April 2, 2013

  • Nice and the Cote d'Azur

    Well, the first "real" holiday I've had in quite some time (ie. spending more than 2 nights in a place that wasn't Taize or Taize related) warrants a new blog entry I feel! Not sure I've got time to keep it up as before, but we'll see... lots of changes afoot, so perhaps.

    In the meantime, a quick run down of my holiday:

    Thursday 28th March 2013: Day One
    For the first time ever, I think, I flew from Venezia Marco Polo airport to somewhere other than the UK. The only other time I have flown from an Italian airport elsewhere was to go to Cagliari in December 2010 but I think I went from Milan as I was living in Brescia. 
    The flight was ridiculously delayed because of a lack of buses at the airport. When I got on the plane, surrounded by 70% Italians, 20% French and 10% other, the very British pilot announced that the organisation at Venice on the ground was shocking and that he had lodged a complaint and suggested we do the same. He announced this in very fast, colloquial English, so I suspect the gist of what he was saying was lost on most of the passengers but the very few native speakers flying from Venice-Nice. He did try to say the same thing in French, bless him, but it didn't amount to much... Anyway it was a frustrating delay all round as it meant the arrival in Nice was slightly too late to go to the museums I had been hoping to squeeze in that day. In the end it all turned out to be timed beautifully so it was okay but the arrival was a slight pain. Late flight, hostel which had messed up my booking so I wasn't in a 5 bed female dorm but a 13 bed female form (I've stayed in worse, but the 1 bathroom between 13 in room was something I was trying to factor out this time). Oh and it was raining. Pouring in fact. 

    As I was too late to do much else, I decided to go straight to the swimming pool. Bliss! Only €2.60 entrance, and geared with my costume, swimming cap (first time I've worn one of those since school!) and goggles, I got in and had a good old swim. Very liberating, and lovely to be able to since I don't really feel I can go in Italy. Partly for timing, partly for fear of bumping into students there! 

    After that, I had a quick dinner in a cafe  

    and then headed to Holy Trinity, the Anglican Church of Nice for a Maundy Thursday service at 8.30pm. Beautiful church, and the service was quite well attended, though of course a very solemn affair so I didn't actually speak to anyone before, during or after. We sang a Taize chant though and a couple of hymns and it was nice. 


    Friday 29th March 2013: Day Two
    The weather as I set off made a great change from the previous day: sunny and blue skies! Started by wandering round Old Nice a bit, and the waterfront, before catching a bus to go on my first day trip down the coast. I was starting at a place called Eze village, a tiny little medieval village perched on a clifftop with great views across the coast. It's also famous for its perfumery, but I decided against visiting. Instead I wandered about the village, up to the very highest point which is an exotic garden. Splendid views indeed, though unfortunately we were a bit up in the clouds there so it had gone a bit dull.

     

    Looking down from the top you could see right down to the village's sea level counterpart, Eze-sur-mer,

     

    and there was indeed a walking path to go down by foot instead of taking the bus.

    My guidebook described this walk as "strenuous" and I had read a few similar things about it, but had put my trainers on and was ready to go, so go I did. It basically took 45-50 minutes to get down. Very unsteady path in some places, though with steps carved in others. I didn't see ANYONE going down. I met 3 couples coming up (much much worse I imagine!!). It was quite strenuous in terms of needing quite a lot of control to stay steady...

    I'm reasonably accustomed to doing crazy things like this though so it was fine, but I have to say my calves are STILL suffering now. I didn't warm up at all before starting which was stupid as it was a long and quite challenging descent! I was glad when I made it to the bottom but then went even further, right down to the very water and walked all along the pebble beach - more hard work for the old legs!! 

    From Eze-sur-mer I took the bus 100 to Monaco, to visit Monte Carlo. The weather still wasn't great, but I enjoyed having my packed lunch (a supermarket bought salad and fruit) in one of the parks near the Grand Casino.

    The Casino was closed so I didn't get to go in even to the non-dress code free entry bit (I was wearing my trainers for Eze so was not dressed the casino part!!), but had a good look round the outside and enjoyed looking at lots of expensive cars and things.

    I wandered around the marina area, and then embarked on another good walk, this time an ascent up to the Royal Palace and Cathedral etc of Monaco.

    Thoroughly enjoyed wandering around up there, and after a few hours decided it was time to head back to Nice. Once back in Nice I spent some more time wandering around while it was still light and managed to fit in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art which I loved. Especially the roof terraces with fantastic views over the city (nice as it was sunny!). Then I raced across town to visit the Russian Orthodox Church - as I was on the way I was worried it would be closed when I got there as my guide said 5.30pm. I was happy just to see the outside in the sun though and would go back to see inside another time. But luckily it was still open! Even if the security man was a bit of a joker and told me it wasn't... had to put a scarf on head to enter of course and no photos inside, but it was yet another magnificent Orthodox church.

