La Belle Provence

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Bonjour,

A long weekend was coming up in Brussels and I decided that I wanted to take advantage of it. “Where do I want to go?” I pondered out loud as people on the metro stared at me in incredulity and trepidation. I decided that I would head to the beach. The closest beach to be was on the North Sea coast, either in Knokke or Oostende. So I decided to go to the south of France.

I went to work for a couple of hours and left early because Brussels Airlines had a posting on their website saying that “due to heightened security measures, please arrive at least two hours before the flight is scheduled to take off.” So I did. And it took me 17 minutes to get off the train, check in, clear security and get to my gate. What a colossal waste of my time having to sit in that airport because unless I want to buy duty-free chocolate or beer, there is simply nothing else to do.

When I got on the place I smacked my head into the ceiling. It was one of those planes that the wings are on top of the plane and it has to be re-enforced inside. Consequently, I spent a lot of time with my neck craned at an unorthodox angle, just so I could get around the plane. The flight was uneventful, and I even had some leg room! I arrived in Marseille and then caught one of the shuttle busses to the train station. The Marseillaise are fairly smart. They have attached their bus station to their train station so all main land transport methods leave and arrive at the same place. WHY DON”T MORE CITIES DO THIS??? There were no seats left on the TGV, so I caught the train that left 30 minutes later but still took the same amount of time to arrive at my destination.

The train ride along the coast between Marseille and Nice was spectacular. The rolling hills and mountains of Provence were on one side while the sea sloped gently away on the other. It was paradise! I arrived in Nice and then took a tram and walked to my hostel. It was located in a former nunnery in the hills above Nice. It was 3km from the beach, but well worth it because it had free internet, breakfast, towels, sheets €1 beers (the good German lagers) and €4 bottles of rosé. Thank you very much Teija for the recommendation on the hostel. I was sharing a room with a couple of people including a guy named Volle who was from Tennessee. He and I caught the tram down to Place Massena, and we wandered a bit around Vieux Nice that night but it was an early night as I was pretty tired from the long day I had.

I woke up at the crack of dawn, enjoyed a huge breakfast, and then jumped on a bus to the village of Eze. The bus ride was a short but spectacular one along the winding roads to the east of Nice. I got off the bus at Eze and walked up to the little hilltop village. The narrow, winding streets of the village are all cobblestones and snake their way from house to house. All of the houses are made of stone and have terracotta tiled roofs. There are small trees growing across come of the streets as well as ivy inexorably climbing across the walls and beautiful purple flowers adorning many gardens. The view from the top was spectactular. You could see much of the village as well as the mountains sloping down to the azure sea and the yachts in the little cove near Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. It was truly an amazing view! As I was leaving the village, the tour busses started arriving to I was able to escape just in time.

I caught the next bus that came and I took it for 20 minutes until it arrived in the Monte Carlo area of Monaco. I walked down through the gardens and fountains until I arrived at the Casino. I did not bring my suit, nor did I bring my money, so I thought it fruitless to enter. I continued along the corniche, looking back at the towering buildings throughout the city…I mean country, and I realized just how densely populated the place was! I also was able to walk on some of the course that they use for the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix so that was really cool. I wasn’t able to drive on it though, which would have been incredible.

The corniche had great views of the harbour, and I did not think the yachts looked very large until I got closer to them. They’re big. Really big. Think 500 square metres (5000 square foot) big! They also have very fancy cars parked across from them for when the owner’s tire of lounging on their beautiful boats, they can drive or be driven around the coast. To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed with the cars. I thought there would be unique and ridiculously expensive cars but, with the exception of one Ferrari, one two Rolls Royce’s and one Shelby, they were fairly average. My personally favourite was the car covered in a silver cloth to protect it from the sun’s rays. That car was a Mazda Miata. Seriously!?!?!?

I then hiked of to the Prince’s Palace and there were sublime views over the principality. I went into the Cathedral and saw the graves of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier before walking over to the Musée Océanographique. It was too expensive, so I didn’t go in, but I saw a bunch of school kids speaking English. That fact in itself isn’t particularly exciting but as I looked closer, I realized that the women chaperoning them was Paz Rabago. She was the chaperone on my school trip to Spain in 2002! It was quite the coincidence running into her there as I haven’t seen her since Spain. We talked for a while and then I headed to the train station to head to my next destination.

