On the Cote D'Azur, French Riviera - Cote D'Azur, French Riviera, France
Cote D'Azur, French Riviera, France
Cindi wrote:
If you're like me, you have a lot of images floating around your mind about the French Riviera. Throw them all out! LOL Because if your images are anything like mine were, you will be surprised by the reality. My picture was of small, quaint, very high end towns. We even had a chance to come to the Riviera a few years back and stay at a really high end place for free, but didn't because we thought it would be so fru fru that we we'd be stuck with nothing to do but watch rich people and eat $200 meals. I mean, this is where the rich and famous hang out, right? OK, reality.
The first shock when you drive into the Riviera is the immense size of it. You always see photos of the waterfront, the beaches, the boats in the harbor, etc. But the Riviera is actually a densely populated area with 2 million people in a fairly small space. The terrain is very hilly, with seemingly every square inch covered by apartment buildings. It reminds me of what you would get if you took San Francisco, made it all as hilly as the hilliest parts, and covered them not with homes, but with 6 story apartment buildings. The freeways are large and usually packed. Parking is crazy, especially if you need to leave your car overnight. (And this is the off-season!)
The second shock is that everything is kind of grimey. It's like the whole place (roads, buildings, etc) needs a good steam cleaning. Also, the trains and stations are filthy, there's grafitti everywhere, and too much garbage lying around.
Not to say it's awful. We actually had a good time for a few days. Downtown Nice, right near the water where the tourists go, is actually very nice. There is an old town with really narrow streets, filled with shops and restaurants. There's a long promenade/boardwalk, along the beach, and many areas between those are very nice. There are several huge squares with thousands of people eating outside in cafes. (One night we estimated there had to be 75,000 people eating at all the squares in Nice right then.) The tram takes you between areas for 1 euro, or it's not a bad walk. There's lovely old buildings and parks, and the city is adding a lot more recently. But it is crazy busy, the trams are packed to capacity, there are people everywhere. It's really a big city, next to an ocean.
The beaches in Nice are composed of big rocks, like river rocks, not sand. That is their natural state here, although some other towns have brought in sand. There's no real tide, which is weird. (The opening to the Mediterranean Sea is too small.) The beach is broken up every hundred or two hundred feet into public and private areas. In the private areas you pay $20 or so for the day and get a beach chair, umbrella, someone to serve you drinks, a restaurant, bathroom and showers. Each has a different theme, and we had fun "bar hopping" among the beaches, getting a drink in each one.
We rented an apartment in Nice. We parked the car in a garage for a week, and never took the car out until we were leaving. Each day would take the train to a different neighboring city, which would take 20-40 minutes. Each of the other towns has a different feel.
Monte Carlo is like a glistening diamond compared to Nice. The train station is a work of art with miles of sparkly marble. The town is clean and glitzy, closest to what I imagined. Fortunately there are still plenty of restaurants for us "normal" people! The town isn't my favorite though because it doesn't have a beach in the main area, just a big pool. We didn't get a full sense of the place because the Mega-yacht show was in town. Huge tents and yachts blocked the whole harbor. The town is also on a very steep slope, so you do a lot of climbing to get anywhere.
Antibes wasn't too interesting. It had an old town and a tiny beach, but more/better beaches on other end of town (near/at Juan Les Pins). The old town was surrounded by a big rampart so it was separated from everything else. I think Antibes' claim to fame may be the harbor which had more huge yachts than I have ever seen anywhere in my life. Across the peninsula from Antibes is Juan Les Pins. This is a beachy town, low key, like Santa Cruz maybe, or something you'd see in Florida. They have real sand here, and also public and private beaches.
When we first arrived at the Riviera it was sunny for a few days, but then it got sort of overcast and foggy, and windy at times. Our day in Antibies was mainly overcast and windy, but we did find the warm part of the beach and we hung out for an hour or so.
My favorite town was Cannes. Kind of a cross between Nice and Juan Les Pins, it had a nice town, nice promenade, everything looked well kept and clean, high end but without feeling uncomfortable. Just really nice. Classy. And doesn't feel like a mad house like Nice. If I ever were to go back, I would definitely stay in Cannes.
