One of the advantages we enjoy is the Eurail passes we purchased. We decided that since we are so close to Nice and the French Rivera that was what we decided to do today. We got the train to Nice early this morning and returned to Marseilles late afternoon.
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. Located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is the second largest French city on the Mediterranean coast. The area of today’s Nice is believed to be among the oldest human settlements in Europe.
Throughout the ages the town changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength. For years, it was an Italian dominion, then became part of France in 1860. The city’s main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais (‘the Walkway of the English’) owes its name to the earliest visitors to the resort.
Our first goal when we arrived in Nice was to walk from the railway station to the Promenade to find the Mediterranean. The walk took us down a modern and wide street with buses and cable cars. The weather is wonderful, again warm with a slight breeze to counter any sense of heat from the sun. We sat on a bench overlooking the sea and enjoyed a coffee (ok enjoy is a bit strong since the coffee was even stronger but it was great to sit, sigh and look.) As we sit we can look out to the sea, off to the left to the hill the castle used to sit and to the right to the distant expansion of the city along the shoreline. Behind is the entry to the old city of Nice.
The beach is not very comfortable looking since it is really very rocky (smooth and small rocks) and I am not sure how anyone could lie on them. However by the end of the day there were plenty of sun bathers out enjoying the sun and several brave souls taking swims. The water is still very chilly we are told but since Wes is getting over a back cold he did not choose to swim (wise man) and I never swim in cold water if I can help it.
After we left the Promenade we headed into the old city of Nice. This is a typical old European town with narrow cobbled stone streets, narrow lanes and two-three story houses rising up beside you. There are no front yards as the front of the row of houses is right on the street. The only break you see as you look down a street is the opening between buildings where a cross street interrupts the lane you are walking. The width of the lane often does not seems to deter drivers, but most often they are motorbikes but occasionally a car will drive up behind you.
As we entered and walked in a couple of short blocks we found ourselves in a street market. This week apparently they are having a flower market. What an incredible display of bright colored and varieties of flowers. One merchant had orchids in full bloom and I thought of the Rex Stout books with Nero Wolfe as I marvelled at the huge variety and colors of the blooms. I was given permission to take pictures but there is a limit to what I can put in the blog. Yes there were lots of other plants and cut flowers on display for sale.
As we passed by the flowers we arrived at the vegetable and fruits for sale. Everything looks so fresh and good. I especially got caught up in the arrangements of displays and the contrast of colors.
We left the market place and headed through the town to find the route up to the top of castle hill. The Chateau de Nice was a fortified structure for military purposes and a cathedral. Regarded as a gem of the county of Nice , it is sometimes known as the "cradle of the sun" for the quality of its views at any time of day either at sunrise or sunset.
For the old Nice, the word evokes more castle hill as a place to walk and which was the site of one of the strongest fortifications in the Mediterranean arc. Castle Hill is a large limestone rock rising to 93 meters with a top made of two plates. For seven centuries the castle existed and later citadel was built. There is quite a history about the development of the fortification, destruction and re-building of the castle/fort. What is interesting is the destruction of the castle since there is virtually no evidence of its existence so I did some research and discovered the following.
As an acropolis, citadel and castle dominate the city from a rocky outcrop surrounded by a wall which 2 meters thick with a perimeter of 2,300 meters and about eight meters in height. Within this first line of fortifications, a second wall even more massive and tall, flanked by towers, marks the citadel of the castle. The castle is reduced by 113 cannons and surrendered after 54 days of bombing, on 4 January 1706. On January 2, 1706, Louis XIV gave the order to destroy the rest of the fortifications which survived bombardment.
We followed the steps and paths to weave our way to the top and the views. It is hard to even try to share the views with pictures since it does not do justice. In every direction we could see blue water or old buildings with bright red roofs. In the distance could be seen the steeples of churches (and there are many) and the beginnings of skyscrapers (still not many but likely will change with time.) We found a great shady area to sit down and eat our lunch. As we sat a group of students (guessing about 9/10 years of age) arrived to sit on the grass for lunch. We watched as the boys separated themselves to sit under one tree while the girls congregated under another. We are reminded that kids are kids everywhere.
As we walked around we were able to locate the top of the original “keep” which was the highest point which is the recommended area for taking pictures. We also located the Tower of Bellanda, a massive round tower built in the 16th C. on the site of the Bastion St Lambert, and in which Hector Berlioz composed his opera "King Lear". The tower houses the Musée Naval (maritime museum) but we did not take the time to enter but instead took pictures from atop and returned to the old city by the stairs.
While we were on the top of the castle hill we could see is the Fort du Mont Alban on the height of Mount Alban. Built between 1557 and 1560 and located on the hill namesake , east of Nice . In France , it is one of the rare examples of military architecture in the middle of the 16th century, in good condition. We did not visit this fort but could see it easily from Nice.
Another great view worth mentioning was the new harbour on the opposite side of the hill from the old town of Nice. This is where the super yachts dock (the really large ones) and there is a wharf for the ferry which I was able to watch come in and dock. This is very interesting since the ferry has to slide in sideways using side thrusters of some sort. We enjoyed reading a bit about the history of the new port of Nice which was written in French but we are getting good with our reading skills and only got a couple of words wrong. At any rate basically the port of Nice is also known as Lympia port. This name comes from the Lympia spring which fed a small lake in a marshy zone where work on the port was started in 1745. The work involved clearing, cleaning and dredging and today this is the principal harbour installation of Nice.
We left the hill to walk back towards the railway station. But to do that we went back to the promenade and walked around the base of the hill to see close up the port and finished by going behind the hill back into the old city of Nice. We discovered that the old section of the city does not follow a nicely squared grid pattern and although we did see some really nice sights, we did find that we were not always going in the direction we planned. If you think that following a map is easy when half the time you can not find the names of the streets, then you are doing better than us. We did not really get lost, but we did not take the most direct route back either. This was ok since we had time and the weather is so comfortable for walking around.
When we did get to the station we realized we still had an hour before our train so we decided to walk over to have a look at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. This Cathedral (Cathédrale Orthodoxe Russe Saint-Nicolas de Nice) is a Russian Orthodox cathedral, and a national monument of France, located in the city of Nice. Opened in 1912, thanks to the generosity of Tsar Nicholas II, it is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral outside Russia. There is currently an ownership dispute over the property. The parish that now occupies the cathedral is part of an overseas Russian Orthodox jurisdiction under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and it opposes a claim on the property by the Russian government. The Russian government says it is simply trying to reclaim real estate it legally inherited from the Tsarist regime. The dispute partly stems from a conflict between Old Russian nobility who have long since settled in Nice and newly arrived Russians.
We did not enter the Cathedral since the cost was 3 Euro each and we would not be permitted to take photos. So we walked around, took photos outside and then headed back to catch the train. We ended up with about 20 minutes time to wait.
Tomorrow we are off to Perpignan which is just stop over on our way to Barcelona and then to Madrid. Not sure what will find in Perpignan, but that only makes it more interesting.
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