Côte d'Azur -- Nice

 Nice, France

The last stop on our trip to France was Nice.  I really liked Nice and would go back if I have a chance to do so.  Partly, I think, it is the combination of water and sunshine.  The water is such a beautiful a color unlike anything I have ever seen, even in Hawaii, which was my favorite until Nice.  The hotel was only a couple of blocks from the Promenade making it easy to walk to and sit on a bench soaking up the sun and enjoying the surf.  It was too cool for many people to be on the beach, therefore, relatively quiet and very pleasant.  There was even a fisherman out in the bay.

The streets are narrow and most of the buildings in the city are painted shades of yellow or orange with red tiled roofs.  The traditional colors for Nice are orange and green so many of the buildings also had green shutters on the windows.  It is not far from Italy and the flower market has a wonderful mix of French and Italian.

Street scene, Nice

[photo:  courtesy of the Gimlets]

I stayed in Nice the day the rest of the group went to the perched village of Eze since the tour guide had said that it was a steep climb with lots of stairs and once again she wanted to park me in a café while the others walked up to the top of the mountain.  That was not what I wanted to do.  I decided to take a nap, walk to the beach and then to the flower market, do a little shopping and get ice cream.  It was a good choice for me. 

 

 One of several restaurants in the flower market

 

Flower Market

The flower market does indeed have flowers and lots of them but is also sort of an open-air general market with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, seafood, restaurants and crafts.  It was a good place to just wander around looking at things and I found some lovely watercolor paintings that made the day a success.  Now I just wish I could read the artist’s name and somehow get in touch with him, as I would happily buy other things from him. 

There are many things to see and do in Nice.  Even though we had some free time it wasn’t enough to really take in the museums and other attractions.  I would like to have visited both the Musée Matisse and the Musée Chagall.

One of the things I did not get a picture of was the decorated palm trees in front of one of the large hotels along the Promenade.  The city seemed at times to have an almost carnival air to it.  The palms had colored tinsel like Christmas trees that glittered at night.   Some of the streets had overhead white, blue and purple LED lights strung across not noticeable during the day very pretty at night.

Would I go back to France?  Absolutely.  I loved everything from the places to the people to the food and more.

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 48

 

Stairway up Colline du Château, early 1900s

The title on the card, written on the bottom, is “l’escalier Lesage” (Lesage Staircase?) and printed on the left side margin is T.S. édit, Nice – 24 probably indicating the publisher and the card number.  I’ve not seen this before on postcards but it also looks like the city name and a space for the date is printed at the upper right with a narrow blank portion below the date available for a message.  The reverse side of the card would have been used for the address and stamp only--no message, as it says “Carte Postale  Ce ésté est exclusivement réservé à  l’adresse.“  That restriction on the card dates it as closer to 1900 than 1920.  Today the place is still called Colline du Château (Castle Hill) even though there is no longer a castle at the top.

 

 

 It was with a little surprise that I realized a photo on our recent trip actually shows nearly the same scene as the card.  The seawall and modern buildings make it difficult to see the staircase but the white tower is quite discernable.  In addition to the switchback steps there is also an elevator that lets passengers off at the top just barely visible at the upper left of the picture above, small white tower with red tile roof.  From the top there is a fantastic view of the Mediterranean Sea, the beach and the city.

 

"Nice la Belle"

 

    Promenade, 1918

This card, also of Nice, shows the Promenade along the water together with what is today a busy street filled with automobiles but in the card there are horses and buggies instead.  This is a used card and the message on the reverse side gives the date of December 22, 1918.  It was sent by an American soldier who must have been on leave for a week and mailed without stamp via Soldiers Mail to his girlfriend in the United States.  The publisher was Levy Fils & Co of Paris.  The card is numbered 44 and titled:  La Promenade du Midi – LL at the lower left.  The lower right has what looks like “Selecta.”  It is printed on much lighter weight cardstock than most postcards.  

Biking along the Promenade

[photo:  courtesy of the Gimlets]

There are benches all along the Promenade and beach access every couple of blocks.  When we were there in April we saw people riding bikes, walking, rollerblading and jogging along the Promenade at all times of the day and night.  I cannot begin to imagine how crowded it must get during the summer tourist season.  In April it was lovely, sunny but a little cool, the breeze coming in from the sea, with just a few people on the beach and even fewer hardy enough to get into the water.

During the late 1700s wealthy English people came to Nice to escape the wet cold winters of England for the warmer, sunnier clime along the Mediterranean.  During one particularly harsh winter there were numbers of poor people who fled south to get away from the cold.  Many of them ended up as beggars.  A group of the Englishmen suggested to the city that these individuals could be put to work building a promenade along the sea.  The city was pleased with the idea and extended the original plan to span a greater distance along the shoreline.  It was called Promenade des Anglais in honor of the Englishmen who proposed the idea in the first place. 

For more see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice
Also:  Eyewitness Travel, Provence & The Cote D’Azur, pp 80-85