The Last Supper and Magical Bus Drivers

For our second to last night in Nice our professor arranged a dinner for the whole group. We dined alfresco at a small but delicious restaurant. All the food was made to order, fresh and delicious. To start we had a salad of fresh greens, anchovies, onions, green peppers, hardboiled eggs, tuna, and a thick balsamic dressing. YUM. This was followed by gnocchi and slow cooked beef, so tender we didn’t need our knives. The meal was rounded off with a mind blowing raspberry tart. Such a good meal, we were all very full and satisfied after.

By the time we were finished with our meal it was too late to be picked up by public transportation, so our professor had arranged a private bus for us. Our trip back to our university confirmed my belief that French bus drivers are magicians. Let me back up and start by describing where we had dinner…high up in the hills above Nice through lots of twisting and turning roads. This was fine when we drove up in a small public bus, but when our personal pulled up in front of the restaurant our jaws dropped. It was easily big enough to accommodate 75 people, and our group is less than 25. With no better option we climbed aboard. After all, the bus had made it up hadn’t it? 


We started off ok, brushing a few bushes, but nothing serious. Then came our first major turn. It took our driver several starts and stops to maneuver the bus around the stop. Buses in France are completely flat in front so drivers are able to get very close to whatever it is in front of them, be it a wall, another bus or the edge of a cliff, all of which we have experienced at various times throughout our trip. We all applauded when our bus driver skillfully handled this turn. He then gunned the giant bus down the road, making up for lost time. The other thing about bus drivers is that they are very generous with the gas pedal. They love to make up for lost time, honk at scooters and then slam the brakes. I’m amazed in 5 weeks of taking public transportation quite often I neither experienced nor witnessed any sort of accident. 


But back to our trip down the hill. We made it down a ways without any more major incidents, until we came upon a major turn with cars parked alongside the road. First we trapped one car up a driveway (sorry!) and then we caused a major traffic jam of at least 3 cars behind us and 5 in front of us while we sat blocking the intersection. All of us on the bus were laughing hysterically as we moved back and forth making little progress. (If any of you have seen Austin Powers you can picture what we looked like). Finally our driver managed to park us in such a way to let the cars go so we didn’t hold them up any longer. Then several starts and reverses later we slowly turned the corner, barely missing some buildings on our left. Whew! What an adventure it was.


I am entirely convinced that the bus drivers in France are magical, which is the only way I can conceive them managing such large buses, small turns, narrow streets and no accidents in the crazy traffic. I thought Boston drivers were bad. I was wrong. Add in hundreds of little scooters zipping around in traffic with no regard for anyone’s personal safety, much less their own, and it was a nightmare. I’ve seen it all on scooters. Multiple people, no helmets, sandals, high heels, everything!