A day at Le Cours Saleya in Vieux Nice admiring the buildings, flower market, local artisans, fresh vegetables, spices, nuts, olives, pastes, lavender, and shopping for a few ingredients for the cooking class to follow! Nice has a fascinating history. It was a Roman colony. Later, Queen Victoria loved to visit the hillside town of Cimiez, preferring to be away from the coast. It was part of the House of Savoy, which became the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which became part of Italy. It has only been part of France since 1860. Merchants can only claim their produce as ‘Nicois’ if it has been grown authentically in the local region. Ironically, fish is not a big part of the diet here, and typical dishes are slow-cooked. I tasted a SOCCA or local ‘snack’ made with chickpea flour, salt, olive oil and water and cooked on a hotplate.
