In the end we had about 1.5 days to explore Nice itself because we used it as a base to visit Cannes, Eze/Italy, and Monaco. By this time in our trip I was definitely museum'd out and so visiting more museums or even cathedrals wasn't high on my list of things to do so really the amount of time we spent here was sufficient. I much rather enjoyed walking around the city streets admiring the fascinating architecture. The mix of old and new and just being astonished at how old some of the buildings were and how they have stood the test of time. It really does put our local buildings to shame not only on the age things but also on design and character.
Nice has a charming waterfront boardwalk called Promenades des Anglais. The beach in front of this is rocky which I found a little unusual. The rocks are all very round and smooth, no real jaggedness to them, but walking on them barefooted was a little awkward. There is a small sandy area, but it looks like it was man-made sand area. Didn't bother us though and we spend a few hours soaking up the sun on the sand. The water was refreshing and while I didn't go swimming because I didn't feel like changing into my swim suit at the beach I did dip my toes in the water. Z on the other hand was more prepared and went for a swim and had a great time!
There are many squares in the city and a few that we really enjoyed were Place Massena, Place Garibaldi, Cours Saleya and Place du Palais. There are restaurants everywhere and with France's proximity to Italy a lot of these restaurants are Italian or serve Italian food. One other benefit of being so close to Italy is that there are plenty of places were you can buy gelato. Who would have thought gelato to be so readily available? Not I! We really liked one place in particular....Gelateria Azzurro, not only because they had the best pistachio gelato I've had since touring around Italy a few years back, but because they also had a floor mat with an awesome reference to Star Wars.
There is a daily market at Cours Saleya which started out as a flower market but has expanded to a larger market. After getting a late start one day, we wondered down to Cours Saleya to check out the market. It was in the process of shutting down, but we did get a glimpse of the beautiful floral arrangements, fruit and vegetable stands. We wandered through the area after our beach time and found that where the market stood in the morning converted to restaurant patio space for the evening. Pretty cool to see the multi-use of this space. Nice has great park and people gathering space. There is one strip in particular called Promanade du Paillon that runs down the middle of one of the major streets where they have built a large children's play area spanning many city blocks. There is everything from swings to climbing areas and water fountains to help cool you off from the summer's heat. There's even park benches with covers to protect parents from the elements while their kids play. The park benches are also designed in a way that encourages social interaction, something that is really lacking back home.
Place Massena is the start of a large shopping street. The Galleries Lafayette (a large shopping mall) are located here as well as many high end shops along the street front. We spent a little time walking this strip just taking in all the different name brand shops.
My favourite area was the Old Town. This is where all the action and people are. Wandering through the cobble stoned maze of streets was captivating.... the vast number of restaurants mixed amongst the shops left you with an endless choice of where to dine or shop. Walking through this maze of streets made it easy to get lost, yet easy to navigate. Around every corner or fork you'd never know what exactly you'd find except you could anticipate there being a restaurant packed in the evenings with people or a local merchant trying to make a living. The discovery of something you might not have expected was the best part, like a lovely bakery enticing me with their exquisite display of pastries that were extremely hard to walk away from....thankfully I wasn't overly hungry at the time or that could have been a disaster because of my weakness for desserts.
Nice has a one line tram running through the main part of the city to the train station. We found it handy as it was located only 2 blocks over from our apartment and it ran quite frequently. It wasn't really necessary for us to take it as we were about a 15 minute walk from all the areas that we were interested in visiting, but it gave us an opportunity to rest from all the walking we had been doing on this trip. We learned that buying the tram ticket at a tram station required a local's credit card, which we obviously didn't have. This put us in a bit of awkward position. Thankfully Z's quick thinking and pleasant personality helped us persuade a local to buy us a multi-use ticket with her card and we reimbursed her with cash.
Z's mom really wanted to see a French cabaret show and so we decided to take one in in Nice. We (and by that I mean Z) had read that the cabaret show in Nice was half the price and equally as good as the one showing in Paris so we saved this until Nice. We had to take the dinner and show option because the show only option was sold out. The price difference wasn't that bad, but unfortunately for me the dinner lived up to some of the reviews. Thankfully knowing in advance that I'd likely be disappointed with the dinner, gave me the opportunity to eat a snack beforehand to tie me over. The show itself was very impressive. The talent of the performers was phenomenal. The costumes didn't disappoint either. The one thing that surprised me though was that all the singing during the main show was in English. I was anticipating that it would all be French and that I wouldn't understand a thing so that was a really nice surprise. We were seated at a table with a solo guest who we learned was a friend of the general manager of the show. This turned out to be a bit of a perk because it resulted in our table being the first one served throughout dinner.
Overall the stay in Nice was pleasant. I'd certainly consider a visit in the future and even perhaps in the summer season when the weather is hotter and swimming in the Mediterranean is the way to cool yourself off.
Office building (yes, it's a square head)
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