Nice on the Côte d'Azur

September 2018 

The flight from Madrid had some lovely views of the Cote d'Azur and Marseille on the way in.

I landed in the early evening and had a few hours to kill before meeting Bruce, so chilled on the beach with my book for a couple of hours, enjoying the sunset over the picturesque town. Nice felt very Italian with its buildings and waterfront location. I also had a late night frozen yoghurt.

Bruce's uncle owned the flat we were staying at and which he rents out on Airbnb. We had a drink with him and he was quite a character, with a lot of views on French life and culture based on his 15 years living in France. The apartment was pretty nice but small. I slept on the spacious couch on the balcony which was surprisingly comfortable.

 

The next day we had a slightly later start, then we walked to the harbour, up to the old chateau then down for a well earned swim. Everything felt a couple of degrees colder than Madrid even though it was still high 20s.

For lunch we had a glass of wine and a platter of wine and cheese then headed out to Cannes. The town itself was pretty unremarkable, lacking the charm of Nice. However we timed the visit right, as the train journey was through quite a bit of rain but by the time we arrived it had cleared up and we able to swim at the beach with a pretty stunning sunset.

Beach at Cannes

Dinner in Cannes was good. I had fish, while Bruce opted for a set menu of stew, zucchini flowers and caramel dessert. I needed to very carefully watch my spending which was more difficult to control when wasn't me and Rach with a unified idea of budget.

 

The next day started with exercise - but much more than I'd expected!

 

Bruce's uncle (Andy) and his friend Philippe picked us up and took us to the top of Mt Boron on their motorbikes. This was to join in a daily exercise routine they had both gotten into. This was to be a lighter day, more scenic as we were joining them.

 

First a slow run for 15 minutes up and down a gentle slope. Then running a loop around a 1.5km track through the bush with stops periodically to use public exercise equipment. E.g. pull ups/chin ups, squats while using rocks as weights, working arms using big rubber bands for resistance, press ups, crunches and planks. I hadn't been in the gym since the one time I went in uni about 7 years ago, and hadn't run or swam properly for about 1.5 years so was completely unprepared for all of this. However I really enjoyed it. I think I may need to do squats more regularly to try help fix my dodgy knee.

 

We were then taken down to the beach at the port of Villefranche-sur-Mer where Bruce and I had a leisurely swim while the older guys swam about 2km in the sea. Afterwards was a delicious goats cheese salad at the nearby cafe La Baleine Joyeuse.

 

Andy was quite a character, a very smart guy who has an amazing ability to talk and talk, lose track of his original idea and move on the next one at an amazing pace.

 

Afterwards we got the train to Monaco which was an interesting experience but not one I would highly recommend. The whole city / country feels unreal. Much of Monaco is full of hills and twisty turning busy roads snaking between medium/high rise modern buildings, going from the station to the port. The port is full of gigantic super-yachts while Monte Carlo is full of casinos and everything oozes wealth, money and exclusivity. Monaco Ville is the old historic town which is a little nicer, but still feels very rich (the royal castle is right on the edge of the small ville).

 

Monaco Ville

Looking over Monaco

Dinner was in Monaco at a nice restaurant where I had fish while Bruce had another three course set menu.

It was our final full day in Nice. I had been mentioning to Bruce we should book car hire and accommodation for Italy and look into whether we could hire and drive there as I had some doubts about the law. I finally looked further into it and confirmed that yes, there were problems - either an international permit was required or a sworn translation of a licence. Bruce had also lost his licence a couple weeks ago - so I needed to drive. The next day we were to catch a train to Milan with the hope of getting a license translation arranged and fingers crossed, hire a car.

 

Late morning we joined Andy, Phillippe and Andy's girlfriend Anna for a coffee in the old town. We then walked around the old town and port to get to Anna's place as she was making us lunch. Lunch was delicious, a light Niciose salad, tabbouleh, melon, and falafel. Most interesting was the talk and this enhanced when Anna's friend dropped by who spoke much less English. Andy had been at length explaining the differences between French and Kiwi culture as he was so interested in it so it was interesting to see in action. E.g. the custom of the host insisting you eat five times before you agree and actually eat, the habit of commenting particularly on the food and house of the host, conversation approaches, the mildly flirtatious and forward conversations of the women.  I also enjoyed using my rudimentary French skills to mostly listen and understand but at times respond en Francais.

 

Afterwards was a swim at Reserve beach nearby the port then we headed down des Anglais to meet Bruce's old flatmates and friends Phil and Rhianna who had just finished biking through France for 32 days - an epic journey. They were potentially going to join us for parts of our trip through Italy too. We chilled on the beach for a while.

Quite the character.

Dinner was at a nearby restaurant - given the 2 euro difference between starter + main and three course 24 euro set menu I opted for the latter which was the biggest meal I'd had in weeks. Given no other money was spent on meals I felt a little splash out was ok. Bruce was a much bigger eater than me and the others had been biking through France so ate a lot but it felt like an effort to actually finish. It was a really good  meal - Provencal platter of bread achoiade and tapenade, then Beef stew and apple tart to finish but I felt uncomfortably full.

 

Our final Nice day was quite chilled, wandering around the modern art museum, having a coffee with Phil and Rhianna and then catching the train on to Milano.