Nice Again and the French Riviera - 2002

Random Recollections

• Near the train station, we found Cactus and other succulents and were quite surprised. We felt that perhaps they had been transplanted from the Americas, but Lee said that they were native to this area.
• The people were so nice from our first visit that we stayed again at the Hotel de Verdun when we returned.
• We visited Lee's apartment. It was small but very functional. All of his appliances were reduced in size to match. His office, bedroom. and dining room were all the same space. Especially interesting was the lack of screens on the windows. They do not have an insect problem even though the climate is similar to the southern U.S. and right on the Mediterranean. We never learned why.
• One thing that was a little strange about Lee's apartment was that if all the doors were open you walked right into his bathroom across a small entryway through his front door. I think he kept the bath door closed most of the time.
• The staircase, as was common in many of the buildings we visited, encircled the tiny elevator in the stairwell. We found out soon after that they have other ways of moving furniture into upper rooms.
• We spent more time at the beach before Fred, Bonnie, and Melissa returned to Oxford.
• Laura and I stayed another night so that we could go birding with Lee the following day. He took us to rent a car the night before as well as taking us to a nice open air restaurant that evening.
• The next morning we headed southwest, parallel to the coast looking for a birding hotspot that Laura had researched before the trip began.