Two Perfect Days in Nice

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

 

Three nights in Nice was the perfect cure for the heavy hearts which weighed us down at the thought of leaving England. Lovely mild warm weather, fabulous food, the beach, a visit to a medieval hill top town and best of all making new friends helped us realise how special the next part of our journey will be.

 

This was not my first visit to Nice, though it has been many years since I was last here. I must say that apart from the beach front I remember nothing at all from my earlier visit. Nice is a beautiful city I could see myself spending more time in, though unfortunately for this holiday I treated it as a stopover, and we only had three nights.

 

Highlights of Nice With Kids

1. Markets

The Cours Saleya markets were a lovely introduction to the markets of Provence. Visiting at around midday it was fairly quiet but the stalls were still loaded with flowers, cheeses, olives, preserves, soaps and the most wonderful fruit and vegetables.

We loaded our bags up with the most delicious asparagus, strawberries, cherries, avocados and tomatoes, both fresh and sundried, that you can imagine. I only regret not buying the figs I saw when I had the chance and will have to search these out at the next market we visit.

We enjoyed crepes for lunch at a café overlooking the market and sitting there watching the market goers and listening to the banter of the stall holders I clicked into holiday mode and really started to relax. The choice of food was wonderful, with the most delightful salads and crepes loaded with goats cheese or chicken and mushrooms to name just a few.

 

The Beach

The kids were so keen to get down to the famous beach at Nice. A word of advice to anyone who has not visited a pebble beach before, you really need to have a pair of what Aussies call thongs and the Brits call flip-flops for right down into the water because ouch those pebbles hurt!

Luckily for me Rob is such a gentleman and he fetched my shoes so I wouldn't have to repeat my dance performance back from the water side (tip toe..tip toe..ouch...hop..ouch).

Needless to say no one swam, not just because of the pebbles, but also due to the freezing temperature of the Mediterranean in June. In fact there were a number of people on the beach and few of them were swimming. The weather was perfect at around 28degrees for relaxing on the beach and feasting on the delicious fruit from the markets.

When it was time to go back to our apartment we opted for the four kilometre walk along the beautiful beach and the Promenade des Anglais. We enjoyed strolling along, people watching,  bike dodging and watching the parasailors soaring along and splashing into the water.  Before we knew it we back at our apartment.

The Apartment 

In Nice we booked through airbnb for the first time and couldn't have been happier with the apartment. Set in the grounds of a Victorian mansion, this lovely place was perfect for us.

 We choose to stay a little away from the centre to ensure the kids would sleep well. The public transport in Nice is so good it was the perfect choice. The bus stop to Nice, or St Paul du Vence or many other wonderful places, was just down the street and so was the beach.

We had plenty of room to spread out which I cant show you as I forgot to take photos before all of our stuff spread out all over the place too and it took ages to pack again. The kids had a click-clack bed (you gotta love Ikea) in the lounge room but we played musical beds in the night as Julian got sick again after flying just like he did at Christmas, poor little man.

For the  icing on the cake the owners, Vincent and Sandrine lived just next door and were absolutely lovely and so helpful. They picked us up from the airport and dropped us at the train station and even gave us a lift to town one morning they were heading that way. Sandrine's lovely twin daughters are Emma's age and with play being a language that crosses all boundaries they have made good friends. We hope that they will be pen pals for a very long time.

We enjoyed their company so much we invited them to dinner and had a wonderful evening on the balcony.

Eze Village

For each destination on our route through Europe I have compiled a list of places worth a look see. Not as formal as an itinerary, just a few ideas for things we can do. Having discovered that Nice deserved more than just one day of our time it left us with a dilemma, should we go to Cannes? Should we go to St Paul du Vence? What about Monaco? The kids were keen to stay in Nice and do nothing at all. We needed a compromise, somewhere close by and fabulous. Eze Village fit the bill perfectly.

Eze Village is a perfect medieval village perched atop a rocky hill just north along the Moyenne Corniche from Nice. The short bus ride provided breathtaking views along the Cote Azur coastline. The picture above is Cap Ferrat through the window of the bus. The bus was the perfect choice, though we missed the one we planned to take. However the hour and a half wait for the next one gave us the opportunity to have lunch, more wonderful salads, before we set off.

We promised the kids a visit to the beach in the afternoon, which backfired on us and we heard a never ending chorus of "can we go now". However nothing could dampen my enthusiasm when we found ourselves in this lovely picturesque village. I'm sure I was giggling like a kid on Christmas morning.

We made our way up through the village to the Jardin Exotique at the very top. The exotic garden, filled with cactuses, contrasted nicely with the English spring gardens we had left behind. Though it was not the gardens that we come to see it was the view. 

While the views from the rest of the village were lovely nothing could prepare you for the spectacular view from the ruins of an old castle at the top, and the paths leading to it.

The short bus ride back to Nice couldn't have been easier. We had a chuckle at all the tourists choosing to take a cat nap on the bus rather than see the lovely view again.

Promenade du Paillon

Yesterday the kids had vetoed my plan to visit the wonderful new water playground in Nice, in favour of the beach. I decided I needed to exercise a little cunning to get them to see it would be a great place to visit. Once the bus arrived at Place Garibaldi, over a kilometre from the beach I announced that it was time to get off.

Funnily enough the way to the beach from here requires a walk down the entire 1.2km of the Promenade du Paillon and surprise surprise they absolutely loved it.

Whoever decided that they should tear out Nice's old bus station and car park and replace it with a public open space deserves a medal. This long corridor lined with the beautiful old buildings of the Vieille Ville (Old Town) is filled with wonderful wooden play ground equipment interspersed with fountains that either gently mist you, spray you unexpectedly or completely drench you.

Luckily we came prepared for getting wet and then getting home again on the bus because the kids chose the drenching. Emma even performed some impromptu contemporary dance for us in the mist. The mist was so otherworldly, barely making you damp while quite obscure, that her dancing fit the bill perfectly.

 

The kids absolutely loved the playground and we even managed a quick visit to the beach after. Promises are promises after all. And so just as we felt our visit to Nice was just beginning, it ended and we moved on to our next destination, St Remy de Provence.

Luckily we discovered that while most of the trains were on strike and had been for a while now, our train to Avignon TGV, via a change in Aix in Provence, was not affected and so it was goodbye to Nice. And goodbye to you until next time,