Considering that its spread-out city limits enclose nearly a million people, Nice feels quite a doable city along the French Riviera. I've enjoyed kids crossing the street after school, uniforms still relatively neat after days spent playing soccer or maybe jump-rope, and learning a foreign language (English perhaps); I have watched the casual fellowship of off-duty cops or firemen playing Petanc in a vacant lot; enjoyed a kvetching barista's excellent Americano presented in the ever-present white china illy cup. I've joined people-watching people at bistro tables, occasionally sipping from that glass of white wine. There's a difference between being mellow and just lazing about—these citizens are clearly of the former sort, but how tempting to become the latter.