yobosayo – Around the World Travel Blog – Follow us around the world

We sucessfully entered Cagnes Sur Mer, a fortified walled village in the area surrounding Nice. Granated, there were no closing hours, tickets, lines or any other barriers to entry, but still. This is our home for the next 3 days. Not the place pictured above… that is the center point of the village, a chateau once owned by the Grimaldi family, who turns out were once a big deal in these parts. Our place is down a bunch of narrow curved streets. It’s like a little Hobbit village. Its also the town where Renoir spent his final years and we went to see his studio.

Culinary contributions from Nice include the Nicoise salad, ratatouille, and socca. I had no idea what socca was before arriving in Nice. Walking around the city though, its pretty hard to miss as it is printed on many restaurant awnings advertising it. To me it sounded like an interesting drink I should try. Maybe because it sounds so much like “so-co” ( southern comfort). Turns out it is basically chick peas pureed with olive oil and baked in an oven or fried. It’s actually pretty good– kind of like a pancake or a crepe mashed up on your plate. And for 2 euro 50 cents it’s the cheapest thing you can buy in the Cote d’Azur.

We stayed a few nights in the wine country of Provence at a chateau turned bed & breakfast called Chateau Juvenal. It was run by a French couple who retired here to run it and make wine from their vineyard. Sounds like a plan.