Nice

With no immediate prospect of the Yonne River towards Paris being open soon we decided to visit Nice, which we had on our 2016 list as our "non- barge" destination.

View along Promenade des anglaisWhen Annette left for the airport for her onward trip to Rome we left too, catching the TGV direct from Paris to Nice, 930 kilometres in five and a half hours. We had found some difficulty in finding accommodation at the last moment and belatedly realised why when we discovered that a match of the European Soccer Cup was to be played in Nice the next day between Spain and Turkey. They were taking no chances on the train: there were half a dozen train security guards and no alcohol was being sold. In actual fact the trip was calm and pleasant and we arrived in Nice very relaxed and caught a bus to our hotel. Considering the last- minute booking we were very happy with its position, with an uninterrupted view of the waterfront looking towards the port and the mountains beyond.

The view from our hotel room
Next day we set out to explore the town relishing a sunny warm day after all the rain we had been experiencing. Our first observation was that the beach in Nice is very uncomfortable, consisting of huge stones. No wonder there were so many people offering hired sun baking chairs. Walking or lying on the stones looked most uncomfortable- though many people were doing it, with just a towel betwen them and the stones. The only two children we saw there were filling their buckets with stones and throwing them into the nearby storm water drain. No chance of building a sand castle! We were glad we had not come to Nice for the beach.
Walking along the "Promenade des Anglais" gave us a great chance to enjoy the ornate, well- kept buildings along the waterfront, with the promenades  bustling with activity. We first noticed the "fan base" for the Football, then reached the flower and general markets and the Old Town with its tiny lanes and old houses. At the end of the Old Town is the site of the original Nice settlement on top of a hill and we were grateful to discover that a free lift would take us the 92 metres to the top. From there we had an excellent view over the town with its terracotta roofs and shiny Church domes. In the other direction, the port was full of boats large and small, sailing and powered with the mountains beyond. The Club Med II was in port, with its five masts. It carries 26,000 sqft of sail and must be one of the largest sailing ships in the world.

Nice Port- with sailing ship, CM2
There was originally a Chateau in this park and its remains and those of ancient fortifications and old Roman buildings could be seen here. Back in the old town we visited the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Reparata, first built in the 11th century but rebuilt as a Cathedral in the 17th century. It is unusual in its dedication to a Palestinian woman who was a Martyr.
After lunch in the square we caught the bus to the Matisse Museum, where most of the works were donated by Matisse or his family and traced his artistic development; then to the archaeology museum next door on the site of the Roman city of Cemenelum founded by Augustus in 14BC.
In two happy surprises, we found that a 10 euro entry fee to a museum allows free entry to virtually all other museums (i.e 20) in the city for two days and that  all buses are free in Nice on the day of European Cup Soccer Matches there.
That night we watched the football match in our hotel room. It was fairly one sided and we were just as happy not to be in the crowd of 35,000 at the match.
On our final day we wandered through two more museums, both housed in beautifully decorated and ornate buildings, the Musee des Beaux- Arts which introduced us to many of Nice's famous artists, and the Villa Massena which displayed many interesting artefacts of Nice's modern history. We realised more fully how important tourism has been to Nice for several centuries, which undoubtedly helps to make it a very comfortable city for outsiders to visit.

"The kiss" by Rodin
Our TGV return trip to Paris stopped at Antibes and Cannes which gave us a glimpse. The beaches there certainly looked much sandier and the general architecture quite similar. We arrived in good time in Paris at Gare de Lyon. Our second train was already in the nearby Paris Bercy when we arrived there so we had an uneventful trip home to find Anja as we had left her, still high and dry but quite safe.

The river had dropped to the level of a week before but the critical downstream locks were still closed.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave