Nice (again)

Sundays are meant for relaxing. And eating. Something that the French take very seriously. Whilst us Brits see Sundays as another opportunity to hit the shops, the French shut theirs and are nowhere to be seen. Knowing that this also applied to public transport (which can be patchy at best normally) we decided to stay in Nice and venture slightly further afield than before.

We decided to walk to Cimiez, which now stands on the ruins of Cemenelum, a Roman city built to rival Nice back in the day. Uphill and winding its way past some evidently affluent residences, it was nice to see another side of Nice. We were heading for the Musee National to check out the Marc Chagall exhibition. I'd briefly touched on Chagall at university as part of artistic representations of war, so was intrigued to see an exhibition devoted to Chagall's self portraits, as well as his famously bright creations.

Entry to the museum is 10E for adults or free for under 26s (like a lot of galleries, museums and landmarks in France) but we skipped in without having to pay anything. The exhibition charts over 40 years of Chagall's work, from quick self portrait sketches on napkins to vast painted religious scenes. Born in Russia, he moved to France before fleeing the persecution during the war. As part of a group of other persecuted artists, he was amongst some of the most prolific artists of the time.

From there, we battled onward uphill to the 16th century Franciscan monastery of Cimiez. We ducked into the church briefly and were met with heavily incensed air, lots of gold, faded artwork and even the remains of a saint. There's also a Franciscan monk buried in the church, having gone on a mission to China to spread the word, and returned burned to die amongst his brothers. The monastery gardens are well-tended and full of rosebushes and herbs with views all the way down to the bay.

And as part of both, the old cemetery overlooks the foothills. The French are renowned for their mausoleums as memorials to their dead. Particulary evident in la Pere Lachaise in Paris, it was a sign of wealth and prestige as well as somewhere to mourn (Oscar Wilde's tomb is covered in lipstick kisses from admirers). We sought out Matisse's final resting place but weren't successful, but these are picturesque nonetheless, non?

Eventually we headed back down the hill (after some lengthy waits for public transport), grabbed a baguette and a tart from a boulangerie and made it back to the apartment just in time for the skies to open and the rest of the day to be clouded with torrential rain. 

We spent the evening indoors with baked prawns in garlic and herbs, baguettes and wine, practising some very unmonklike decadence.

Nice: Day II

After our first night, we decided to try and get our bearings in Nice before planning adventures further afield. So before breakfast we set off around the old port (which our apartment overlooks) coveting all the yachts, big and small alike.

Sadly we didn't manage to catch a ride on either boat so came back to the apartment for breakfast on the terrace, with a still-warm baguette from the boulangerie. After UN petit dejeuner des rois, we set out to explore the remains of the old chateau, le Lou Casteu. With settlers dating way back to 3BC, but more recently an 18th century stronghold, the ruins of the castle stand proud above the city. Although it's nothing more than rubble, the winding staircase to the top gives you the most incredible views of the bay, the town and the foothills of the Alps.

There's even a waterfall tucked away to discover too...

We then headed down into the Vieux Ville amongst pastel pink buildings and thick heavy doors. We picked up some essentials from the local épiceries and whipped up a quick and easy meal (with a not so easy to access bottle of wine) and watched the sun go down on our first full day à France.

Nice to see you, to see you Nice: part ii

I'm about to jump on a plane to Nice for the week! We're staying in an apartment overlooking the port, right beneath the castle ruins - you can actually see it in the picture above! We're planning some daytrips to Menton, Grasse, St Tropez, Monaco and other places in between - we haven't got it pinned down yet but top of the list wherever we go is to consume my bodyweight in cheese. And wine. In the meantime, must dash, croissants call...a tout!

Nice to see you, to see you Nice

It's booked! My mum and I are going to be spending a week in Nice, in an apartment that overlooks the port, Le Bassin Lympia. In fact, its one of those warm ochre buildings nestled at the foot of the hill, right in the lower middle of the photograph above!

We wanted to go somewhere late summer but still warm, picturesque and not too heavy on the travelling (or the pocket!) We've both been dreaming of heady Mediterranean evenings coupled with great food and fine wine, and so with my degree to hand, centred our sights on France.

We quickly started drafting our list of requirements: rural gite or urban hotel? countryside or citywide?  bus, train or a plane ride away? sea more or see more? We started to whittle it down and found that Nice had everything we wanted - coastal with a gorgeous beach, great architecture and history and mere bus rides from Grasse, St Tropez, Cannes and Monaco (we're aiming big). Hotels are a bit of a premium and so we turned to airbnb and began combing potential places to be our home away from home.

Airbnb's a simple premise and something akin to a social network where people rent out their rooms, apartments or even treehouses all over the world. You can browse through all sorts of places, locations, durations and liaise with the hosts directly; everything's kept safe and secure by airbnb taking care of the money side so you can relax in the knowledge that you're not about to get swindled and left high and dry.

We booked our apartment this week; a gorgeously bright flat at the foot of the castle, we have a terrace that overlooks the old port and is a stone's throw away from everything that Nice has to offer. From the markets to the beach, the castle to the opera house, there's a lot to get excited about. With all this inclement weather we've been having, the thought of a glass of wine on the sunkissed balcony is, well, Nice...