I had not been to Italy in 8 years, so I decided that since I was so close, I would skip over the border. The train went past the pretty towns of Menton and Villefranche, two places I will have to visit next time I am there, and then arrived in Ventimiglia. I wandered around the town, took some photos of the pretty Old Town and the beach, grabbed some gelato and hopped back on to the train, thus ending my hour long excursion on Italian soil.

When I arrived back in Nice, I took some photos of the Old Town and Place Massena, as well as the dancing Michael Jackson impersonator who had developed quite the crowd. Apparently, he’s been doing it for at least ten years! I then caught the tram back up to the hostel and I checked into my new room because I had to switch from the night before. It was in a five bed room and I was with a bunch of individual travellers so it was easy to get along with everyone. Dinner was chicken curry (the chef at the hostel used to work on a yacht) and it was only €6 so how can you go wrong. Marissa, Bonnie, Calaya, Rico and I headed down to eat. The food was amazing!!! The brownie afterwards was spectacular, and the cheap beer and wine only sweetened the deal. We headed into town after dinner with a guy who worked in the hostel named Axel. We went into Wayne’s, but it was waaaaaaaay too crowded so we headed over to a place called Check Point which served Paulaner beer that I had not seen since I was in Munich in 2008! It was pricy, so we headed back up to the hostel after a bit and continued the party there.

The next morning we all got up and headed to Vieux Nice. The Cathedral St. Réparte was quite beautiful, but we didn’t go in as Marissa, Rico and I headed up to the grounds of the former Chateau Nice. The views of the harbour on one side and the beach and city on the other were spectacular. Rico constantly took photos up there, mostly of Marissa and I as he would constantly get us to change angles until he got the photo he was happy with. We then walked through one of the prettiest cemeteries I have ever been in before hitting the beach. I baked, went swimming, baked, went swimming and baked a little bit more before Bonnie joined us. Some baking and swimming followed, but then Bonnie and I got bored and we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Now I’m not the biggest fan of Contemporary Art, ask Kif if you don’t believe me, but I really enjoyed the museum. There was a temporary display on of charcoal drawings by Robert Longo that I really enjoyed and they had a Love painting, much like the one in Vancouver. We then walked to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, which was a little out of place being located in the south of France and all but was truly spectacular! Bonnie and I then headed back to the beach to meet up with Marissa and Rico, who hadn’t left their spots on the pebbles. Topless bathing is the norm in the south of France, which I generally don’t have a problem with, but there are some people who just should not be topless on the beach. People who wave more wrinkles than a prune that had sat in water for 1000 years should be as covered-up as possible, as should men whose guts are so large they make Berlusconi look like the very model of health!

Back at the hostel, we had some fantastic beef goulash for dinner, followed by another excellent brownie before started into the beer, followed by the rosé, followed by the sangria. By the time the sangria came out, we had been joined by Taya, Clio, Hannah, Becca and the chef. I went to bed nice and early that night (130am) as I had to catch a train the next morning, but rumour has it the party didn’t stop until 8am.

I left the hostel at the crack of dawn the next day and caught the train to Antibes. The train was very pretty as the sun was trying to fight its way through the clouds, often with staggering attempts. I arrived at Antibes at what has to be one of the prettiest train stations in France after the short, 30 minute rain ride. I was surprised by the size of the marina, and with the amount of stores selling yachts along the waterfront. I would have been in paradise if I could afford more than a dinghy, and even that would be tricky.

I walked into the old town and walked along the walls and I caught the rising sun’s rays shining on the buildings. When I looked out to the harbour, I actually recognized one of the yachts out there. “So that’s where I left it,” I said to myself. Joking aside, it was the yacht owned by the Russian who harboured in Vancouver recently. I looked closer and realized that there were two helicopters on the boat. I understand the need to have one helicopter. I mean isn’t it obvious? You’re on a boat and you need to get to the shore but your runabout with twin 150 hp engines isn’t fast enough to take you the 1km to shore so you must take a helicopter. However, what is the point of the second helicopter? Do they play aerial tag? Are they different colours so one can get up in the morning and decide that the red one will be better than the blue one? Seriously, two helicopters?

The old town was very pretty to wander around with picturesque little squares and greenery and colourful flowers growing on the walls and even crossing over the streets to buildings on the opposite side. I could see why artists such as Picasso and Monet were drawn to the town to paint.

