Nice and the Côte d'Azur

nickjenkins Wyświetlono: 592 razy 2003-11-20 14:57:43

Ocena:3.00 (20 głosów)

In the spirit of impulse weekends, my flatmate and I decided to flee London and head for some sunshine....
In the spirit of impulse weekends, my flatmate and I decided to flee London and head for some sunshine. Evaluating all the options we eliminated a few of the more obvious ones like Tenerife, the Costa del Sol or Ibiza and settled on Nice and the French Riveria.

We booked the tickets with a scant two days to go, seized a copy of the Cote D'Azur Lonely Planet and packed a shoulder-bag each. We were flying Easyjet's new run to Nice, arriving Friday afternoon and leaving Sunday night. The ride out to Luton was not too bad and, except for one unfortunate tube delay, we arrived on time.

We arrived in Nice at about 7pm and, after the usual accommodation roulette, secured some lodgings near the train station in the two star "Hotel St Gothard". Following the advice of our very nice and multi-lingual hostess we walked from our Hotel down through the Place de Massena into the Vieux Nice, the old town. We manage to this all without me having to chance my meagre French on anything more than buying a bus ticket too !

In the old town we found the predictable run of gaudy tourist restaurants but managed to pick a restaurant specialising in Provencal cuisine out of the mishmash of Mexican, Italian and fast-food restaurants. The atmosphere was lively inside and the eclectic crowd of locals and foreigners, young and old, seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I seized the rare opportunity to sample fresh seafood and ordered the "St Piérre" grillé, a local firm-fleshed fish char-grilled and accompanied by a skimpy salad and potatoes. Mark ordered a rich beef ravioli which he seemed to enjoy. I followed up with glaces and sorbet (chocolat, citron and pistache) and Mark with profiteroles. A light, red Provencal wine accompanied the whole meal and as a start to the weekend the experience was fantastic. It even featured that most French of things, a surly waiter who can still make you laugh.

For a while we chatted to the people at the next table. They worked for the holiday company "SunSeeker" which specialise in boating tours. The two girls were from the London office and were in Nice organising a very large floating party with their two male French counterparts. They, unlike us, only had a single day in Nice before they were to fly home.

After dinner Mark and I staggered back to the hotel, satiated and tumbled into our respective beds for some well earned sleep before the weekend proper started.

The next morning we got up reasonably early (before lunch) and wandered out to the train station to catch the train west along the coast to Monaco.

Monaco is only thirty minutes from Nice and trains run every hour so we alighted at Monte Carlo station at about 11am. We emerged from the tunnel to the train station into the bright light and gleaming white hulls of the harbour.

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