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Nice is nice!
#frenchriviera #nice #travel #birthday #adventure
France has the only two things towards which we drift as we grow older – intelligence and manners.
This year, I kept up the tradition of celebrating my birthday while visiting a new country. So, if you’re wondering, have I not celebrated my last birthday in France as well – you’re right. In but three short and sweet days, I got to visit France again, and a new country in its neighborhood. It will be pretty easy to guess, but you will have to wait a week before reading about the very birthday. Today, I will be writing about the two days surrounding it – October 28th and 30th. And no, this time around I didn’t visit Disneyland or do any trick-or-treating on Halloween – it’s going to be an activity for next year. On the other hand, I managed to have a huge blast, and celebrate my 33rd birthday with style, accepting all the manners of probably the classiest part of France, the French Riviera.
To kick the pre-birthday off, I started with a French breakfast at Place Masséna. This is the beautiful chess-paved square, surrounded by red and orange buildings, you’ll see in most pictures from Nice. A croissant or pan au chocolate, espresso and orange juice are the French standard. Although this pleasure was a bit pricy, it was more than necessary. I personally love it how the colors of the breakfast flow into the environment, as if part of an impressionistic painting, showing the lifestyle and weekend activities of the locals. Life in the French Riviera truly does feel as walking right into any painting by Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Degas or Renoir. Almost 15 years ago, I learnt about a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, called “Le Moulin de la Galette”. Although the scenery looks nothing like it, the vibe is 100% copied from its essence. Never had I ever felt living in a painting before – and it is by far one of the most unique feelings I will never miss out on again.
The parks of Nice are another absolute marvel of this region. Namely, there is a park in the middle of the road, surrounded by tramlines and streets. However, the tall hedge and trees at the border cover the insides of the park for children to play safely, without the hustle, sound pollution or emissions from the ongoing traffic. The very same park is a home to marine-life-shaped swings and playthings, for children to enjoy themselves and learn about the world surrounding them. Manta rays, whales, turtles, multiple sorts of fish, whatever you can remember to live in the water… Another wonderful aspect is the fact that there are art pieces scattered around the city – in both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The permanent ones are visible in statues and facades of buildings. As for the temporary ones, you can really see how much the French Riviera takes care of blessing its denizens’ lives with beauty and loveliness. During my stay, sculptures by Richard Orlinski were scattered around the main routes in Nice. Nature and art – one of the most beautiful and epic sceneries I’d ever seen!
Next up is my favorite place – the beach, of course. I wish someone had told me that at the end of October, there will be people in bathing suits all around, so I’d have brought a set of my own. Yes, at the end of October, it was really warm. It was not just the “crazy few locals” in the water, but humans from all parts of the Earth all along the riviera. Of course, I didn’t stay immune to the call of the sea. I got my shoes off, lifted my pants up to the knees, and walked in up to mid-calves. Apart from pleasant water temperature, what I really loved was the color. This place is called the Azzure Coast – and do believe me, the color of the water justifies the name 100%. This is even better noticed, when viewed from atop one of the hills surrounding Nice.
A funny random fact about the trip to Nice – after leaving the flight and reaching the city, my companion and I bumped into old friends we’d met at a trip to Graz in 2019. And it was impossible for us to even find a good time to have some coffee in our crazy, overscheduled regular lives. Reuniting with them in Nice was the blessing long-needed. Finally, we ended up planning over a half of the activities in common with them. The first one was, you guessed it, lunch. First, we took some time to walk around the Old Town. To be completely fair, I didn’t like this place at all. The Old Town looks much more as a rural part of Italy, than one bit like France. You can find similar buildings and formations around any Adriatic Sea country – for that reason, I found it to be overly regular and everyday. Fortunately, unlike the rest of Nice! We moved along to find a good restaurant for some lunch, before heading out to Menton, a small town along the Riviera. The food in this district was not anything in particular. In fact, we were unable to escape the feeling that food in Paris is incomparably better. Nonetheless, it was not a reason to have bad memories of Nice – our expectations were simply high. Funny thing, the best meal I ate in Nice was in a Chinese restaurant – made to taste evenly as in China. Don’t worry, this foodie did not stay hungry!
The Marina is another quite pretty sighting. Yachts everywhere, from all around the world, parked in this bay. In all fairness, I prefer the Marina in Barcelona, although the one in Nice most certainly has a specific feel to it. Everyone says the yachts of the richest are stationed in the neighboring city-state, which I am bound to talk about in the next post. A notion I could never escape, walking down the beautiful and scenic streets of Nice – I should have been born and raised here! And the notion was not just my own, everyone on the crew felt it. There are special bonds formed between people and certain places, that cannot be explained in words. You either feel it, or you don’t. The first time this happened to me was in the US, back in 2012. The second time around, I had this feeling of endless connection this March in Barcelona. Nice was but the third time for me to feel this. It raises a straight-forward question – do people, who claim to be local patriots, truly feel this feeling in their cities/areas, or do they only claim to love the places? In the first case, I’ve definitely been missing on an invaluable feeling for the most of my early life. In the latter case, which is probably the state of fact, the feeling does not come to just anyone – it needs to be earned, it is not God-given.
We took the late afternoon train to the nearby town of Menton, sitting across several hills along the Riviera. I’d gotten recommendations about it from so many people, this town was a must. Not sure if our timing was bad, but we really didn’t get to see anything interesting here. In fact, although we planned three hours to stay in Menton, we actually came back after only two, not having the idea what to do. A great thing to know – my Menton-recommenders claimed the town looks marvelous during the day. As it is small, most of the shops close by 6PM – and our train arrived a few minutes after this mark. At dusk, the town is no different from most of Northern Greece or rural Italy – places that are simply not my cup of tea. (This is a personal feel, so please do not be offended by my preference.) By all means, do visit it during daylight hours. I’ve seen countless videos from this place, and we weren’t even able to grasp where they were filmed. If the videos represent even the slightest percentage of what the town looks like during daylight hours, I encourage you to go – and, of course, send pics!
And so, this is how I was spending the last hours of 32. We came back to the hotel a bit late, but slept steady and fast throughout the whole night. Fortunately, the last weekend of October signifies daylight savings time in Europe – like last year, also in France, we got an extra hour to spend in this jewel. But this time around, my birthday was the daylight savings day, which means I got 25 hours of birthday this year.
Next week, I’ll be happy to tell you more about the birthday activities, both in Nice (in the afternoon) and a new country I got to visit on the day of my birth, thus respecting the tradition. In fact, one of my best friends, who followed me to my last two birthday trips, decided to start doing the same. The friend we encountered here also decided she wants to celebrate her birthday traveling – with us, of course. We are already starting to plan a January trip for this reason, and I know you’ll enjoy the report from there, as well.
Remember when I mentioned one of the biggest upsides of solo travel? Suddenly, you can’t travel alone anymore, because everyone is so astounded by your audacity, they have a need to join you. Believe me, I’ve been trying to organize solo adventures all along, but they keep not being possible, with everyone tagging along. If you haven’t yet – dare!
Until next time, send me comments about what you think – what is the birthday destination 2023. And I’ll be preparing an article in the background.
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