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Published: September 18th 2012
Nice Harbour
Boats, boats and more boats.Mid September and the rough plan is to follow the sun. With the climate starting to cool off in the Alps, some serious Med time is on the agenda and Nice is as likely a place as any for a gateway into its blue waters. T-shirts, shorts and thongs (flip flops for some readers. I don't wear g-strings - in public) the mode of dress for the medium term.
This is our second time to Nice and on both occasions finding a bed has been a bunfight. The Riviera is both popular and expensive for digs.
With that drama out of the way, we then needed to tread lightly and not risk falling into the trap of comparing everything to the previous week.
"Annecy was so much cheaper. Annecy was so much less frenetic. The people of Annecy were .........." Yawn.
Annecy was a standout but this town isn't exactly Baghdad either. So locking away last week into the memory vault, we embedded ourselves into a 5th floor apartment (85 steps, count em) about as central as you can be in the "Vielle Ville".
Like seemingly all old town quarters, Nice's version is the hub of
tourist activity. It's atmosphere in a box. The rich primary colours, the ubiquitous shutters, labyrinth of laneways, some so narrow that anybody with a Michael Phelps wingspan could stand in the middle and reach both walls. Behind all this character is this lingering sentiment that Nice, like most tourism driven towns, sold its sole long ago to the demon of hard currency. I don't know if the town would exist in its present state if there wasn't a euro to be squeezed out of it.
There may be more than a sprinkling of tack but Nice still looks smart in the process. Imagine a Surfers Paradise that went to design school.
I then began wondering if a few centuries back in yore when this town was created if the planners envisioned the tourist bonanza they were piecing together. At the same time I questioned at what point in history did subsequent town planners come up with the notion that broad tar thoroughfares, steel, glass and tall buildings was the way of the future. I suspect about 6 and a half billion people ago at around the time of the invention of cars and elevators.
Naturally Nice, in
An old town plaza
Can somebody tell me how to get rid of that orange tinge from my evening photos. I've tried every white balance but no cigar fact the Riviera in general has a couple more trumps up it's sleeve, weather and "beach". This is officially the sunniest corner of France and worshippers of the big yellow ball can't get enough of the place. Then if you are going to lounge around absorbing the uvs, you may as well do it on a beach.
Call me an Antipodian coastal snob, but for something to classify itself as a beach, you're going to need SAND. Europeans don't think so. Wherever a body of water hits land, Euros will call it a beach. So what if that chunk of terra firma is Nice's take on Fred Flintstone's rock quarry, the French call it a beach and you can't rationalise faith to a believer.
Hallelujah the Poms decided about 225 years back to send us convicts to a sunny paradise where the blue oceans butt up against the golden sands of our coastline.
So a bit of beach, a touch of sun, some old world ambience and did I mention the cuisine? There's not much space in these laneways but what exists is crammed with the dux of charm school eateries and Nice is a place where
the two main contenders for national food of the world collide. Not surprisingly, with Italy a couple of penalty box dives down the road and North Africa the next stop south, pizza and kebabs go head to head. We sampled a touch of both plus some "traditional" Nicoise cuisine over the course of a few evenings. All more than passable but how come they tickle the taste buds that much more when you nosh them down al fresco at a laneway table and watch the Cote d'Azure world squeeze by.
One thing I do admire about the French dining regime is the total aversion to gluttony. Food is such an intrinsic element of French life but they know when to stop. On the other hand.........
France for me has been an excessive indulgence, the sort of indulgence where you either:
(a) stack on a kilo or two in the wrong places, or
(b) punch out some serious calory burn through physical exertion.
If you don't count those 85 steps, then exercise has been thin on the ground and explains the slight shift in weight from parts where it should be to parts where it shouldn't
be. Oops.
Better renew that gym membership on return, whenever that might be.
Yeatesy
The weather was perfect, the scenery just grand
We could see the ocean but where was the sand?
We are in France, you can tell from the sound
The French Riviera is where we were bound.
In another apartment not the smallest by far
The stairs, there's so many, my fitness on par
From the window we see steeples, blue skies above
But below us are restaurants, aromas to love
The nights have been perfect, an aperitif to start
Followed by French cuisine and Gary's usual farts!
Capturing photos and memories it's all been a blast
Our days here are numbered but not too fast
But to sleep in the old town much to my disbelief
Was the noisiest place far from any relief
The revellers and patrons enjoying a beer
The occasional mosquito buzzing my ear
No repellent and no French it was impossible to ask
Please just one quiet night after the dark.
With bags packed again we descend those long stairs
We're back on the road without any cares
You'd say Nice has been nice
Full of colour and spice
She's big and she's brash
And there's plenty of trash
I can ignore all the noise and its seedier side
To me its all charm give me Nice any time.
Penny
More images at:
www.colvinyeates.zenfolio.com p
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Poem, pounds and sand
Excellent poem, Penny, had me smiling through it. Great photos as usual--that harbor shot is a knock-out! I spent a year traveling around Europe and easily put on 10 pounds. Outside the Alps and the Dolomites, I just meandered, munched and billowed out. I too was shocked at the stone beach so would take the train to the sand beach at Cannes. May the sun be with you!