And here we are at the #I Love Nice landmark!

The Promenade Des Anglais, meaning"English Walkway” is a promenade along the Mediterranean coast of Nice, It extends from the airport on the west to the Quai des États-Unis ("United States Quay") on the east, for a distance of approximately 4,35 miles.

The promenade consists of a broad walking path and a separate bike/scooter path and there were hundreds of people traversing it even this late in October!

Sunset from our hotel commands a view of the entire promenade!

We wandered into ‘pld town’ for dinner at Rossettisserie, which as the name suggests specializes in rotisserie meats. We were seated in the wine cellar (how appropriate)!

And we had a lovely meal!!!

Nice, capital of the Alps-Maritine region, lies on the pebbly beach of the Bay of Angels. Earliest segments, around 350 BC, where by the Greeks of Marseille who founded a permanent settlement and called it Νίκαια, Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory. Over the next 2000 years the area \240changed hands between Savoy, French, Sardinian, and Italian, finally becoming part of France in 1860.

Most of the old town buildings were built In \240the 15th and 16th century. \240

The museum in Nice housed a collection of his religious works. Born in modern-day Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, he was of Russian Jewish origin. Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern Europe and Jewish folk culture.

Throughout these phases of his style "he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, whose work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk. In the 1950s Pablo Picasso said"When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is".

Chagall also wrote and illustrated poems. Harriet, Marla and Dana attempted to read the French, but finally resorted to Google Translate. It was beautiful poetry in both languages!

And here it is when we left!

Michel, Marla, Harriett, Tom and Dana are prepared for a \240great meal!

After making our way through the alleys full of sculptures and paintings and art of all types, we found our way to the Godet Perfumery.

Here is Marla with Sonia Godet, the current owner and ‘nose’ of the house. She creates all the current fragrances and performs quality control on all the old formulas that were designed by her father and grandfather and are still in production.

The shop was a sparkling gem that enticed us to join in with the essences of floral and spice and wood that permeated the air and the soul off the shop.

The perfumery has been in business since 1901 and this case stood as a window into the past filled with the history of the shop with old perfume bottles and cognac bottles showcased over the years.

Sonia explained about her family’s cognac business, which as it turns out, was the original business that led to the start of the parfumerie. We got to taste the cognac and it was smooth and delightful

The Godet family has been connected to the artist community in St. Paul de Vence for a century. Here is a Pierre Bonnard painting hanging shop. Bonnard was an artist in the area who painted his wife all throughout his house. But while he revered her, they had no children, and when they died, his money was passed on to his lithographer in the town. The lithographer did not need the money and decided to create the art foundation in Saint Paul de Vence,

Monet gifted this painting of Money’s “muse” to Sonia’s grandfather after he created a special fragrance for her. Her name was Harriet and the scent was titled “Folly Blue”. The scent is lavender and spice and perfect! \240Marla and I both bought some! In fact, we bought several of her 23 fragrances!! Many of the French impressionists spent time in the lovely village, Chagall, Picasso, Monet, Renoir all hung out together!

And Sonia was sad to see us leave! \240

We continue through the town to the wall of the city to have lunch at Les Ramparts! The view of the pastoral hills was sublime and the food was delicious!

On our way back through town, we stopped at a wine and liquor store.

We found 44 degrees N gin with the most unusual flavor profile with notes of rosemary and rose lingering after the taste. It was the perfect continuation of our parfumerie experience, and we bought some of that too!

After dinner, we enjoyed drinks on the market square.

And Dana was talked into some French Pear Brandy, which is not for the Faint of heart!!

This winery makes La Vie En Rose, which we’ve had several times in the US! But now they have new bottles!!

We continued our drive to Lorgues for lunch. It was a little claiming to find the restaurant.

But the paid off in the end!!

The gourds are very protective of their barrel!

And we finally made it to our testing stop for the next 3 days, The Address Cassis!! \240Here is the view from our deck!

The Cassis lighthouses guards the Harbor as we motor past and promises to bring us home safely!

Some of the Calanques offer a safe Harbor for sailboats because the water is much calmer there.

A calanque is a unique kind of geological formation made of limestone.  They are big rocky coves forming a steep and narrow valley inland and are mostly found around the Mediterranean sea, similar to tiny fjords. Here in the Calanques National Park, the waters are protected and highly regulated, stretching over 10 miles from Marseille to Cassis, with 26 Calanques of various sizes. Today, because the water was rough, we only visited 3 of them.

This calanque was not very deep or long, \240but the walls were very high!

By zooming in, we could see several rock climbers practicing this skills on the steep rocks!

Here we are getting a little Mediterranean salt spray!

We then drove to the cliffs of Cap Canaille overlooking Cassis.

It was quite windy!!

But the scenery was beautiful!

Once we returned to town, Tom and Dana walked to the old town of Cassis and wandered around, finally watching a game of pétanque - which is very similar to bocce ball.

We stopped at a cafe for some cappuccinos…

And then found our way to lunch at Cote Cour where we had pastis - a anise-based liquor that is considered an aperitif or aphrodisiac.

Harriet joined us for a taste, followed by a delectable lunch!

And we all had a lovely afternoon!

After lunch we encountered an interesting wedding where the bride wore black …

And the groomsman wire a kilt with a knife in his sock!

As they married at the Justice of the Peace \240

Our guides, Marla and Michel have been fantastic showing us around the French Riviera this week!

And just as we were leaving town to return to Cassis, we came across a liquor store selling Blanton’s. We can’t find Blanton’s anywhere in the US, much less for $95! \240So our French souvenirs this trip will be Kentucky bourbon!

We end the evening with dinner at Le Grand Blue at the harbor. The castle was alive with lights from our view over the wooden sail boats. \240

And, of course, we had to end the evening with a pastis toast - this one with Blue Curasol!