    After that I took advantage of a "dish of the day" offer at a restaurant I passed, which turned out to be delicious salmon with potatoes and roasted vegetables. One of the cheapest but most delicious and healthy meals I had on the trip! Then it was straight back to the hostel to take advantage of the free internet. I have to say, the hostel was great (despite having screwed up my booking!). I've stayed in an awful lot of different hostels in different countries now, and this was certainly one of the best in terms of things it offered. Rather like the ones in Australia, lots of activities put on, free guided tours of the city, TV common room, on site bar etc etc. Better than most of the European hostels I've stayed in recently - very international feeling. What can I say, it was run by Brits!!

    Saturday 30th March 2013: Day Three
    Another rainy day. My plan was to go to Cannes and Antibes, but given the weather I decided to leave Nice a bit later to give it a chance to brighten up. I decided at the last minute to go swimming again in the morning. The pool was meant to be open from 7am, but I hadn't noticed it was closed for a group from 9-10am. So having trudged across in the rain, I was turned away for an hour (I arrived at 9am). Got a coffee and wrote postcards while waiting, and wandered around a bit more through Old Nice (since I was going to get wet in the pool anyway it didn't really matter, apart from my shoes have completely disintegrated now...). Had another lovely swim, this time actually counting the lengths: 54 in 40 minutes. I was quite pleased with that, especially since the last time I went swimming (before these two times on this trip) was in August in Dulwich. When I lived in Bristol I went 3/4 times a week after work for a period of time and loved it. Sometimes I feel like I grew up in the water, given how much time we spent at the school pool... so I do miss swimming when I don't get to go. 

    As it was still raining, I decided to fit in a couple of museums before lunch too. Starting with the Musee de Massena, a nice small collection of art housed in a beautiful period building. Followed by the Musee des Beaux Arts. Enjoyed both. Then it was straight to the station to get my train to Cannes.

    Arrived in perfect timing, just as a train was about to leave. Hopped on and was delighted that the skies were brightening up! Shame they had dulled again by the time I got off the train... I didn't spend long in Cannes. It was interesting to visit, but absolutely packed with Italians and once I'd seen the red carpet, seen the film stars' hand prints and wandered up yet more steps/hill to get to the old town and castle, I had seen enough. 

    Hopped back on train to head to Antibes, where I spent a bit longer. Now decidedly grey, the sea views weren't quite as enthralling as they were from Nice the following day, but nonetheless I enjoyed walking along the ramparts and visiting the huge sculpture that stands facing out to sea. 

    I also visited the Picasso museum which was great. After wandering around for quite some time, I had an early supper in a Lebanese Falafel place (yum!) and then walked back to the station to get the train back. By this point legs were rather killing from the exertion of the day before, compounded by a lot more walking in Cannes/Antibes, so it was back to the hostel to rest for me!

    Sunday 31st March 2013: Day Four
    Happy Easter! First stop was Holy Trinity for the Easter service at 11am. Beautiful blue skies - the Chaplain said as he welcomed us to the service, "I've arranged for the weather to be suitable for the day". It was indeed glorious, and a lovely service too. Great hymns (I was slightly concerned that I didn't recognise them and there was no music to sight read from, but it turned out the tunes were very familiar indeed). The church was packed with 200 or 250 so it was a very hearty Easter service. Having one of the two OT readings read in French gave it a rather Taize-ish feeling to it which was lovely, especially as the past 3 Easters that's where I've celebrated it and so I was very slightly missing it. Nice to see another Anglican church abroad, too. Much bigger that St George's, Venice of course. But similar in many ways.


    After church the plan was to visit Nice properly in the sunshine. That I did! Wandered around all the old town and along the Promenade des Anglais soaking up the sun. So much so that I actually caught it quite a lot! I wanted to go up on the castle hill, for which there is a lift taking you most of the way up. Given the legs situation, that was the plan. Unfortunately the lift was closed (exceptionally) on Easter Sunday so I had to take the steps after all! Oh well, legs certainly did get a good workout! (Hopefully I'll be able to walk normally again soon, hah!). The views from the top were worth every step - stunning and a wonderful place to spend a bit of Easter! There's a great park on top which goes all the way round the hill so you can soak up the views on all sides. I had lunch up there in the cafe too (not the best place but I had picked the wrong time to make the ascent really, at 1pm!). 

