A getaway from my vacation...

Now I know I shouldn't complain, but it's been a bit of a grueling schedule, we've been on the move, skipping from city to city every 3-4 days since we've left home.  As a reward for picking a place to live, we've decided to treat ourselves to a luxurious 5-night stay in Nice.  Here, it's 18 degrees and sunny and with none of the wandering around random french neighbourhoods trying to imagine living there.  We're staying in a great hostel, recommended to us by a ridiculously good-looking couple we met in Prague, if it's good enough for the beautiful - it's good enough for me.  It's an old monastery/villa on the hill converted into a hostel.  The common area is inside a chapel - where they serve breakfast, dinner and drinks.  We got a private room on the top floor which opens onto a big terrace that looks out over Nice.  Sunsets on the french riviera look as good as they sound. 

For now, it's Nice.  Went out to a town called "Grasse" where they are said to put out 80% of all the fragrant essences that are used in perfumes.  We expected to be transported back into time where provincial towns people milled about in full skirts dumping skirt-loads of flowers into wooden vats, while adorable street urchin wove through the crowds chasing chickens with lavender fields in the visible distance.  Instead, we went to a perfumer's factory and joined a guided tour group that included a middle-aged Scandinavian man carrying around a large-sized terrier, I would have retained a lot more information had I not been so distracted by wondering what the dog thought of the tour.  

They still use the method of "enfleurage", developed in Grasse, extracting scents from delicate flowers by placing them on sheets of beef/pork fat.  Flowers are replaced onto the fat every day for up to 3 months until the fat is saturated with the essences.  Then it's all boiled off and separated before use in perfume.  We also learned about "Noses", who create the perfumes.  These people are highly trained professionals capable of identifying up to 2000 distinct smells.  Apparently, a few years back the director of Kenzo wanted to develop a scent that embodied "Strasbourg at Christmas", noses were said to have flocked the streets of Strasbourg that Christmas to try to create that scent.  

Promise to post pictures in the next few days.  Despite this "getaway" in Nice, we've been busy making daytrips  out to other cities on the Cote d'Azure during the day and staying up late in the chapel bar.  Tonight, I'm tucking in early.  

Back posts with pictures to come:

"Prince Day in Monaco/Succulents City!"

"I felt like having chicken that night"

Okay...maybe just one picture:

Aww...he likes castles so much (not in Nice, but in Carcassonne)