Le vent soufflait fort à Èze

12 03 2011

Jon and I, despite the grey skies, were determined to get out of the house and out of Nice today. We decided to visit the little village of Èze, which is a great place to go if you’re looking for a customized perfume fragrance, or any fragrance, because that’s what they’re known for. More importantly, they have an exotic garden at the top of Chateau d’Èze that promised beautiful views of the Mediterranean and the mountains around it.

Had it been up to me though, we definitely wouldn’t have made it. It wasn’t exactly easy getting to Èze. Jon looked up the bus routes and schedules, and made an itinerary of where we needed to catch the bus, what bus to catch, where to get off, and what to do while we’re there. Equipped with all the information we needed, we were feeling pretty excited. We met Khalid at the bus station and waited for the bus… until we realized that none of the stops had the bus number we needed listed on them. So much for trusting Nice bus websites. So we consulted the map and found a bus station that bus 112 did pass, and we took the tram to it. But once we got there, we realized that the next bus wouldn’t be there until 2, and we got there a little before 1. The wind was strong, the air was on the frigid side of cold, and Khalid had to be home earlier than we did anyway because he was expecting guests this evening, so he said it wasn’t worth it and left. I desperately wanted to leave too. When I stuck my head out the window of our bedroom this morning, the air felt nice, the wind wasn’t strong, so I decided I just needed my grey coat and a scarf on top of my t-shirt. I was definitely wrong, and could have used some extra layers on my arms. The wind was so strong that my ears hurt like crazy, which gave me a killer headache. But Jon insisted that we go.

Since our wait was over an hour, we walked around until we found a place to grab something to eat for lunch. I had a nice little salad, though I’m learning with every time I eat chicken that the French definitely prefer the dark meat. I prefer white meat, but alas, it was still pretty good.

Once on the bus to Èze I started to feel a little better, mainly because I was out of the cold. Once we got to Èze though, we were significantly higher, so the wind was considerably stronger. I don’t think I made it two steps before telling Jon that I was definitely not happy with him. But its Jon, that didn’t phase him in the slightest, and we were walking up hill towards Chateau d’Èze and its exotic garden.

I will say, I have to visit it again. There were tons of perfume shops, and I feel like I can’t go to Èze without at least coming back with some sort of fragrance, be it in perfume form or soap. On top of that, the place was just really neat. It’s a medieval village similar to Saint Paul de Vence, but just a little different. It was beautiful, even with grey skies. The garden was neat, but it was mostly a cactus garden, and since the weather has been so cold a lot of them were blanketed to protect them. I guess it’s a good thing we only went to see the view. Though I wasn’t exactly happy with Jon for hauling me all the way up there with the wind blowing as relentlessly as it was, the view made up for it.

We had to catch the 5:20 bus home, but since there wasn’t much else to do there other than bug all the little shop owners only to leave without purchasing anything, we opted to find a little restaurant (called Le Pinocchio) where we could split a pizza and get something hot to drink. And boy did we find something hot to drink. Vin chaud. Yes, ladies and gentleman, that means hot wine. It was a red wine that they put spices (like cloves and cinnamon) in along with a slice of orange. It was spicy, warm and delicious. Our pizza was also delicious, but once the bill came we learned that they charged us €4 to cut the pizza in half. I thought I heard him say something about €4 when we ordered, but Jon insisted he said something else. I found it to be a little ridiculous, but whatever. Its France.

Before heading to the bus stop we went into another little fragrance shop that had a little museumish type thing to walk through. They also had a room with all the different scents you could combine to make your own unique fragrance. It was interesting, but more importantly it was warm. While waiting at the bus stop, a group of students from London on their spring break (from all around: Maryland, California, Canada and Australia) were catching the same bus and we got to do a little bit of talking. We heard them while at Le Pinocchio, and Jon said at least one of them was from California from across the restaurant. I had to stifle a giggle when we found out he was right. It was a little refreshing to speak to people in English without worrying about whether they knew what we were talking about.

We took the bus back, took the tram to the grocery store to buy some shampoo and conditioner, and now we’re home, still freezing, but at least there’s no wind in our room. All and all, I’d say I was pretty miserable all day, but still had a good time. Not sure how that works, but it definitely felt good to get out of the house today. Especially since they’re promising rain tomorrow.

Here are some pictures!