    After that I explored the rest of the town, everything being closed though so couldn't go in some of the small places I had thought I might. No bother, after that I got the bus to Villefranche-sur-Mer. A little town on the way to Monaco which was wonderful in the sunshine. Another long walk down from/up to the bus stop, but again worth it. I visited a little chapel painted by Jean Cocteau (whose play I studied in 1st year at Bristol) which was very interesting, another museum of interesting sculptures by a local artist, Volti, and spent the rest of the time wandering along the sea front and around the old streets of the village perched on a hill. 

     



    Getting back from Villefranche was some what of an adventure. I got to the bus stop at just before 5pm. A bus came past, "complet". If they're "full" they don't stop. Well actually this one did stop to let about 10 people off, so it also let about 10 people on. Not me. The next bus was "complet" and definitely not stopping. The next one was "complet" and let 2 people on. The next one was "complet" and didn't stop. And so on. Given that by this point there were about 30 people waiting for a bus and ALL of them (coming from Monaco) were already full, the hopes of getting on one were fast diminishing! There were riots starting every time a bus went past, people kicking the side and swearing at the driver etc. To be fair, by this point we had been waiting an hour and a half... it was quite ridiculous. But of course being a bank holiday the buses were less frequent. So we waited with no luck... then a bus went past and didn't stop, even to the protests, but then stopped a bit further along to let a man with a pushchair on!! A few people started running to the open door and I joined them, and jumped on. In fact this bus was by no means "full" which annoyed me greatly. Of course each driver who went past didn't know that we had been waiting that long or that that many buses had gone past, presumably each just thought we could take the next one, but that hadn't been the case. So to find that there was actually plenty of room for the 10 or so of us who managed to jump on was a pain. I didn't have a ticket of course and spent the journey worrying about being fined, and preparing my protestation in French, but luckily no one checked and I was quite happy not to have paid for the journey having waited 3 hours for the bus.

    Once back in Nice I wanted to try the local speciality "socca" for supper. It's a chickpea flatbread.

    My guide book recommended a particular place, but I hadn't managed to find it and my legs were hurting so much again by this point that I stopped at a place on the way back which was doing a deal on it with a glass of wine. I didn't like it at ALL but don't know if just because I'd picked the wrong place to get it. 10m along the road I came to the place recommended by guide. Annoying! 
    I treated myself to an Easter Sunday crepe (can't go to France and not have at least one crepe!) and a small glass of cider. Lovely! 

    Monday 1st April 2013: Day Five
    Final day, and planned to perfection in that the only things I had left were the 2 museums open on that Monday, Chagall and Matisse. My flight was at 6pm so I wanted to leave for airport at 3.30pm and it all worked brilliantly.
    I walked to the Chagall Museum (nearer town) and spent a good 90 minutes there, marvelling at his work. Never seen it before to be honest but I was impressed, and of course having an audio guide explaining each piece in detail automatically makes the visit longer. 

    From there I decided to wait for the bus to get to Matisse. This was one of the highlights of the trip: at the bus stop were a couple of Italian guys and they were discussing what time the next bus was coming, and I chipped in in Italian and was then chatting to them about Nice and stuff in Italian. Then a batty old French woman turned up and started chattering away in French, and I held a good conversation with her for the 15 minutes we were waiting for the bus. She complimented me on my French and asked where I had learnt to speak it so well! Of course I was delighted, since speaking French is quite a rare occurrence these days! I did speak it a LOT on this trip though which was great, and I was pleased that it did seem to come back to me, even if I still throw in the occasional Italian word while speaking! Felt quite fluent on the few occasions I did speak though, which is probably more than I can say for Italian half the time!

    After the museums I visited the area around them, the cemetery where Matisse and another artist whose work I appreciated in the other museum, Raoul Dufy, are buried, and the Monastery church. Then back to the hostel, last use of the free internet, and off to the airport.

    Now the airport is meant to be France's 2nd or 3rd in terms of passenger numbers. But it was TINY! You fell through security straight onto the gates. One shop, seating all at gates really, vending machines and a very overpriced Paul cafe. No other choice. I was thinking it was a shame I'd got there so early, but then we started boarding the plane at 5.15pm and were all ready to take off early - great! Meant I arrived early at the other end, no passport control and no baggage to collect meant I was out the airport door at the bus stop at the same time we were due to land, on an earlier bus and an earlier train than expected. Thought the train journey was going to be a nightmare when at Venice Mestre we all had to cram on like cattle into the ends (all corridor space taken), but luckily lots of people got off at Mogliano Veneto and then Treviso, which isn't too far, so the rest of the journey I was able to sleep like a baby!

    All in all a great little mini-break:
    6.5 towns, 7 museums, 2 swims, about 1000 stone steps and many kms up and down hill later, I'm back.... and I'm looking forward to my next similar trip which is booked for the beginning of July: Prague!