It was nice in Nice – Day 22 Part 2

Day 22 Part 2 – It was nice in Nice
18 April 2015
Nice

After a quick tour of Monte Carlo, Wifey and I caught the train back to Nice. As I mentioned in my last post, the ticket machines were in French and so it would help if you have a translator app or book just in case you get confused. We stopped at Gare de Nice-Ville station, walked down the main street of the city centre Avenue Jean Medecin. We were hoping it would lead us to the beach. The avenue was lined by stores and restaurants which we ignored as we were too keen to see the water. We did however stopped and took pictures at Place Massena, the main city square where there were plenty of fountains and cool water inspired art installations. One of the fountains was called Fontaine du Soleil, a statue of Apollo, the god of light and the sun in Greek mythology, stood in the middle. Behind the statue the street continued, we kept walking and minutes later we were at our desired destination. We have found the beach! No wonder it was called Blue Beach, not just because of the water but the blue umbrellas that scattered by the shore from various restaurants. Wifey and I took a break from walking and sat on the pebbly beach, using one of our maps to sit on and just enjoyed the sea breeze, the warm sun and each other’s company. The French Riviera was one of the places that she had wanted to visit for such a long time and finally her dream came true.

The main boulevard Promenade des Anglais stretched as far the as the eye could see. There was an interesting building in the distance that caught my attention and so we walked towards it. It was the Le Negresco Hotel. With its pink and green dome, it was hard not to notice its beauty. The 5 star hotel in the French Riviera would set you back a minimum $700 a night! A free picture of the building would do for us.

We got hungry from all the walking and dined at Le Vip’s Grill. She got the grilled bbq beef sticks and I got the paella. Since I was pretty disappointed with the paella I had in Portugal, I was hoping this would be good since we were by the sea and so the seafood would be fresh. It was one of the best paella I have tasted! The seafood was fresh, abundant and it was cooked perfectly. I was really happy with my meal. To top it off we ordered creme brûlée with pistachio ice cream for dessert and that was delicious too.

After our very late lunch, we checked out the shopping strip. Wifey was after a bag but she couldn’t find what she wanted. A couple of hours later we were ready to go back to our hotel. We still had to catch a train back and we weren’t sure how late the trains run in Nice and so we decided to get some takeaway food from a Chinese restaurant instead of staying in the city and took it with us back at our hotel.

What a day it was, Monte Carlo in the morning and Nice in the afternoon. We would definitely return, maybe during the summer time so we could enjoy the water of the Mediterranean Sea.

Cheerio,
Jeeps