I was utterly pleased to arrive in Nice - not only because of driver's fatigue but also because the weather in the French Riviera was simply PERFECT. I had driven 8 hours from Rome (with a brief stop in Pisa in the afternoon). The drive was taxing with the windy roads, seemingly endless tunnels, and alternate intervals of sunny and rainy conditions.
It took me some time to find Villa St. Exupery in Nice. Thank God for the two wonderfully patient locals and again with some luck, I finally located the hostel up on a hill. Its location wasn't ideal as parking was limited and we had to make these steep ascents and descents on foot. Still, the view from the third floor of this 3-bed private en-suite made up for it. It's all good...plus, the pizza dinner here was yummo!
**Nice, Villefranche sur-mer, & Monaco**
Nice was nice. :) I now understood why someone once told me that the Cote d'Azur would make a great place to retire. The locals were warm and friendly and the bays were spectacular with clean beaches and boats neatly docked in the marina. I also liked the orderly and clean state of Vieux Nice (Old Town Nice). The pace was slow going which was totally fine by me. Nearby Nice was the charming Villefranche sur-mer and the affluent Monaco. I could picture a sweet life in Nice. :)
Photos of Nice:
Above left: Vieux Nice; Above right: A morning market in Vieux Nice
Photos of Villefranche sur-mer:
Pictures of Monaco:
**Antibes & Cannes**
Antibes was small and made little impression on me; Cannes was definitely not my cup of tea. The entire place reminded me of a Miami or Palm Beach but on a larger scale. Superficiality and excesses ruled here. The infamous annual Cannes Film Festival was to be held at the Congress Auditorium, which had been partitioned off by steel baricades.
Above: Nice train station - where we would board a train to Antibes and Cannes
Photos of Antibes:
Photos of Cannes:
**Eze Village**
Eze Village was a cute little medieval village, situated atop a hill, where many art shops, galleries, restaurants, hotels and a church congregated. The trip to Eze Village would have been really pleasant if not for our awful experience at the gas station as a result of my car's problematic tire. The tire that went flat in Firenze, which we thought was fixed, went flat a second time around in Nice. Apparently the rubber tube inside the tire had a hole in it and a patch-up would not work. I had to get a whole new tire. Unfortunately, the French man who ran the Azia gas station up at Eze Village was completely unhelpful. Perhaps we spoke no French, or perhaps we were Asians? Who knew why he simply would not help us - even though he SOLD tires in his shop?! I tried in vain to ask Sixt (France) for assist but all the operator could do was try to get a tow truck to tow our car (at a pricey E140 one way!) to the nearest tire shop in Nice. Finally, as a last resort, dad confronted the Azia guy about a new tire he saw in the guy's shop that could fit the radius size of our rental car. The guy, grudgingly agreed to sell us the tire and put it on for us for E160. Why he didn't offer us that solution in the first place was beyond me. Whatever. I was just glad to be out of there, despite the hefty price tag. This was highway robbery big time. There are so many different types of characters out there -- you take the good with the bad.
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