Nice March 18

Good Morning Nice!

Nice City Tour

French River Cruise Adventure - Day 2:  Today we were up early for breakfast (complimentary with the hotel) as we had to meet in the lobby for our City Tour of Nice excursion by 8:30 am.  For those that followed our Viking River Cruise across Europe last summer you might recall that we raved about the breakfast bar provided by the hotel in Budapest.  Not so much so here.  No complaints, mind you, but not nearly as big of a spread and we agreed we'd rate the food as "quite good" here, but not "wow, that was great" as we did in Budapest.  We drove through the city and our guide, Claire (who was the Viking rep who'd met us at the airport), pointed out various highlight buildings and told stories about the city until we arrived at our first stop, a monastery that overlooked the city.  As we were driving onto the grounds we passed the ruins of a Roman theatre but we did not stop because Claire explained we would see a L-O-T of these on our cruise (very excited about that!).  The monastery was built upon the ruins of a Roman temple and dated back to the 1000s.  We could not go in, which was ok with us, and we soon made our way back to see the gardens.

Then we walked to the back of the gardens where we could see a panoramic view of Nice.  It wasn't until this moment - in spite of all the research AND having actually been on Castle Hill yesterday - that I came to realize that Castle Hill is actually just that.....A HILL!  If you look back at the photos from yesterday you'll note, as that the view we had, and similar online, made it appear that the hill was part of the mountains.  But in fact it is a stand alone hill that when viewed from the beach area or the promenade is set against the mountains to the east of Nice.

Looking from our high vantage point to the south we saw castle hill and the Mediterranean.  As we turned our gaze to the north you could see the snow capped French Alps and Claire pointed out that residents of Nice can take a swim in the Mediterranean and then 45 minutes later be on the ski slopes of the Alps!  (you'll see this in the video and the Alps are in the background of photos later, below).  We moved further onto the grounds of the monastery and came to a huge stand of olive trees.  This area is known as a very popular park for residents.  Until recently annual jazz festivals were held here but those have now been moved to the city gardens located in front of our hotel.  Bordering the park was the former Queen Victoria Hotel, now the Matisse Museum.  Queen Victoria loved the French Riviera and came to Nice five separate times and stayed along the coast on several other occasions. 

We loaded onto the bus to climb even higher to an area where many of the "aristocrats" have owned or do own homes.  The panoramic views were breath-taking.  Only one other spot have so fascinated me (a spot in New Zealand where they filmed "Lord of the Rings") and I can say that because like that day I could not stop taking photographs of the same scene; I must have taken at least half a dozen of the identical shot.  We so enjoyed standing there looking out over the beautiful blue waters, feeling the cool breeze (in the mid-50s), listening to stories about the area.  Of note there were people snorkeling in the waters below us!

From here we headed off to "Old Nice" and the market area.  That marked the end of the bus tour and the beginning of the walking tour.  The first stop, or I should say destination was the market place.  There were soooo many fresh flowers.  Then we passed through a section of candies which were made to resemble fruits and other foods (at right below).

We then came to the fresh vegetable section and there were freshly grown vegetables of every kind there.  Had to take a photo for Sandra - I promised you I would......I'm guessing you meant for me to take a photo of vegetables I would eat :)  That will come on the cruise.  The photo next to the veggies is one of the many dessert tables - again, freshly made and so many different ones to choose from.  At the end of the market place we saw the huge yellow home pictured below.  This was the home (on the second and third floor) where the painter Matisse lived and did his most famous paintings until he died here in Nice.

As we walked through the narrow streets we could envision how Nice might have looked back in it's early past.  The narrow and dark avenues very much reminded me of the places we'd visited last summer on our European river cruise.  Note in the photo on the right you can see the Cascade Waterfalls we visited yesterday.

One of the interesting buildings we saw early on was the Nice Opera House.  Claire pointed out on the design of the lamps on the exterior was a special tribute to citizens of the USA - the head of the Statute of Liberty!  Right beside the Opera House was a restaurant, Le Grande Balcon which was themed to a theatre experience.  It looked "very French" and "very local" so we had Bart make us reservations upon our return to the hotel.  (See pics below of our dining experience!)

One of the most interesting stories was about the street translated as "The Avenue of Trousers Down" which is where I pictured below.  It was so named because in medieval times it was along this street that residents apparently used as an open "public bathroom."  As we discovered last summer, the early Europeans didn't bathe, and thus the importance of perfume!  As the story of this avenue was told, Claire also explained it was one of the reasons why when the more wealthy first came here that they wanted to build their huge mansions higher up - not only for the more spectacular views, but to get away from the smell of the city!

The tour ended and we were free to head back to the hotel or wander around.  We went to a pizza place that another couple on the tour (one YOUNGER than us, which is quite unusual!).  The restaurant Attimi was an indoor/outdoor café and we chose to eat outside.  This might be a good point to say that we have been amazed at the attire of the people here.  We feel like the weather could not be more spectacularly comfortable.  Even when the weather app on our phones indicates upper 40s it's been very pleasant.  The only time it's felt "chilly" has been walking along the Promenade des Anglais, along the water with the stiff breeze.  But in spite of this we've seen some people literally wearing parkas and other heavy winter coats, while we have also seen exercisers in tank tops, shorts and sports bras.  Very curious.  We had a locally made pizza - actually we told the waiter we would be sharing it so he brought two plates with half on each.  While we would admit it was big, it actually was not nearly as big as it appeared.  Especially because the crispy crust was paper-thin and there was very little topping on it, but the taste.....oooo la la, delicious!  I also thought it was interesting that (a) they HAD Coke Zero, and (b) it was served in a bottle.

After lunch Kim and I headed back to the hotel for a brief stop, then set out to stroll the Promenade des Anglais in the other direction, heading west.  We came to this structure which I recognized from videos and photos of the Nice beach, and for the first time we saw umbrellas and chairs out on the beach.  As we came to a point where we were ready to turn around I posed for a photo under the most interesting sign of the day, a stretch of the shore known as "Florida Beach!"

If you look carefully about even with my ear and to the left of the photo as you look at it you can see an airplane approaching.  The piece of land stretching out over my right shoulder (opposite side of the "Florida Beach sign" is the Nice International airport.  In the afternoon Kim found a gym in the hotel to workout while I worked on these photos and the highlight video.  Won't have that kind of time while we're on the cruise, not sure I'll be able to get this many photos ready each day, and I know from last summer that trying to do the videos on a sailing river cruise ship is futile, so I'll post videos upon our return to Ft. Lauderdale - but for our stay in Nice.....no problem!  We topped our wonderful day with at the restaurant near the Opera House.  Like last night, looking at the menu we were clueless (even though most was in English).  We even briefly discussed leaving, but decided to be brave and eat as the citizens of Nice.  And it was a delightful meal!

March 18

Nice City Tour Highlights