Left Emlio Romagna at 9:30, with the thought of blasting over the border and back to Flayosc in France in about the four hours that are estimated by the GPS. Left in sunshine and blue skies, and in about forty minutes of heading west we ran into a fog bank. Apparently this is normal around Milan and the valley surrounding it. In some spots the visibility was maybe two car lengths, but we did move in and out of it. Decided too stop at the Auchan Hipermart in Piacenza. The sign was there, but the instructions were to "lo". Now if you don't have any idea where Lo is or what it is, it's really hard to find. Which it was. By the time we got back to Piacenza, (cause we turned back onto the motorway and had to go back----fog related) it took us another half hour to find out that Lo is short for some other town in another direction and we headed that way. We exited the Highway and went to the Centro Commercial area, where the fog was so thick we couldn't see the store------and these stores are huge---think Costco on steroids---until we were within a hundred yards. Did our shopping and needless to say, we were late arriving to Flayosc.
Flayosc had a restaurant that we were at about ten years ago, which we had really good memories about. Got there and it was closed for vacation................not to worry, as there is another just across the street that has a good reputation. We make a res and lookk for a hotel. the only hotel in town is closed for the season, and the next closest is in a town called Draginoun. We take a room at this place with a really good panoramic view of the city and ask if the restaurant is open. Yes. Not what we had in mind menu wise but an acceptable substitue, or so we think..............
Donna orders fresh fish and I order rump steak. Donna gets enough food to feed the entire restaurant and I get the best looking hunk of gristle you've ever seen. Seriously, this piece of meat was rejected by the the grinder for ground beef cause it though it would jam the machine. The "chef" comes out asks how everything is. Donna says theres a lot of food on the plate----he says, don't eat the vegetables---just the fish. She hides a piece of fish on my plate, under my fries, and a piece on her plate under the rice. I filet my gristle so it shows beautifully and say we are finshed. For desert Donna has some chocolate thing that's pretty good, and I order "fromage blanc", which I think is going to be a plated of assorted white cheeses. Some roquefort, some camarbert, and some other wonderful french cheeses. I'm brought the largest bowl of what can only be described as white, thick, and sour.
We got out of there in a hurry and laughed the rest of the night......
Drove into Nice easily after driving into St. Tropez for the morning. New exactly where we were going as we had scoped it out when we arrived in early October. Met the greeter and got the keys. The place is one and a half stories up and is about three hundred fifty square feet. Perfect for the two of us. One bedroom, split bath, and comfortable furniture in the living room. Great artwork too. When we walk down the stairs in the morning, there are boulangeries to the right, left and straight ahead, none further than a hundred feet. The best butcher shop in Nice is just out the door to the left, and directly in front of us is the daily fish market. We don't have an oven in the unit, so everything has to be prepared on the stove top, which really isn't a problem. Dropped the car back a couple days early, we'd driven 8,208 kilometers, (5100 miles) since we got it. The night we got here we went to the restaurant in the square called, Le bienvenue www.restaurant-le-bienvenue.com and had some of the best food of the trip. We shared a terrine of fois gras, Donna had a chevre' salad, and I had steak tartare. Mine must have been a pound and it was excellent, but no way could I eat that much so we brought it home. Greeted by Cedric, who speaks excellent english and the food prepared by Fred, it was a fabulous dinner. Would reccomend this to anyone.
Next day we spent exploring Nice and just taking it easy. dinner was spaghetti with bolognase made from leftover steak tartare and excellent!
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