I left the town shortly afterward so I could head 10 minutes down the coast to Cannes. Cannes is renowned for its film festival, and that is about it. As far as I could tell, the city lives off the two-week long film festival for the rest of the year. There is a pretty old town situated on a hill, and there is a nice beach, but the city itself is fairly unattractive and there are prettier old towns and nicer beaches on other parts of the coast. I did enjoy looking at the yachts though. There were more there than in Monaco, and there was even one from Canada. Well done Pegaso from Halifax!!! After I had finished wandering, I went and caught the train to my final destination Marseille.

I arrived in Marseille and checked into my hostel, Vertigo, which was in a very multicultural district near the train station. I dropped off my stuff and headed down to the Vieux Port which is where the city is centred around. It was full of sailboats and very pretty. I walked around for a while and then decided that I wanted to walk up to Notre Dame de la Garde, the cathedral that is located on a hill in the city. It didn't seem like it would be too much of a hike so I started on my way...at noon...in sunny, 30 degree weather. It was not the smartest idea I've had in my life! I compounded the situation because anyone who has ever gone hiking with me knows that I tend to increase my pace when I head up hills. The roads up to it weren't that bad until I got to the stairs. They just about killed me. Just when I thought they had ended, more started. Not only did the stairs continue into perpetuity, but they seemed to get steeper as I went! I finally made it to the Cathedral, and I spent a good 5 minutes in the shade deciding on whether I was going to black out or not. Fortunately, I did not and I entered the cathedral. It was very beautiful. It was a Catholic church, but the designs on the inside and the colours used throughout the building reminded me of a Byzantine church. It was pleasant to wander around the church, but the view was what I had gone up there for. It was absolutely spectacular!!! There were 360 degree views all around Marseille, the ocean out to the fabled Chateau d’If, the Calenque and the Vêlodrome Stadium.

I spent a while up there taking photos before heading back to the Vieux Port. Edith, a friend of mine from Brussels, had lived near Marseille and had asked for me to bring her back some soap from the city because it is famous for it. I was unable to find it for a while, but a woman at a tourist shop and I had one of the more vivid discussions that I had had of late. I asked her (all in French) where I could find larger bars of (and I pointed to some soap she had because I did not know the French word). I used “grande” instead of “grosse” and this lead to, despite the discrepancies in the French between the two of us, a funny conversation. Anyways, she actually gave me directions to the shop that all of the soap was made in so I was able to buy some from the source. I then wandered around the streets a little bit more before going back to the Vieux Port and going on a walking tour that my free map suggested through Le Panier, the old town of Marseille.

There were great views of the port, the cathedral and the forts guarding the harbour from Le Panier. In the area, the streets were all narrow and the buildings were very pretty shades of yellow and pink. There was a very cool church located on the outskirts of the area, but I could not understand why it had been erected in such an unusual area. It was located between a highway and next to the modern port and seemed very out of place but very pretty at the same time. I wandered through Le Panier for a while before heading down to the Vieux Port which, if you haven’t guessed by now, is the heart of the city. There was a regatta on when I was there, so there were many sailboats in the harbour of both the racing and cruising variety so it was very pleasant to wander around in their vicinity. There were also a lot of events happening on shore so it was a great atmosphere there.

I grabbed some food and wandered along the shopping street to the Hotel de Ville before heading back to the hostel to catch up on the sleep that had eluded me for much of my time in the south of France. I thoroughly enjoyed Marseille. It has an undeniable energy to it that I have never felt in any other city. The only city that I could even feel a slightly comparable energy level was Berlin.

The next morning I caught a bus to the airport and I flew back to Brussels. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the south of France, and I will definitely return again one day.

Au revoir,

Peter

Things I learned in the south of France:
-My French is better than I thought it was
-Boule is the most popular sport in the region. If you see a stretch of sand surrounded by seating and you count your lucky stars that you have found a women’s beach volleyball match, prepare to be disappointed as the sand will surely be occupied by old men throwing silver metal balls at other silver metal balls.
-It is much better to own a villa than a yacht (let the debate commence)

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Comments

[Teija]

Hey Peter!! i'm so glad you liked Villa St Exupery, it was one of my fav hostels on the whole trip! :) I"m so envious of your travels through the south of france. I am considering getting on a plane and going there right now hahaha! Did you see the gross wrinkly topless old ladies on the Nice beaches?... lol