The days go along in such a pleasant manner that you don’t notice the time passing. The next thing you know it’s the end of November and nearly two months have passed. We’re down to just a little over a week left of our stay in Nice and we still have a number of things on the agenda. Now we begin to prioritize, what is more interesting versus what can wait. The Christmas decorations are all in place and there is a major Christmas market and amusements area down in the main square. It opened this weekend and the area was really busy. There is a major Ferris wheel and many rides for smaller people as well as booths selling food and Christmas ornaments and gifts. An interesting thing about this market is that they charge an entrance fee to go in. I would think that business would be better if people didn’t have to pay extra for the privilege of shopping. But, the lines to get in were pretty long both of the times we walked through the area so I guess people here are accustomed to paying.
Today’s activity was more of a rarity for us, in that we decided to attend a presentation at the Nice Opera House. We thought we were going to hear a medley of songs by Steven Sondheim and while we got a medley it turned out to be a medley of songs all attached by a loose plot. Specifically we saw Sondheim’s musical, “Side by Side”. They were performed by the Nice Opera company so there were certainly top quality voices. We arrived a little early and made our way to the concession bar where we had champagne and macarons. From our velvet sofa we watched the audience as they entered the theatre. The opera house is cozy so none of the singers required any electronic assistance, the acoustics are wonderful. It turned out to be sort of a hybrid performance in that all the dialogue was in French while all the songs were in English. Luckily there were subtitles projected, so we could follow the dialogue and
the rest of the audience could follow the songs. But it became a bit of a mashup when song and dialogue were presented in call and response mode, but on the whole it was successful. The singers were really clear in their presentation, so that we didn’t really need the subtitles for the songs. During the intermission I went to a restroom and got in a line with mostly women. A very nice woman informed me that contrary to what we generally see in France the toilets were segregated and I was in the women’s line. So I beat a retreat over to the men’s line, there were 3 of us. We waited for quite a while for the person in our toilet but finally
they made an appearance. It was a woman! Well, the man next to me (definitely an old fart) started fulminating at the insolence of a woman using the men’s toilet. She responded kind of indignantly and he kept on going. Finally I patted her arm and said it’s not too serious, but this old guy just kept going. He was still muttering as he entered when his turn came. Did I mention there were 3 men in line while there were probably 8 or 9 women waiting. Sad. Made me laugh. After the show we walked back to the apartment and enjoyed all the Christmas lights. The evening was actually more pleasant than it had been when we walked down in the afternoon.
Prior to the musical, this being Sunday, I walked down to a vendor that specializes in rotisserie chicken and picked up a couple cuisse for us (leg and thigh). When I got back we had those along with a small container of celeri remoulade which is one of my favorite things in France. Once again we’re finishing up things that have been in the refrigerator for a while, so tomorrow we’ll have to stock up again.
Tomorrow is the flea market and our antennae will be up for the possible score.
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