OK, so no snowflakes in Nice but other signs of the upcoming Holiday magic started to appear before I departed.

Just to backtrack a bit….I’ve been ‘on the move’ since the beginning of September. The blog posts I would like to have had time to write are all still swirling around in my head…. More on Paris to come, of course, but also others relating to travel tales in Portugal and Spain, Croatia and Italy too….then a solid landing for weeks in Nice in the Fall….with finally settling back into Bend, Oregon for the stretched out Holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s and then some.

I was able to send some posts from Nice but I thought I’d be in keeping with the Holiday season with my post now.

Although I left Nice in mid November, there was prep work circling the streets hailing the upcoming season spirit that was descending upon the city daily.

Galeries Lafayette (6 Avenue Jean Médecin, 06000 Nice, France), the department store on the well-known Place Massena (New Town), had its facade slathered with an ever-changing holiday light show. As I stood there pleased with the store’s visual folly, I couldn’t help but have my eyes averted by these ‘statue’ seated people up on ‘stilts’, one outshining the other, and landing a curious smile to my face.

 And a moment later, the modern-day tram also interrupted my department store view. I saw it making its way, grabbing up passengers on the line that either heads in the direction of the train station or on its way to Old Town, as this one’s direction proves  to be going.

And when I flipped around to look towards Old Town, there were those brilliantly colored ‘statues’, again, helping to light the way across the Park Promenade de Paillon, shifting me from the New Town to the Old Town, where my rental apartment was awaiting my return.

But before heading back to Old Town, I did a little evening holiday window shopping…compliments of Louis Vuitton (2 Avenue de Suède, 06000 Nice, France) and Bonpoint (5 Rue Paradis, 06000 Nice, France):

along with catching sight of a vibrantly active scene at the nearby cafes and restaurants:

And, I wasn’t going to miss a stop as it was promising me with a top-down view of Nice! Aston La Scala (12 Avenue Félix Faure, 06000 Nice, France) is just one of the hotels that has a rooftop terrace bar, affording a view that is worth the ‘price of admission’ cocktail:

So I could see this fountain shooting out varying levels of red, white, and blue water in the Park Promenade de Paillon:

And this. Another sign I was in Nice–lemon fruit ripe in November:

After my cocktail, complimentary appetizers, and a guitarist ‘serenading’ us bar patrons, I did make my way to Old Town. And, continued seeing the evening street lights, magically capturing that seasonal moment in time:

The above photo was a reminder that I was not in Kansas. The combination of red checkered tablecloths, candlelight, and umbrellas as shelter, yet holiday lights extended across the narrow tiled streets shouted out! southern France and, once again, lent me the emotion that automatically set up a smile on my face!

The lower photo is looking out one of my apartment windows at about 4AM, with an ambience of whispering Peace. With a view like that, what more can one ask for to glorify yet another day in Nice.