“What if I go and explore and meet you back here in an hour?”
Pierre smiled. “Perfect! See you then!”
Nora set the GPS on her phone and disappeared with Atticus into the rabbits’ warren of winding alleyways.
As promised, they returned in an hour, Nora wearing a wide grin. “I love it here already.”
Pierre laughed and said, “This is just a little taste of what Nice has to offer. I’m so glad you feel this way. Let’s go to my apartment and the guys will bring up our stuff. We’re going to unload the art early tomorrow, so we can unwind from our trip or do whatever you wish. I can’t wait to show you around.”
A few minutes’ walk from the gallery, they came to an unassuming apartment building. Pierre pressed a code into a callbox set in the stone wall next to double doors Nora guessed were at least two hundred years old. He pushed the door open, and they stood in a foyer with a wide marble staircase in front of them.
“Sorry, there is no elevator. The building is three hundred years old.”
“C’est la France,” Nora said. But her mind was boggled. Just like in Paris, she could never get over living in buildings that had existed for so long.
Climbing to the third floor, Nora commented she was glad not to have any bags with her. Although she noted that the wide marble stairs had been designed so it didn’t feel like a hard climb. She discovered that in her building in Paris too. As long as the steps weren’t narrow and steep, stairs in France seemed different. Easier.
Pierre said there was a very small freight elevator they could use to send up bags and groceries, so the situation wasn’t as bad as it looked.
“I like the sound of that,” Nora said.
She also liked what she found in the apartment, which took up the entire top floor of the building. Pierre showed her around. The space had three bedrooms, one of which was an office, and two bathrooms. Nora’s smile lit up when she saw the bathtub.
She was wide-eyed with surprise at the walls that were covered with an eclectic display of artwork—vivid paintings, vintage posters and abstract sketches—an almost chaotic celebration of creativity. She had not expected this from what she knew so far of Pierre and was eager to discover more.
A terrace ran along one wall. It overlooked the market street and beyond, to a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean. She stood there speechless. This panorama, this apartment, would be in a future novel. Her head spun with ideas, and she had only just arrived.
“What would you like to do now?” Pierre asked.
“To be honest, I would love to soak in the tub and then sit on the terrace with a glass of rosé. That’s what first comes to my mind. How does this sound to you?”
“Well, I won’t join you in the bathtub, but the terrace plan sounds good to me.”
They both laughed.
He continued, saying, “I will take care of some paperwork and put your bag in your room when the guys send them up. The rosé and I will be waiting on the terrace for you.”
* * *
My life is truly charmedwas all she could think as she prepared her bath in Pierre’s beautiful tub. She’d never seen so many clawfoot bathtubs anywhere else she’d traveled as she had on this trip to France.
She texted Chloe after she sank into the soothing water.
Nora: We have arrived! La Côte d’Azur is truly magnificent! Our road trip was a dream. Go figure. Pierre has been so kind and thoughtful. Surprise stop at his parents’ last night. Imagine!
She sent her a photo of her toes at the end of the bathtub.
Nora: Have you been to this apartment?
Chloe: No. When we visited him, he put us up in a hotel because his previous place was so small. He just bought the new place last year. We’ve only seen a few photos.
Nora: It is spectacular. I will send a video.
Chloe: Well, he did say before he left, we should come to visit when the exhibit is on and he had room for us to stay with him. It’s the new and improved Pierre. I wonder if this would have happened if you hadn’t come here and been with us at the mas at Christmas. I think not. Funny how some things work out.
Nora: Quite unbelievable. I’ll let you know when Atticus and I are flying back to Paris. xoxo
Nora flipped through some photo books about Nice that were by the bathtub. Everything she read excited her more.
