Day 26 - Saturday, February 22 - We meet the apartment's handyman and get a lightbulb "fixed"; we dip our hands in the Mediterranean Sea, and grocery shop at the Monoprix. Cloudy with sprinkles 57°F (14°C)

Today the weather wasn't great, but we decided to go explore anyhow. On our way out, we encountered Mark, who manages the apartments at the Holiday Nice Studio apartments. He seemed great and helped us "fix" a light bulb that was burnt out (really just needed screwing in tighter)! After chatting with him for a bit, we headed down the stairs and out to the street.

Great to abandon our wool coats and don our rain jackets; though sunny weather would be welcome! Near our apartment is a small street with several restaurants. One of the first things we noticed was this flower bed full of blooms. It's February!

A short walk down that street brought us to one of the main North-South boulevards in the city: Avenue Jean Médecin. It's a fun rabbit hole to read about his backstory. Facist? or not facist?

Anyhow, the Avenue named after him is lovely and broad, with tram tracks running down the middle, and heavily used by pedestrians. So many people out - even in the rain.

The city is busier due to Carnival, which is happening whilst we are here. As we got closer to the Sea, we saw some of infrastructure (parade stands).

Quite extensive!

There's also a large ferris wheel

This square is the center of the city, and is called Place Masséna. We loved the art pieces of the figures sitting atop the poles:

Spanish artist Jaume Plensa gave this place a new perspective by installing his work "Conversation in Nice." He conceived of seven statues perched here at around ten metres above the ground, representing the seven continents and which are illuminated when night falls.

At the south end of the plaza, we discovered two of the figures that are part of Carnaval de Nice: The theme this year was King of the Oceans and we found the King and the Queen of the Carnaval!

This is where they live when they are not parading about. I found the juxtaposition of the King next to this statue of Apollo in the Fontaine du Soleil very interesting. Old versus new!

And, when I looked up the story of the Fountain of the Sun - let's just say it's worth the read! Revealed in 1956, folks were upset because while Apollo is supposed to drive a chariot pulled by four horses to pull the sun across the sky, in this statue, there is no chariot and the four horses are on his head. Which seems ... weird? It's very noticeable.

The hilarious part of the story, though, has to do with, of course, the nudity.

Some conservative inhabitants of the city thought that his “manhood” was too large, while some older ladies thought it was too small, and college students took to decorating it as a prank.

In an effort to calm the controversy, the sculptor took a hammer and chisel to his creation to reduce the size of the offending member. This operation earned Apollo a new nickname. Now, instead of being called “4 horsepower”, he was called “the virgin”.

His embarrassing surgery proved to be insufficient; it wasn’t enough to satisfy the Catholic women’s “League of Feminine Virtue”. He was still nude as were the bronze statues. The virtuous women gained enough support that in the 1970s the fountain with its naked sculptures was dismantled.

Poor Apollo hung out by the Mayor's office for a while, then was erected by a sports stadium (so to be less offensive to the ladies?). But in 2011 he was re-installed and the fountain was resurrected.

We'll see more Carnaval things in the days to come!

As we wandered closer to the shore, we came across this frightening apparition advertising Carnaval and also, smartphones?

We walked between two buildings on the path to the shore-side, and I noticed that the buildings on either side were painted with a facade to make it appear like the front and the back. Clever!

And then, we were at the Mediterranean Sea!

Yeah, it was wet and a little chilly. But the Sea! I was a little shell-shocked haha!

Though there weren't many shells on this beach. Just a lot of rocks.

Still, it was pretty beautiful.

Hard not to love the shore.

And the expressive sky.

But eventually, we had to head back. I turned and snapped this shot as we walked away.

We wandered down some side streets.

And then we were back at Av. Jean Medecin, and it was even busier! Also McDonalds doing a photo bomb here:

We stopped off at the Monoprix for a big grocery shop - after all, we were staying for two full weeks. Then we went back to the apartment and settled in.

We had a fantastic home-made dinner with pasta and veggies and viande hache!

A great first full day in Nice!