We are about a fifteen minute walk to the beach in
Nice. It is not a sandy beach, instead it is covered
in smooth washed stones that make it very uncomfortable to walk on unless you
have some form of protection on your feet.
The beaches were not very crowded despite the hot sunny weather, but
then it is a Wednesday and most people are working. Of course it did have its obligatory topless
bathers. (This comment is for Ron)
I had visited Nice in 1976 and for some reason I remembered the
boardwalk as narrow and having cafes on it where you could sit down and
have a drink and watch the world go by. It seems my memory is faulty. There are cafes but they are located
on the other side of a six-lane boulevard that you risk your life attempting to
cross. The promenade is named the "
Promenade des Anglais" because of the large number of rich English tourists that used to go to Nice in the winter. It is huge with bike
lanes and jogging lanes and room for tons of pedestrians. Down on the beach
there are several high end restaurants but nothing that would allow you to kick
off your shoes and relax over a glass of wine.
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| Cave side restaurant |
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| Toilet embedded in the cliff |
From there we went into the
old town of Nice. This was very pleasant area that even though
it is overrun by tourists, such as us, it is still home to many people
and has a strong feeling of community to it.
There was a market in the morning which we missed and there are many
shops, such as butchers and wines stores that locals use daily. The alleys are narrow but there are many
roads that you could access with a car. Marg was finally able to find a floppy hat to protect her from the hot sun.
In the old town there were several plaques dedicated to the fallen of the Second World War. Instead of being dedicated to the regular army they are dedicated to those who fought and died with the French Resistance from 1940 to 1944.
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| Old Town in Nice |
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| Old Town in Nice |
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| Spice shop in old town of Nice |
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| Marg's new hat |
I was impressed with the local architecture. It appears that a lot of the apartments and
hotels close to the beach and on major thoroughfares are about 100 years old. They are between four and six floors high and
the windows are very symmetrical. The
balconies are mix of styles but most seem to have a bit of a curve or design to
them. The colours of the stucco exteriors
range from light brown to white. Some of the buildings have a thimble shaped roofs in a green coloured tile. I'm not sure of the significance of this style.
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| Residences in Nice |
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| Residences in Nice |
It should be noted that Nice also has the worst designed building I've seen. Their museum of Modern Art is a big multi sided grey box with no windows. It makes Ottawa's NAC look like a grand palace.
I would also like this opportunity to again mention the owners of this apartment, Kay and Guy Embriaco. Again this morning, their ISP was down and I called her at work to tell her. She got right on it away and replied back to us quickly with the news that it was a system wide problem and would be resolved shortly. Their attention to detail and helpfulness is wonderful.
Tonight we went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by Kay and Guy called
L'Occitanie. The menu was entirely in French and Marg ended up ordering Veal livers, but at least the fries were good. The owner is a former rugby player who played for Toulon for 15 years in the French professional league. He was very personable and even though his English was only slightly better than our French we had a great time.
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