I had an early start. I woke up at 6AM, showered, ate some of my last bag of taralli (man, I love that stuff...), and walked across the street to the train station to catch my 7AM train, France bound. Rome is quite near to Italy’s western coastline and my destination was Nice, a French city, also on the coast, which meant that my path would take me all along the coast for the duration of the ride. I hopped an express train, one of those 300 km per hour Italian lightning bolts, to Genoa. I didn’t have much of a view to be honest on this train, and I was sleeping for much of the ride anyway. Then I had an hour and a half to kill in Genoa so I walked around a bit. The city was pretty, at least where I walked, not far from the coast. I got a quick bite for lunch and then hopped my next train, a local train bound for the border village of Ventimiglia. This train was great because even though it moved like a snail and stopped at every little village between Genoa and Ventimiglia, it hugged the coastline the entire way. And it was a beautiful day. The sun was bright and turned the water around the coastline a bright turquoise color. We passed stretches of beaches full of sunbathers, and rocky coastlines. We periodically had to go through tunnels because at times, the coastline drops off into shear cliff walls and the land rises dramatically into these coastal mountains. After several hours of this we arrived in Ventimiglia where I had ten minutes to hop my last train, another local train to continue down the coast over the border and into France. This time the train was crowded less with locals and more with beach goers in flip flops and sunglasses, their skin burned from a long day at the beach. Most people slept this ride out back to Nice. But I was just arriving. The coastline got even more cliff-lined and mountainous along the French coast. We passed into a deep inner mountain tunnel and stopped briefly at Monaco, the small sovereign city famous for Formula 1 racing and it’s casino in Monte Carlo and cars. Twenty minutes later we arrived to Nice.
Nice is the biggest city in the Cote d’Azur, the Blue Coast, known in english as the French Riviera, or the southeastern corner of France along the coast. It is called the Cote d’Azur for its sapphire blue waters along the coast. And this place is gorgeous. It was bright, warm, and sunny when I hopped off the train. The people here, well the tourists here anyway, were different then the fashion chic Italians I left in Rome. Nice looked more like southern California to me. Beach hipsters cruising the side walks in their shades, tank tops, and slippahs, and French youth smoking cigarettes on street corners. The train station is located a bit inland from the beach but Nice is small and a quick walk would get you down to the beach in no time. My hostel on the other hand was just a five minute walk from the station, about the same distance as my hostel in Rome was from Roma Termini. I found the hostel without any problems and checked in. The hostel is really nice, clean, and not too big, with a good kitchen and an inner courtyard terrace surrounded by other apartment buildings and other terraces. It is a nice place. I was staying in the big dorm the first night while I waited for Lissy (Lissy, my friend and host from Berlin) to fly in the next day. I settled in and headed out.
I walked down the one main avenue that runs north-south from the train station to the beach, cutting through the city’s old town in the process. This avenue, Avenue Jean Medecin, is the main shopping street, and a bit pricy. I walked around, poking into some side streets. Hidden in the side streets are French bakeries, cafes, shops, and restaurants. Old men sit outside at small cafes reading French newspapers with their caps and pipes, sipping espressos. Every shop has its own cat. This city feels very French.
I followed the avenue down to the beach, just in time for sunset. The beach is made of pebbles and stretches to the left, easterly, towards some high cliff walls and low but sharp, green mountains. And to the right, the beach goes on and on and on towards Antibes and Cannes. And the water, especially on this wonderful day, was bright blue, doing justice to its name. I took a seat on the wall of the long promenade over the beach that follows the coast, and sat in silence, listening to the waves slowly roll onto the shore and watching the last sunbathers catch as much sun as they could before packing up and going home. The sky turned all the colors it should for beautiful sunsets and the sky grew dark. I found a supermarket on Avenue Jean Medecin, went in, bought a cheap bottle of wine, a bowl of lentils, and some tomatoes and balsamic vinegar for supper. I was going to make use of the kitchen at the hostel.
It was dark now, I went back into the hostel and to the kitchen and found it packed to the brim with people, spilling out into the terrace. I immediately gave up on my idea of cutting up tomatoes and making a salad, and went straight out to the terrace to eat my lentils and drink my wine. I sat with some Aussies I met earlier in the day, Sarah and Rick, on a multi month tour through Europe, and an American guy from Maryland who had been living in the UK awhile, starting a six month tour of the world with two of his British friends. They bought a “world pass” plane ticket, continent hopping on a flexible itinerary. A pretty cool idea. The party rolled on out on the terrace but I gave up on socializing after awhile, I was pretty tired. I went back to the room and fell asleep.
I cut up the tomatoes and put them in a bowl with balsamic vinaigrette and salt for my breakfast and ate it out on the sunny terrace, clear of people from the night before. I had most of the day to kill, I was meeting Lissy at the airport around 4 in the afternoon, so I was just going to roll around the city a bit and explore. I walked through the old town for most of the morning. Luckily, most of the tourists to Nice head to the beach which leaves the pretty little old town relatively free to explore. The little alleyways that make up the neighborhood slowly wind uphill towards the mountains in the east that abruptly meet the coast. I found a small church hidden behind some buildings and despite the noise of mopeds and people on the outside, passing through the open doors to the large chapel inside was a transformation of sound, to a peaceful place within. The chapel was beautiful, paintings adorned the tall walls leading up to the intricate, golden altar with small statues of Mary and of Jesus. Old, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling along the length of the pews. It was refreshing to be away from the noise.
