Nice, France

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Here I am on the French Riviera - or as the French call it, the Côte d'Azur - and enjoying a gorgeous view from my hotel room (see photo). I'll take another picture tomorrow when the sun is behind me so you can see the beach better. Right now it is evening and the light is not right for a good shot. OTOH, the sunset should be spectacular from this vantage point. I am in Nice and, as everyone says who has ever been here, "Nice is nice." I plan to explore the city tomorrow because I only arrived late this afternoon. Today I spent a lot of time in the car and one of the places I stopped was Antibes which is full of wealthy individuals and their homes and yachts. Here is a photo of one yacht in the bay and my little cream-colored car in the foreground in the parking lot (see photo). The other place I stopped today is the Rhone American Cemetery which is located in the Provence region because of Operation Dragoon. Everyone has heard of the D-Day landings in June 1944, but few know that an equally large amphibious force landed on the Mediterranean beaches in August of that same year. (In case you are wondering, they re-used the landing craft and ships that survived D-day.) In my travels, I try to visit American military cemeteries when I can. This one contains "only" 861 headstones as opposed to the American cemetery at Normandy where over 9,000 of our war dead lie buried. The difference is because by August, German forces had been moved north to deal with Operation Overlord. I wanted to visit Nice, in part, because my father was here in 1945 with the American occupation forces. I was here once before, too, in 1975, so it will be fun to walk around and relive memories from 72 years ago and from 42 years ago.

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