A Little Eccentric

nice in Nice, Part 1

Bonjour! How are you doing? I had a wonderful week in Nice. It was INCREDIBLE. Tchykita and I took a night train down there (since Nice is about 10 hours away) so we actually left Tours at about 8pm. We had a slight problem with our tickets too; they were actually for March instead of February! We bought them on-line and forgot to check the date. However, they were nice enough to just give us spots. The night train is bizarre. It is a little tiny compartment with 6 bunks, 3 on each side. There was a mother and son and a chick with a pet rat sharing our room with us. Its kind of funny, its like Tchykita and I have our own private code language when we speak American English to each other. We talk so fast that even someone who knew English would probably not understand, so we sit and talk about people right next to them and they have no idea. Its cool. The car was dark and quiet, and I actually slept ok. When we woke up around 6am or so, we watched the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea as we went through Cannes and Antibes. It was amazing.
Upon arriving in Nice, we eventually found our way to our hostel. Our room was pretty big and had a private bathroom. The view overlooked Nice and was beautiful!
We got a map, figured out the bus routes and took a bus to a nearby park. It had an old monastery, an Italian-style cathedral (complete with relics; there was a dried out/mummified saint in a glass coffin) and some nearby Roman ruins. To show you how much I know about catholicism, I used to think there were like 20 saints or so, but there are saints for everywhere for everything. I bet I kind find a patron saint for brushing your teeth if I tried.
Nice’s history goes back incredibly far! When we were looking at the ruins, a British woman came up and told us all about them and how the Romans lived, etc. She was an old history teacher, and was really interesting. You meet all kinds of cool people.
After that, we went back, took a nap and took a bus to the Old Nice. They had a Ferris wheel and other things set up for Carnaval. We walked around and admired the sea and the palms and the fountains and then got dinner in a great restaurant in one of the old squares. The seafood was great and not very expensive.
Nice is cool because it feels more like Italy than France, and is a night and day difference between it and my region (Centre).
After dinner, we went to the parade. It was amazing; the floats were very artistic and covered with flowers. They barricaded the whole street and you actually had to pay 10 Euros to see it, but it was worth it. (What a French concept, paying to see a parade) The performers in the parade will interact with the crowd and pose for pictures. I got a picture with one of the lovely men in drag.
It’s also a tradition for the little kids in the crowd to dress up in costumes and spray silly string at the people in the parade. The official flower of Nice is these yellow little puffball-type flowers called mimosas. They throw them and other flowers to people in the streets. We ended up with a quite a huge bouquet. When we got back to the hostel, the cat that lived there followed us to our room. We played with him for awhile but couldn't get him to leave. We eventually had to push him out because Tchykita is allergic so we couldn't have him there all night.
The next day, we took a bus down to the sea and walked into the Hotel Negresco. It is a historic and very rich hotel overlooking the sea. It was SICKENINGLY luxurious and rich. Even the bellmen had these little red and blue outfits with gold buttons.

We had lots of fun looking around and pretending we belonged there. Then we went back to Old Nice, got some food and watched another parade. This time, we didn’t want to pay to get in so we climbed some stairs and could see over the barriers. There were lots of naked woman and other such things in the parade, despite the large number of small children. No wonder the French are like they are...
After that, the weather got bad so we went to a Matisse museum; which was quite interesting. I like Matisse, and had never been to a big collection of his art. We got some cheap food at a grocery store and went back to the hostel for the night.
There is still another entire day and a half, but I'll fill you in this weekend!

posted by Molly Jo @ 3:07 AM