Nice..oh so nice. I'm sure that line has been used before, but couldn't resist. It was true!!
We arrived safely and happily into Nice, after flying from Barcelona, only a 55 minute flight. As you know, we had a brilliant time exploring Barcelona, but for some reason it just felt right flying back into France. I think we all relaxed when we heard people speaking french around us.
Our apartment was just perfect, situated midway along Le Promenade des Anglais, overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean. While owned by an older English couple, it is managed by 'the Concierge', Alain and Christine, and from the outset, they were just marvellous. As we walked directly past the apartment, paused, u-turn then walked back to the apartment…we were met by Alain, leaning lazily against the front gate, cigarette in hand, twinkle in his eye, looking out for us. Alain was typically french..imagine a slimmer Gerard Depardieu, with a touch of Dustin Hoffman. He was a great character, and during our stay would somehow just appear every time you needed him. As he said to the kids in french, "I am the Concierge..I hear everything, I see everything".
He and his wife spoke not a word of English (well, so they made it appear…I wander though), but we got by. Our first night in the apartment was very funny though, care of my broken french. Alain had just shown us how to work the sofa beds for the kids. As I intended to fold them away each day, I turned to Alain and apparently asked... "Do you mind if we try the bed while you are here?" His wife Christine went into hysterics, and Alain turned a nice shade of red. Tricky, this french business!
That's our apartment on the corner, 3rd floor. Magnifique!
It was a (very first world) dilemma working out how we would spend our time in Nice. On the one hand, the children were tired and really wanted to relax after 6 intense weeks in a foreign environment, speaking 2 foreign languages (and not forgetting a busy week in Barcelona…oh my god, this sounds so decadent!), yet on the other hand, we (more me) wanted to see and do as much as we could..for who knows when we will be back. If Ben has anything to do with it, not for a very long time, or at least not without him! And so we all agreed it would be great to have a few low-key beach days in Nice, combined with a few days visiting some beautiful neighbouring towns..Monte Carlo was on the top of the kids' list!
I had been warned that Nice was very busy and touristy, which it probably is during peak season, but we were spared the crowds and perhaps glitz, by travelling out of season. It never felt busy, and again, as with all our adventures so far, I felt completely safe with (and for) the children.
We ventured to the markets in Vieux Nice, and explored the narrow Mediterranean, spanish-style alleys of the old town;
we (me, each day accompanied by a different child) ran each morning to the Port and back, getting a glimpse of amazing yachts and luxury boats, that we later realised were only a taste of what was to come in Monaco;
we explored more different restaurants and ice-cream flavours, in both the old and very tasteful new parts of Nice;
we scootered (kids) and rode bikes (me), making our way along the Promenade des Anglais at sunset from the Port of Nice, past Vieux Ville, down to the airport and back. Kids were so happy and confident, weaving in, out and around other people and obstacles, as if they did this every day...and on the right hand side of the bike path;
and in the last week of October in France, the kids swam every day!
A Facebook post from our friend Penny, after seeing the photo above: Did the kids swim all the way from your yacht or get the helicopter to shore?..pretty much sums up our experience here, and how incredibly lucky and spoilt we were..and continued to be!!
I must ask at this point, how do the french make walking on those rocky beaches look so easy?! Les callouses perhaps, I'm not sure, but I tried it just the once, and exited crab-like on all fours. I have never felt more pain or lack of co-ordination in my life, and on the Cote d'Azur…not quite the look I was after. The kids mastered the pain after a few goes, and clued on very quickly by taking their thongs right to the water's edge. Smooth transition out of the water onto land, just 2 limbs required, pas de probleme! Again, a different experience (we are getting used to these)…and something that had us all dreaming of Boatshed No.40!
While walking through the old town, and again while sitting on the beach, we heard what sounded like a cannon shot around midday, and spied a puff of smoke. The start of a race, army training perhaps...lots of different scenarios (some more sinister than others) came to mind. But it was during our tour of Nice on Le Petit Train, did we learn the history of this cannot shot…and you will be pleased to hear, nothing sinister at all, just domestic ingenuity.
The story dates back to 1861, when an aristocratic Scottish couple were spending their winters in Nice, staying in a 'castle' overlooking the Port and Promenade des Anglais. Simply, the Scottish Lord liked to have his lunch punctually at midday, and as his wife was often late to lunch, he wanted a way to let her know it was ready. With the permission of the local Council, the Lord organised and paid for a cannon to be shot at noon everyday. How is that for the simplest start to an ongoing tradition?! The townspeople of Nice got so used to this midday lunchtime call, that even after the Scottish Lord stopped visiting Nice, and through to this day, a cannon (now a more modern, safer firework) is fired at midday. Apparently very few local residents are ever late for lunch! We have just loved these little pieces of history, however trivial, on our journeys around the south of France.
Having settled into our apartment, and enjoyed two very relaxing beach days , we ventured to Cannes…mainly out of (my) curiosity associated with the hype of the Cannes Film Festival. I had read prior to going to the Cote d'Azur, that the attraction of the Film Festival is not the location, but the film stars.. but stubborn me thought that it still must be spectacular. I should have read between the lines, and visited Antibes instead! The Film Festival venue is simply a smaller version of the Melbourne Convention Centre, and while it sits alongside the harbour and opposite some nice cafes, has nothing really to recommend itself as a tourist destination. And Cannes, while attractive with its Mediterranean architecture, was made up of such a distinct mix of ordinary and affluent within close confines, that it felt unsettling, almost as if it was a town trying too hard to be something it's not, for the sake of one week a year.
