Nice

Another entry compressing two days. Wednesday was the penultimate day of the conference. I mailed the proceedings back home as there was no way I wanted to lug it around South America. It cost me 150FF but it was worth it. Seeing that I was headed for the post office, L gave me postcards to pop into the mail box. I was bemused to realise that she didn't mind me seeing the text because she was sure I could not understand Serbian or read Cyrillic (I don't). The conference dinner was held that evening. There were long queues for the buffet tables but there was too much food, as usual. It was a bit sad to part with newly minted acquaintances.

In the morning I had a leisurely breakfast and skipped the first session. I luxuriated in the warm air by the pool for the last time then said goodbye to the cat.

After the last session, I collected my backpack from the conference frontdesk and caught the bus to Nice airport. I checked into a hotel within walking distance of the airport as I was flying out early in the morning. But I had arranged to meet up that afternoon in Nice with L, an American student who was headed back to Paris by train. We walked along the pebble beach at Promenade des Anglais, then up to the Château which overlooks the bay. I wondered aloud at what life must have been like in Roman times. Certainly nothing like the bustling city spread out in front of us.

We wandered through the narrow streets of the old town, chatting, then shared dinner. Unfortunately I had misjudged the time to get to the gare, which is ½ km inland. We made it to station with a couple of minutes to spare. I even remembered to get L to validate (composter) her ticket in the machine. A couple of pecks on the cheek and she was off.


It was only around 2100 but already the last service of bus 23 had left. Odd, did Nice shut down this early? Not very Mediterranean. Jean Médicin, the main drag, was still full of people. So I caught the night bus, worried about the many diversions it took, but eventually tumbled into bed to end a packed day.