Our CouchSurfing host Erick took some time out of the next two days to spend with us. On the first of these two days he took us out around Nice in his car! We visited Sainte Agnès and La Turbie. These towns were not coastal but very close to the coast up on a hill. It was really awesome to have been able to make these trips with Erick because we would have otherwise not gone to them; they are pretty out of the way.
Taken from the car on our way to Sainte Agnès. It's overlooking some French town...
You can see Sainte Agnès perched on the left side of the hill!
Cute little cemetery on the top of the hill.
Cliff...
???
The burial grounds of some very tiny medieval community (now in ruins) at Sainte Agnès.
Looking Southward to the Mediterranean from the top of Sainte Agnès.
More ruins from the medieval community. These ruins were actually higher than the current village of Sainte Agnès itself. We're not sure but maybe these are the ruins of the old/original Sainte Agnès.
The gardens in the middle of the ruins. Obviously up-kept for us tourists!
More ruins!
Amazing views from the top of the hill, but not so much when this is your window!
Inside of some building.
Another great view of the coast from the hill top.
Interesting rock formation!
Looking up the valley through a chain of small mountains.
The side of the small mountain opposite Sainte Agnès. Notice the really cool zigzagging road that runs up the mountain!
More French Riviera...
Here you can see the current village of Sainte Agnès. Although we're looking down on the village it's still perched quite high up on the mountain.
The cable-and-pulley contraption used to bring stuff up to the medieval village.
The modern Sainte Agnès!
Cute French house!
More cute French house.
Dark French alleyway...
Cool French intersection!
Amazing French walls!
We love the narrowness of this street. How cute!
Us sitting at a pub on the side of Sainte Agnès.
Looking back up at the mountain housing Sainte Agnès as we drive away!
In the car with Erick... This is the road that runs along the mountainsides which connects the little towns in the area. And yes, this narrow little road is actually two-way!
We have no idea what you are looking at here, but it appears to be something old (the tall thing in the background) and something new (those cars are shiny!). This is La Turbie!
A cool view of the coastline from the top of the mountain that La Turbie is on. Just above the town is a cool lookout point.
Turn about 180° to the left, and you get this view! The city in this one is Monte Carlo! When you are at this lookout, you can actually see the entire Principality of Monaco!
More Monaco!
The west end of Monaco! You can see a football (aka soccer) stadium in about the centre of this photo. Either this stadium has a lot of seats, or Monaco doesn't have a lot of people. In any case, the entire population can apparently fit into this stadium.
Us in Monaco...errr...La Turbie! Really, we went to Sears Portrait Studio for this one, just so happened they had a backdrop of Monaco!
Stefan on the edge of the mountain where La Turbie is. The town in the photo, we are sure is a nice town, whatever its name is!
Back in Nice for dinner! The place we ate at has the burgundy canopy. We thought this street was really cute.
Our host, and tour guide for the day, Erick, took us to a restaurant called Chez Pipo that is famous for socca, which is a Niçois speciality.
This is socca! No, its not a dance, but something you eat! It's made of chickpea puree and water. Once the mixture is made up, it's spread on a giant pan, really, its giant...about 2.5 feet in diameter! The pan slowly rotates in a wood-burning oven. Socca comes out nice and hot, with a crispy outside, and a soft inside! It doesn't have a strong taste, but it does have a wonderful taste of chickpeas and yummy charcoal flavour.
For dessert we had a tourte de blettes. Blette is a type of green. The tourte can be served sweet or savoury. Obviously here we are having it sweet :)
So when we sat down outside the restaurant, it was hard not to notice the old VW Microbus Transporter, then, suddenly a band comes and hops in the back, lowers the side panels and starts rockin it out! It was so random, but totally great! Really, at a cute restaurant in the South of France, eating traditional food, and a band is playing for you in the back of a Classic VW parked in front of the place! How awesome is that!?
Cliff, Stefan, and our Couchsurfing host, Erick at the restaurant.
After dinner we went for another drive, this time on the top of the hill that overlooks Nice from the east side. This photo is of that hill! As you can see, there are some pretty damn nice houses up there....kinda like a little Beverly Hills thing going on.
The view from about halfway up the hill looking back on the coast of Nice during sunset!
Another view of the coast of Nice during sunset. The breakwater you see is protecting the main port of the city, and yeah, there are some huge yachts in there! Behind the breakwater is the majority of the coast of the city, and the long beach!
A view of the inland part of Nice.
Still moving up the hill that overlooks the city of Nice. More nice houses perched on the side of the hill, with some fantastic views!
Getting close to the top! We are on the far side of the mountain...Nice is behind us, in this photo we are looking at the town of Villefranche.
At the top of this hill, there is a cool ancient fort! Sure it was used for something, but we can't remember. Or maybe we never even knew! We were just enjoying the view! It looks great in the day, but really cool and sort of spooky lit up at night.
Turn around from the fort, and you get a nice view of Nice and the coast at night!
Sadly this photo didn't turn on the best, and you might be wondering why the hell did they put this photo on here!? Well, you see that large block in the middle? It's basically a giant cube over a giant head! So you can see the shoulders, neck and chin of a person, then the large block. It looks cool, but the really cool part: it's not just for looks -- this is actually an office building! People really work in that block head!
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