Europe on a shoestring - Day 12 (Nice) [October 5, 2005]

We arrived at Nice via the Trenitalia – which was a comfortable journey. We would need the rest for our whirlwind tour through the Cote d’Azur. As the train rambled along the coast we got our first glimpses of the clear azure waters and the coast stretching as far as the eye could see.

this was truly a place to kick back and relax

However once we got to the more glamorous resorts of Monaco the scene changed – to huge mansions, apartment blocks dotting the hillsides and glitzy signs… for some reason not a very pleasant sight for my eyes. Thankfully Samir had taken some of that into consideration and we headed straight for Nice Ville. It was to be our ‘break-day’, when we would take it a bit easy before heading on to Paris. Hence, apart from a loosely formed plan we did not incorporate a killer schedule. After some breakfast at the station we moved on via the bus towards the old town. Ah, a point of note, unlike in other places where the ATM’s allowed a maximum cash limit of around Euro 400 – here you could easily withdraw amounts of Euro 1000… in line with the Casino industry entrenched here. Taking a local bus we moved along boulevard Jean Jaures (the latter word unpronounceable in English) and then moved into the old town.

The charming and colorful old town

I somehow like these old towns – with narrow cobbled streets, open air cafes and a feel to kill for. The one in Nice Ville was also adorned with brightly painted buildings which shone in the abundant sunlight. Moving on we progressed to the causeway that lined the beach – a lot like marine drive of Bombay with a broad walkway and tree lined road.

Nice from a vantage point

Walking along we climbed up 100m of staircase to reach the gardens which were part of an old fortress. This gave us a panoramic view of the entire city. Exploring the gardens we saw the harbor at a distance filled with the million dollar yacht’s idling in the still, clear water.

Nice harbor

By now it was lunchtime and we hurried down the steps on the other side back into the old town and indulged in some local Plat de jour – mine was some beef stew with pan and washed down with vin.

'Plat de jour'.... if the hand shook - then blame the wine

Wanting to get out of the city we picked up some goodies from the local patisserie and caught a bus to Roquebrune – Cap Martin (pronounced as if you would be coughing when speaking the same). Although it is a three tiered road the bus kept to the lower tier (the upper levels apparently reserved for cars – we had none). It also gave us a ‘bus-tour’ of Monaco with few sightings of the palace and – the Monaco Grand Prix circuit of course!!
Leaving Monaco the bus weaved its away along the hills, with Samir valiantly trying to figure out when we had to get off – it didn’t help that the place was impossible to pronounce for us low level English folk, and the kindly lady who was trying to help us didn’t speak any English. Through some wild hand-gesturing, some apparent French-speak we got down at the right place.
At this time the rain-clouds were beginning to form overhead and we knew that we had a limited time to work with. But it was a nice stroll through quiet French countryside, with time to pause and admire the flora around us. After some assistance we clambered down to reach the walkway cut alongside the rocky seashore. This was a beautiful walk – with the hills above us, with cars on three levels of roadways and the trains a further level below them. Walking a bit we reached Cap Martin railway station and after checking the train timings moved to a beach at the base. If you could call it a private beach – then this was it. No sand, only pebbles but as isolated as one could get. At one end stood a huge mansion, with steps leading to the beach. A luxury cruise liner was docked far off in the bay. Apart from that it was only us – brilliant!! This in my mind was the best – chill time.

A private beach for a pretty private and most definitely wealthy individual

We reluctantly got up after 45 minutes or so due to reducing light and ominous clouds overhead – only just catching the train back into Nice (we saw a super speedboat on our way back). We had a quick dinner at a Chinese place – the second time we had strayed since Lausanne before moving back to the station. We had not been able to locate a easy to use tetapack or non-cork bottle based vino so we had to pretty much just idly wait until our train arrived – the Cote d’Azur leg was over.

In a new country - another day, another place