First impressions of Nice - by day not too hot, very touristy but quite pleasant. By night - like any other Mediterranean town in the summer - full of young people and restaurants.

This afternoon we went for a walk around the town. Tried the beach first but found it to be a pebble beach. We're going back for a swim tomorrow. Went round the old town, which is a network of narrow streets full of boutiques, ice cream shops and churches. Went to the Monop' (like a Co-op) and bought food to make dinner in the kitchen of the guesthouse.

Went out in the evening for the French national festival of Summer (first day of summer) and there were lots of live bands playing in the town, including African drummers, a samba band and Nice Jazz Orchestra, who, after a lecture on the history of jazz in French, played lots of classic jazz tunes. Their drummer was very good and led them through a tight rendition of Sing Sing Sing, but the pianist's attempt at playing Maple Leaf Rag was fairly awful. We went and sat on the beach and I realised we could see the constellation Scorpius, which is too southern to see in the UK. By now it was getting very busy and noisy, and considering we had been up since 6 this morning, we went back to the guesthouse.