While I was reading way too much into my observations and thoughts, you will be pleased to know this was all lost on the kids, because the beach had SAND! They were like pigs in mud, running up and down, catching waves, laughing and just having a ball. We were the wonderfully 'ordinary' I guess, while the 'affluent' sat on their chaise lounge sipping rose, and maybe wishing they were us!
Exploring further along the Cote d'Azur, we caught the train to Monte Carlo. I didn't read too much into this town, it was decadent, surreal and we all loved it!! This might not be a good thing really, as there were no signs of obvious socio-economic differences or divides…everyone was rich!
I'm sure that's not the case at all, but in the tourist areas immediately surrounding the train station and along the roads overlooking the harbour, it really was incredibly perfect and beautiful, and as Sasha said, it was like stepping into a dream world. While not reality (where we live anyway), it did make our visit there incredibly enjoyable and oddly enough, the pristine streets and cleanliness had a real calming effect. Might be a sign that we are gradually tiring of dodging the dog poo and rubbish regularly left on the streets of Montpellier!
Our visit to Monaco happened to coincide with Halloween, Monte Carlo style! My heart and bank balance shrunk a little when almost the first thing we spied upon exiting the marble-tiled train station, was a fair. Numerous rides and game stalls had been set up along the road overlooking the harbour of Monte Carlo…truly a child's paradise. "Can I…can I…" quickly followed, but I was determined that we see the sights first. The kids were surprisingly responsive to my plan for the day, and soon enough were back enjoying the more historic and spectacular sights of Monte Carlo, however I'm sure with one eye on the fair rides below.
Up the hill we climbed to the Palace. I couldn't count the number of times we just stopped to look down on the harbour and the scene that is so world renowned. It truly is breathtaking, as much for its historic beauty as its pure opulence. I'm not sure if you have seen teenage sensation Selena Gomez's movie, Monte Carlo, but the kids took great joy in trying to spot the palace, the fountain, the scenes where the movie was filmed. I'm sure there are better films to use as a guide, but for our guys it was a perfect way to capture their interest, and enhance their own feeling of having stepped into a fairytale.
...and to the cruiseships, ferraris and James Bond-style boats. You can tell I was hooked! But as you can imagine, the kids' patience was wearing thin (admittedly they had been good)..so to the fair we went.
On first glance (well mine anyway), the fair offered the normal array of fun and entertainment - shooting galleries, fun rides, a roller-coaster, try-your-luck type games and a Haunted House, as it was Halloween after all. The kids had a ball.
Mmm, Barbe a papa
(one of the more unusual french terms we have come across)
However, there was nothing normal about the prizes. In the Jeux Casino (yep, that's right), prizes included iPads, iPhone 5s, stereos and motorbikes for children. They start them young in Monte Carlo!
I'm sure the real Monte Carlo casino has 'systems' in place to limit the winnings of many naive but hopeful tourists, and so did Jeux Casino. Am I a bad person if I say that I thought most games were in some way rigged? The kids had barely inserted their 2 euros before their time on the machine ran out. C'etait incroyable!
While this dampened the children's fun (and winnings) a tad, we only had to look at the scene around us, the magnificent harbour and luxury boats only feet away, lambourginis and ferraris cruising by, and an 800-year old castle on a hill, to appreciate that our experience that day had been pretty fantastic.
In the lead up to our holiday on the Cote d'Azur, we had been recommended by friends to venture inland as well, and we were not disappointed. The town of Mougins in particular was like something out of another fairytale. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was locked up at night like a shop, and reopened each day, it was just so perfect, small and beautiful...from the views over its old walls across the countryside, to the narrowest alleys with quaint glass making shops and galleries, to the picture-perfect cafes, terraces and window boxes.
It was also Picasso's final home, as he fell in love with the medieval village in 1935, and lived there from 1961 until his death. While the kids were discovering small volcanic rocks just outside (Will can tell you about those, Grandpa), I was able to explore quietly but quickly, the Musee de la Photographie, which had some fantastic black and white photos of Picasso, and his magical hands!
Sadly no photos taken by us, as would you believe the one day I forgot my camera. But check back in a few weeks, when we are home in Melbourne and I can hopefully download some pictures from my phone..won't be the same, so in the meantime, let your imagination run free. Picture Cinderalla, the Piped Piper, the Three Musketeers….and us!!
Alas, our holiday is over. Farewell to beautiful Nice and the Cote d'Azur. We had the most wonderfully, relaxing week. It was a rather odd feeling, returning from a 2 week vacation, and not flying into Melbourne. On the train from Nice to Montpellier, Sasha said she felt like she was going home, and I sort of did too…yet Montpellier isn't home. But at the moment it sort of is…it was a really strange feeling.
Now having settled back into the life and school routine that is France for us, I am feeling almost ready to come home, having achieved and experienced alot of what I had dreamed we would do when we planned this trip...though having said that, sadly I am still not brunette, more sophisticated or fluent in french. Fortunately we are living in Montpellier and not Paris, so my expectations can afford to be a little lower!
The next two weeks will see the end of our fantastic adventure...the children will complete 12 weeks in a french public school and hopefully cement some lovely friendships; I will have a few more french lessons and a few more coffees; and together we will explore the Christmas markets and one or two more nearby towns, their unique alleyways and squares, and learn a little more about this beautiful, historic country, however trivial.
How lucky are we!
