Blogs from Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 3

Early start...still dark....jackets n scarves... Around the corner to the free bus....onto the train station through the police security bag check...'do you have knives?'.... Met a kiwi couple and had a chat for 10 mins before we were off to platform 2 for the 8.25. An hour trip to Marsielle St Charles Gare and had 5mins exactly to get to our train on another platform...just... A 2 3/4 hr trip through the lovely Cote d'Azur ....Toulon, Frejus, san Raphael, Cannes, Antibes.. Arrived to Nice Gare and across the street to the Ligne Office to purchase our public transport tickets (10 trips for 10€). Onto Rue Jean Medecine to catch the next tram up to 4th stop Gorbella...1 min walk to our apartment on Rue Paul Bounin. 1/4 to 1 we met our substitute host...melvins sister... We ... read more

Nice (pronounced niece) was an excellent place to stop for a few days. It has an excellent marina with great people working there that are very helpful, an excellent tourist information center, a wonderful public transportation system which includes buses, trams and a train station that you can use to go to other places; a historic part of town to wander through, numerous museums, great promenades along the water, fabulous scenery with Nice being surrounded on one side by mountains and the other the sea – what else could you want? Oh, yes, I forgot wonderful places to sit and have a meal. This was going to be our last stop in France as our plans are to head to Italy next. We at first thought we would only stay a couple of nights, but with ... read more

This entry by Tom. Slept in but not a lot. Even though I covered a lot of distance yesterday and it was the 14th day of the last 15 that I was on the bike, I was still in the habit of waking up early. Still, we missed the breakfast service at the hotel which I heard was very good. So we headed out on a neighbourhood walkabout to find food. We picked up some flat peaches at a corner grocer but ended up at the big supermarket down on the main road for the real stuff. Found some very good sausage and cheese for cheap, plus juice, waffles and fruit salad which we brought back to the hotel. After what amounted to brunch we got down to the business of packing the bikes. It took ... read more

To start this blog, I'll post the promised picture of the beach view this morning from my balcony (see photo). By the way, this stretch of wa is called the Baie des Anges (the Bay of Angels). It's hard to tell from here, but up close you can see that the beach is mostly stones rather than sand (see photo). This morning I explored Nice. Rick Steves has two Nice walks and I followed both of them. The first had me stroll along the waterfront promenade with the hotels on one side and the beach on the other (see photo). I passed by a collection of flower bouquets which I assume is in tribute to the victims of the Nice terror attack in July where an ISIS adherent drove a truck into a holiday crowd, killing ... read more

We flew from Newcastle Airport in the UK to Nice with Easy Jet. Tickets were a bargain at £50 return. The Cote D'Azure is the playground for the rich and famous. Would we fit in to the jet set life style? Nice was our base for the first 6 days of our stay followed by Antibes for 3 days. Our hotel The Novotel was set a little outside the Old Nice Town but was only a short walk or tram ride from the promenade. We immediately fell in love with the surroundings - azure sea, sunny skies, and lovely Provencal countryside inland. We explored Nice on foot. The old quarter was particularly fascinating with colourful buildings, narrow streets, small shops and restaurants. The Promenade d'Anglais provided some sad memories of the recent terrorist atrocities and of ... read more