with on the bus one day told us that the nicer beach is in Villefranche-sur-Mer so we headed there one day only to find that the beach there is also rocky, they are just smaller rocks, so maybe more comfortable to lay on? We didn't try. Another day, we took a nine minute train ride to Eze sur Mer, which has the biggest rocks on the beach, so big in fact, that they are hard to even walk on, however the water felt amazing and would have been lovely to swim in. From the beach in Eze, you can either hike up the steep stairway (an hour+) to Eze Village or, take an 8 minute bus ride, instead. Guess which option we chose?
The only beach with sand that we encountered was in Cannes, but on the day we visited it was a very cold and windy, definitely not a beach day. I had a different recollection of Cannes from my visit there in 1994, a town without a lot of glitz and expensive stores. Now the beachfront and some surrounding streets are wall to wall high-end luxury stores, some with guards out front and some requiring a clerk to buzz you in. I found it hard to get excited about and definitely hard to relate to.
Back in Nice, we took an afternoon bus ride up in the hills through beautiful neighborhoods to visit the Matisse Museum. Checking out the beautiful homes along the bus route was almost as fun as touring the museum. Nice is a very pretty and colorful town and definitely worth a visit. It's one of those places that we'll definitely revisit one day. Italian restaurants are abundant, and we heard lots of Italian spoken everywhere we went, which really caught Nick's attention. Now, rather than trying to learn some French, he's focusing on improving his Italian language skills because you can definitely get by with that in France, while no one understands Portuguese there. I tried to learn some French before our trip but found that I spontaneously spoke Portuguese. I managed to remember to say "Bonjour" but beyond that, my brain couldn't switch out of Portuguese. 😬
On our final day, we took a bus up the hill to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to visit the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild estate. Built by Béatrice de Rothschild during the Belle Epoque, between 1907 - 1912, it's a pink seaside villa with nine themed gardens. The grounds are gorgeous, but even more gorgeous are the views. Béatrice picked a prime piece of land to build her winter home, and the furnishings and art are amazing. Even the ceilings in the downstairs are masterpieces. I posted more photos from there on Instagram, if you are interested.
One thing we definitely noticed on this trip was that everything was more expensive there than in Portugal. For instance, we had to take a couple of Uber rides and honestly, they were 3x+ more expensive than what we pay here. Groceries were definitely more expensive as was dining out. I'm afraid we've been spoiled here, especially when it comes to ordering a glass of wine. Here in Porto we might pay 3-4 euros for a glass of wine in a restaurant, while a glass of wine there was typically 9+ euros, and ... we definitely prefer to drink Portuguese wine. 🍷🥴 We did enjoy some Socca while there, which is a traditional bread from Nice that is gluten-free and made with chickpea flour, olive oil, water and salt. I had actually forgotten about Socca until we started noticing restaurants prominently advertising it on their storefronts. It's actually something I used to make at home, so I'll be purchasing the right kind of pan to start making it again.
On the news front here in Portugal, a few days ago we learned that the new President has signed into law the new nationality bill (heavily pushed by none other than Chega, the far-right extremist party) changing the citizenship timeline from 5 years to 10 years, with no grandfathering for folks like us, who came here on D7 visas with the understanding that we could apply for citizenship after fulfilling 5 years of residency. We'll soon be in our fourth year of residency, which is hard to believe, but for us, we're going to have to mull it over for a while before reacting to the change. Our NHR status (non- habitual resident) which guarantees us a low tax rate for the first 10 years, will end in 6 years, at which time we'll be under the same higher tax laws as the Portuguese. Something to chew on but not causing us to make any kind of decision for now.
We're home for now but will take off on June 1st for Copenhagen where we'll be meeting up with daughter Erinn and our two grandkids, Zoe and Owen. Our plans include a week in Copenhagen followed by a week in Amsterdam. Hopefully, none of our flights will get cancelled due to a fuel shortage (thanks to the insane war that no one wanted). Fingers crossed.
Stay well and safe.
Adeus, abraços e beijos.
MaryLou