Enfin à Nice!

So Nice is an awesome city, despite the fact that many of its inhabitants are adherents to the great cult of French bureaucracy. It's super beautiful and the weather is (usually) nice. The day that I arrived looked like a day off of a postcard!

The view of the city from my dorm-closet. 

Specialty dishes from Nice are called Niçoise dishes. I think it's part Provencal, part Italian, and part Mediterranean. (Fun fact #1: Nice wasn't a part of France until 1860.) All of the Niçoise stuff that I've had so far has been reallllly good although I haven't taken any pictures of it.

But some things I've tried:
La pissaladière: a mini-pizza (or une tarte, comme le français dit) with shredded onions, black olives, and anchovies. I ordered it at a restaurant on our first day walking around Vieux Nice because it was the least expensive thing on the menu. I had no idea what it was. It tasted like it had crab meat on it to me, but I think that was just the anchovy flavor. It's a popular appetizer (fun fact #2: in French, an appetizer is called l'entrée).

Pâté: This came on a Niçoise sampler plate. If anyone was wondering, it's disgusting. It's dog food for people. (Fun fact #3: French people love their dogs. Like LOVE their dogs. Like love them so much they bring them into restaurants & stores and then NEVER pick up their shit from the sidewalks.)

Magret de canard: Duck breast! Super delicious, and it was cooked with vegetables and potatoes. It was salty and sweet.

Poivrons: Big grilled red peppers.

Beignets de courgettes: Zucchini that's fried in a batter like tempura.

And tons of pizza!!

I walked off my Niçoise meals by walking on the Promenade des Anglais which goes for 4 miles along the coast of the Baie des Anges, which is pretty much the Mediterranean Sea. No big deal. 

I didn't have internet for the first week and a half, so my travel companion Erin and I were constantly looking for places that had free Wifi so we could check our emails & communicate with the world. One fancy restaurant on the Promenade des Anglais had Wifi so I had dessert for lunch there in order to use it. 

It was pain perdu, which is what people in Louisiana call French Toast. I was curious if it was the same thing here, and it was. It was super delicious, with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. I don't know why people don't eat it constantly. 

After our ISEP orientation, I went out to dinner with the other three participants. We found a random restaurant and the food was awesome (which seems to be a theme with my descriptions of food).

This was called a Grillé Madame, which I think is the same thing as a Croque Madame. It's a fancy grilled sandwich with ham, good cheese, and an egg. All of the yellow stuff was cheese.
SO MUCH CHEESE. SO MUCH GOOD.

And to those who are curious, I have been doing things other than eating. Like going to museums, getting lost, crying over paperwork that administrative offices say they need but don't actually, using public transportation, and buying groceries! And going to the beach de temps en temps. 

Oh, hey beach.