City Break in Nice
My cousins have a holiday flat in Nice and I was delighted to have the opportunity to join them. The plan was for them to meet me at Grenoble (Lyon) and then head down to Nice by car.
I was welcomed by my cousins and their dog Tuppy as my flight from Stansted arrived without any problems. On the way to Nice, we stopped at Orange to view the ancient Roman Theatre and the size of the semi-circular theatre backing on to the hillside is impressive. An awesome sigh was colossal statue of the Emperor Auguste which was housed in a niche in the stage wall.
Our destination was Avignon; the sun shone on the old golden sandy coloured buildings. We opted to take the train tour through the vasted gardens of the Palace of the Popes. The alleyways were extremely narrow and cars were often parked haphazardly! 22 arches of this famous bridge used to span the two arms of the Rhone but just four arches with a small chapel on the second pier are all that remains today. We made a detour to the Pont du Gard, an amazing Roman aqueduct with triple tiers and Tuppy had a run down to the river for a paddle.
As we continued to Marseille, we again found lovely old golden buildings along the coast road and the harbour. The old fort and the church on the hilltop reminded me of Malta. The latter part of the journey to Nice was marred by heavy rain which continued until the following morning. We visit the Russian Cathedral of St Nicholas in the afternoon which is the largest Russian church outside Russia. The nearby chapel is built on the site of the Villa Bermond where the Crown Prince Ncholas Alexandrovich died in 1865. I was not aware that the Cote d’Azur had been visited by the Romanovs since 1856. Queen Victoria used to stay at the hilltop hotel where we had lunch; it looks like a Palace !! Nowadays it has been converted into flats and at the bottom of the hill is a statue of Queen Victoria and several angels. Blue Skies and sunshine tempted us out to visit the Roman Monument, La Turbie, in memory of the Emperor Augustus. The people of the Alps were finally subjugated between 25BC and 14BC. This paved the way for the Roman advance up the Rhone Valley and along the Rhine and ultimately to England.
We moved on to Monaco; wonderful views along the Corniche roads. I would NOT drive along any of them; such horrendous sharp bends! It was a Yachting Week and two very large cruise ships were in the vicinity. Traffic was horrendous but eventually we found an underground car park. Grace Kelly is buried at the Cathedral we visited. Her grave was covered with masses of flowers and Prince Rainier lies alongside her grave. We saw the Casino and the Oceanographic Museum where Jacques Cousteau was Director for many years.
Sadly our expedition up the hills to visit Matisses Chapel was in vain as it was closed. Our next stop was Vence and it is a lovely old city with cafes, craft shops and narroe pave passageways. a very large statue of a wounded dove can be found in the town centre.e. Wounded Peace. There have been bishops here since 374AD; this bishopric is the smallest in France.
We headed for the Market on my last day. There is a countrified air to this part of the city where new streamlined trams run through the streets which stretches of grass between the tracks. The large market sold vast quantities of fruit and veg, pottery and herb mills, African animals and table linen; truly one could browse for hours on end. I returned from Nice with many happy memories of my first trip to the area.
You can book trip trip to Nice online with Explorer Travel on their website (http://www.explorerdirect.co.uk)