I popped back out of the chapel and into the old quarter and continued uphill. The alley became steep and eventually turned to steps that zigzagged up the mountain. A few signs appeared that pointed me in the direction of a panoramic view of the city and the shore. I climbed up only partially (because I had planned on coming back to this place the following day with Lissy and didn’t want to spoil all the fun today), snapped a few photos, and climbed back down. I took a spot on the beach for an hour or so and then made my way back to the train station to hop the bus to the airport.
Finding Lissy was easy, the airport was small. Lissy had some time off for the long weekend, in between classes and jobs, and I convinced her to come travel a bit with me. She agreed to meet up in Nice. It was great having a travel buddy for awhile. We made it back to the hostel where I checked out of the big dorm and we took a much nicer, hotel-style room above the terrace. This hostel is spectacular. The room was immaculate for a hostel room and the people that work here, a French couple that live on the floor above the dorm, were some of the nicest, most helpful people I’ve come across in hostels.
But unfortunately the weather got a bit sour, a little dark and a little chilly, right after we left the airport. We had planned to picnic on the beach but the weather had other plans. So rather than risking the weather, we went back to the supermarket, bought some more tomatoes, mozzarella, and a baguette and some brie cheese, and more wine of course, and cooked back in the hostel. It was pretty late so the kitchen was relatively available. We would have three full days in Nice. Lissy had been here before so she had a few ideas of what we could do over the few days. There is a bus you can take, a local one, that travels between towns and villages along the Cote d’Azur, all for one euro, so we intended to make use of that. We crashed for the night and hoped for better weather...
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| The street off Avenue Jean Medecin where my hostel is located |
I walked down the one main avenue that runs north-south from the train station to the beach, cutting through the city’s old town in the process. This avenue, Avenue Jean Medecin, is the main shopping street, and a bit pricy. I walked around, poking into some side streets. Hidden in the side streets are French bakeries, cafes, shops, and restaurants. Old men sit outside at small cafes reading French newspapers with their caps and pipes, sipping espressos. Every shop has its own cat. This city feels very French.
I followed the avenue down to the beach, just in time for sunset. The beach is made of pebbles and stretches to the left, easterly, towards some high cliff walls and low but sharp, green mountains. And to the right, the beach goes on and on and on towards Antibes and Cannes. And the water, especially on this wonderful day, was bright blue, doing justice to its name. I took a seat on the wall of the long promenade over the beach that follows the coast, and sat in silence, listening to the waves slowly roll onto the shore and watching the last sunbathers catch as much sun as they could before packing up and going home. The sky turned all the colors it should for beautiful sunsets and the sky grew dark. I found a supermarket on Avenue Jean Medecin, went in, bought a cheap bottle of wine, a bowl of lentils, and some tomatoes and balsamic vinegar for supper. I was going to make use of the kitchen at the hostel.
It was dark now, I went back into the hostel and to the kitchen and found it packed to the brim with people, spilling out into the terrace. I immediately gave up on my idea of cutting up tomatoes and making a salad, and went straight out to the terrace to eat my lentils and drink my wine. I sat with some Aussies I met earlier in the day, Sarah and Rick, on a multi month tour through Europe, and an American guy from Maryland who had been living in the UK awhile, starting a six month tour of the world with two of his British friends. They bought a “world pass” plane ticket, continent hopping on a flexible itinerary. A pretty cool idea. The party rolled on out on the terrace but I gave up on socializing after awhile, I was pretty tired. I went back to the room and fell asleep.
I cut up the tomatoes and put them in a bowl with balsamic vinaigrette and salt for my breakfast and ate it out on the sunny terrace, clear of people from the night before. I had most of the day to kill, I was meeting Lissy at the airport around 4 in the afternoon, so I was just going to roll around the city a bit and explore. I walked through the old town for most of the morning. Luckily, most of the tourists to Nice head to the beach which leaves the pretty little old town relatively free to explore. The little alleyways that make up the neighborhood slowly wind uphill towards the mountains in the east that abruptly meet the coast. I found a small church hidden behind some buildings and despite the noise of mopeds and people on the outside, passing through the open doors to the large chapel inside was a transformation of sound, to a peaceful place within. The chapel was beautiful, paintings adorned the tall walls leading up to the intricate, golden altar with small statues of Mary and of Jesus. Old, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling along the length of the pews. It was refreshing to be away from the noise.
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| A wine shop in the old town |
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| A typical shop in one of the back alleys of the old town |
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| A view down the gently sloping steps of the old town, the steps rose sharply behind me up the mountain |
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| A statue of Christ imbedded into the side of a building in the old town |
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| A panoramic view of Nice and the beach |
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| Nice and beyond from the top of the steps |
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| A cool old French car |
But unfortunately the weather got a bit sour, a little dark and a little chilly, right after we left the airport. We had planned to picnic on the beach but the weather had other plans. So rather than risking the weather, we went back to the supermarket, bought some more tomatoes, mozzarella, and a baguette and some brie cheese, and more wine of course, and cooked back in the hostel. It was pretty late so the kitchen was relatively available. We would have three full days in Nice. Lissy had been here before so she had a few ideas of what we could do over the few days. There is a bus you can take, a local one, that travels between towns and villages along the Cote d’Azur, all for one euro, so we intended to make use of that. We crashed for the night and hoped for better weather...
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