Dubai to Nice & Nice - Saturday 12 August

The flight left Dubai on time. David and I had the arranged central row of four seats to ourselves, he at one end and me at the other. Before we took off, the air hostess wanted to know where my oxygen supply was. I said I didn't have one, I wasn't carrying any, only a CPAP machine. Oh, she said, it listed me as having an oxygen supply for goodness sakes... Anyway, that got sorted... Our second breakfast for the day was served shortly afterwards - continental. I was losing interest in food by now, I certainly wasn't hungry!



I struggled to keep my eyes open to watch a boring movie called 'Lost in Florence' (helps you get to sleep?) and then half draped myself across the seat next to me with the arm rest up - a bit tricky though, as we were told to keep our seat belts on because of air turbulence. Without using my CPAP I napped on and off for the next hour or two, quite uncomfortable, but did feel somewhat refreshed afterwards. David told me he'd had a bit of a sleep too, at the opposite end of the row, but had been disturbed by the poor chap opposite him on the aisle vomiting profusely into a duty free bag. Apparently his doctor had prescribed something to stop this - it obviously wasn't working as he continued to vomit throughout the flight! This left us both hoping that, if the guy has a bug, it doesn't spread around the plane...

Dinner for me consisted of the fish with tomato paste again. I couldn't eat it all. The little cake was nice, and I couldn't face the lovely looking bread roll that felt dry to the touch.



We were picked up by the arranged driver, Kevin, and dropped efficiently at out hotel, although we nearly ended up at the Grimaldi (a few doors down and more fancy), rather than the Mercure Grimaldi! Our room wasn't ready so I hesitantly accepted another one. The wifi signal in here looks a bit weak though... The Barrows arrived in Nice by train shortly afterwards. It was supposedly a bit cooler here today, at 23C with beautiful clear blue skies.

A trip to the little supermarket next to our hotel was interesting, it had a very strange layout, and the service certainly wasn't up to NZ standards. It took a while to find the few bits and pieces needed for breakfast in our room. But it was fascinating to see all the different products. There were no plastic bags allowed at the checkout either - they're banned, but we made good use of a bag from the fruit and vege, so there's a bit of a gap in the law on that.

Our first dinner out in Nice last night was at Chez Papa. It was lovely sitting outside to eat, and we managed to largely avoid the smokers prevalent here - cigarette butts everywhere)! The waiter was very entertaining, and very helpful with the menu. Needing gluten free restricted me quite a bit, but I still enjoyed a steak with truffle mashed potatoes, and David loved his Tuna Tataki (basically almost raw tuna, lightly seared on the edges). Everyone's plates were clean by the time we finished. The wine (a Chablis) was good and although we didn't want any desserts, the waiter insisted on pouring us some liqueurs - a lemoncello or a myrte (black currant). I was a bit plonked by then and could just about have fallen asleep at the table! All in all a very entertaining evening and great to enjoy it with the Barrows.