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In the spirit of impulse weekends, my flatmate and I decided to flee London and head for some sunshine....

Nice and the Côte d'Azur

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 14:57:43

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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. ...