Sunday June 22 we headed east to Nice. We parked a little far away, so we had a long walk before we made it to Place Massénna and the Old Nice quarter. Still, we arrived in time to browse the Marché des Fleurs , the Nice open-air market that is held every day. From Old Nice we trudged up Castle Hill, accompanied by abnormally hot weather for France and Katy's grumblings. Once upon a time, Castle Hill was crowned with a castle (unsurprisingly) that had helped defend Nice until King Louis XIV ordered it destroyed. Recently, the hill top has been made into an entertainment park. Some of the ruins from the castle foundation (I think) are still preserved.

The view from on top of Castle Hill is amazing. To one side one looks down on Old Nice and the 'Crescent', the long sandy beach. Fronting the beach, the English Promenade ( Promenade des Anglais ) is a long pedestrian boulevard where all sorts of entertaining things can be found. On the other side of the hill, to the left, the docks and harbor of Nice are filled with pleasure boats large and small. Some are very large! The best view we had of the harbor was from a lookout point on the Moyenne Corniche, a road that runs east out of Nice into the steep hills towards the perched villages (les villages perchés).

All right, that's all I can take. Now, I didn't speak up when most of you mispronounced Lyon (which should be said as Lee-unh). But this is too much. When you say 'Nice', it is not pronounced the same way as when you say, 'the weather is nice'. In French, it is pronounced as if it were spelled Niece, or Neese.