Sunday, October 6th - Day 26 - Drive to Grasse Perfume Museum and Nice
After a few final hours of packing and cleaning, we were ready to say our goodbyes to our lovely host, Patricia. She wasn't at home but her husband called and said to give her 10 minutes. Since it was such a nice day, we walked into the village to buy croissants at the bakery and then coffee at Come a Casa. When we returned, Patricia's mother took a photo and we set off.
The drive to the Nice airport hotel was only a few
hours so Deb searched for an interesting spot to stop along the way. Her
choice was Grasse just outside Nice - UNESCO certified city for perfume and many museums. Of special interest was the Musee International de la Parfumerie. The historic city, famous over the centuries for its flowers and perfume manufacturing, was up a steep high hill with a great view of
the Mediterranean. Pink umbrellas festooned streets.
Deb went to the museum while Munroe wandered the ancient streets and stopped for coffee. The museum was like nothing she imagined - covering early Roman and Greek periods to the present day and dedicated entirely to perfume, its history, artifacts, and rare collections that were all showcased in a variety of entertaining and enlightening exhibits. Tiny courtyard gardens and small smell boxes were part of the olfactory experience. Two hours was just not enough - a day or two would have been needed to see and digest everything. The museum, an amalgamation of a number of old buildings, is housed on the main entrance floor and extends 3-4 floors below.
A few exhibits (among thousands!) that Deb found interesting:
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Marie Antoinette's travel case, with several hidden drawers and layered compartments, contained everything one would need to enjoy a light meal, write, sew, or freshen up while traveling. Very interesting story behind this...
The Olfactory Landscape exhibit by Quebec artist Lean Hiram from Shawinigan. She is an anthropologist who attended the perfumery school in Grasse. The exhibit was in a small room and when you entered you experienced the smells, sights and sounds of woods, rivers and lakes of Mauricie, Quebec.
The Rose Room - a variety of rose scents in several rooms decorated in rose colors and objects.
Finally, the exhibit that attracted quite a few visitors, was movie clips that portray scenes of the characters involved with dressing, toiletries, etc. from the past.
While Deb toured the museum, Munroe was walking around the city and got a cafe o lait at a cafe just up the street from the museum. Across the square from the museum there was a lovely, beautifully kept park with a stunning vista over Cannes bay. You could clearly see the airport and get a real sense of the layout of the city - probably 5 or 6 miles away on the coast. When Deb emerged grabbed coffees and then set off to do the last 15 or so kilometers up the toll road to Nice.
Following our Google Maps/Android auto, we arrived at where the hotel should have been around 6 or 6:30. The area looked like a high-tech business center with hotels interspersed. After having our way into the complex blocked by a gate, we decided to circle the whole area in the car and see if there was some other way to access it. Fortunately, in about 1/4 mile we found a gas station so Munroe was able to fill the tank so that we could return the car with a full fuel tank.
We got all the way around the complex and returned to the gated drive without seeing any way to enter with a car. So we parked and Deb stayed with the car while Munroe tried to walk past the gate and find the place. Much to his relief, he quickly spotted the hotel - the Residhome Nice Aeroport - in the corner of the square that he had entered. He went back to the car and got the bags to the room, returning again to the car.
Deb decided to come with him while he returned the car to the airport facility - to avoid the hassle of having to do that in the morning, and to avoid having to pay the overnight parking fee at the hotel. That went smoothly and we entered the terminal (2) to see where we'd need to go for Air Corsica's check-in the next morning. We decided to take a cab back to the hotel but the guy at the taxi rank outside the terminal explained that he'd have to charge us 40 Euros (the flat rate from the airport to anywhere in Nice) and that the better (free!) alternative would be to take the tram 2 stops and walk the remaining 10 minutes to our hotel. That we did and it worked really well.
Once we got everything stashed in the room we asked at the desk about restaurants and dinner - the guy said because it was Sunday he wasn't sure what would be available, but he knew that a number were closed. We found one on an on-line search in the same techno-hotel complex - Les Tables des Suds -
and decided to try it out. It worked out really well! Munroe had a delicious plate of tender pork with a nice sauce, interesting fried whole potatoes sliced finely but not quite fully through so that they hung together. Deb, who has been having less luck finding great meals in restaurants, opted to play it safe with a pasta ravioli dish with pesto sauce. She had dessert - Munroe opted for another Negroni!
The hotel room was small, but had an amazingly well-equipped kitchenette, with hob, microwave, kettle, dishes and utensils, and even a small dishwasher! The beds were clean and very comfortable. We'd done well finding this spot for under 90 Euros a night (thank you, Booking.com!) - and it's nice to know exactly what to expect when we return in a week's time to get ready for the next major leg of our adventure - a 16 hour flight from Nice to Rome and then from Rome to Tokyo Haneda, on Italy's flagship airline - ITA.