Rainy day

Nice was gray, cold and drizzly, so no grand explorations on Thursday. One of the benefits of an extended stay is you don’t feel the urgency to do something special every single day.

Nice is the drizzle.
Nice in the drizzle.

We spent the time close to the apartment visiting a couple of neighborhood museums on our 20 euro passes. Each of them charge 10 euros, which must be the agreed rate for them all, because the Espace Donation Ferraro only contains about 40 contemporary works on two small floors. Of the 40 works, only about 20 are worth seeing.

The Palais Lascaris is a huge 17th century Baroque residence built for one of the leading families of Nice. Today it houses the second largest collection of musical instruments in France (after the one at the Louvre). The architecture is as interesting as the collection of antique instruments of just about every type, except for horns. Strangely, there are only a couple of brass instruments, but dozens of harps.

By 2 p.m. we were hungry but had a hard time finding a lunch spot that was not overpriced and over-menued. All we wanted was a slice of pizza or something simple without running up a dinner-sized tab. Unfortunately, a lot of places close up at 2 p.m. and do not reopen until 7 p.m. or so for dinner.

Then we stumbled into L’Heteroclité, just around the corner from our apartment. It is a lunch-only place, open from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The owners have a young son.

The special today was osso buco–for 8.50. I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t the greatest I have ever had, but I doubt I will ever have osso buco in a bowl of polenta for 8.50 anywhere else. By comparison, the other daily special was a hot dog for 7.50.

Lynn ordered the ham and cheese crepe, which came out covering a huge plate, even folded over. With a pichet of pretty good vin ordinaire, the total lunch bill came to 19.50. Only down side is they don’t take credit cards, but a small inconvenience for such a small price.

 

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