All in all, I can see why many Europeans go to the Carribean to the beach, because the Riveria really isn't what we think of as a beach vacation. But it is good for what it is: museums, culture, shopping and eating, with a beach there too to hang out if that suits you.
It was great to take the trains, but I feel I should warn people about them being sort of dingy. However compared to the chaos of driving, it was well worth it!
Soon we will make our last post, covering the end of the trip and giving our summary, tips, things learned and overall over analysis as only we can!
Glen wrote:
I share Cindi's feelings. Nice, where we got an apartment for the week, is best described as "gritty". Everyone there was nice enough to us. Nothing bad happened. However there was just "grit' everywhere. Trash on the street. Cars, motorcycles, and scooters everywhere. Cars parked on sidewalks, and double-parked in the street, for hours. (I actually understand that last one, because we had to double park for about 30 minutes while we loaded the car to leave.)
There were people everywhere; trains and trams packed. The trains and train stations were either filthy and/or completely run down. The grocery store had security guards at the exits. Nice has the bustle of a big city, and I assume the problems to go with it. It needed a serious steam cleaning and a fresh coat of paint.
We rented an apartment a short walk from the tram and the train station on the eastern side of town. The apartment, in the fifth floor, was very nice. Big and well furnished. However the street it was on was a bit dingy. In the evening, we'd walk down the next street over (when going to and from the tram), because it felt just a bit safer. That said, there were many men and women walking by themselves at night, seemingly without a concern. We didn't actually observe anything bad happening but it just felt questionable.
On the trains in Switzerland, occasionally a ticket checker would walk down the isle, say hello, and ask to see your ticket. Very civil and orderly. In Nice we noticed that never happened, and understandably so, because it would be impossible with the trains so packed. We wondered if they ever checked tickets... and we discovered they did! One day, upon exiting the train at our local station, there was a big jam-up of people, and lots of security standing by. What's happening, we wonder? Cindi's first thought was that they were looking for a criminal or terrorist. Then we realized they were checking tickets as people were exiting the train/station. It worked fine, and everyone seemed to have a ticket, so there was more compliance than I would have guessed. A very unique method of enforcement.
I mentioned previously that if you need to use the bathroom, you go while you are on the train, because it's handy, and it's free. One day on the way back to Nice, we got on a train which was absolutely beaten up. The cars were easily 30+ years old. The outside was covered with graffiti. The inside was very, very worn and tired. ************e else was riding on it either. We knew the train was heading our direction, but we were not sure how far past our stop it was going. My initial thought was, "There is no way Monaco is letting this hideous train into their beautiful station" (and I was right, it ended in Nice.)
We get on the train, and it's totally fine. Then I go to the WC. As I'm standing doing my business, I glance down into the bowl, and I notice the track and rail ties going by. Wow, I'm peeing directly on the track. If I happened to be dropping a deuce, that would be going directly on the track too. Very interesting, and unsanitary, I'd think. When I told Cindi, she was a bit disbelieving. I assumed all the trains like that had been retired, but apparently not. I was thinking it might be a bit breezy sitting on that seat too, particularly in the winter. I did not try it. (Geez, where was my sense of adventure?)
It's hard to believe but I got sick of beer. In Southern France, it was hard to find a nice dark malty beer. I was doing OK with the light lagers for a few days, but by the end, I gave up and started drinking tea. Part of problem was we wanted to buy tram passes in Nice. They were 15 Euro each, but the ticket machine would not take our credit cards, or Euro bills. It only wanted coins. It was also Sunday, so the ticket offices were not open. To collect up enough coins, we started walking the Promenade, buying beers, then asking for as much coin change as they would give us. It took 3 beers each to accumulate 30 Euro in coins. I suppose that's not really many beers, but I think it contributed to my temporary beer burnout.
Peanut Butter is awesome travel food: If you get hungry, a PB&J is a dang good snack, or dinner. In Nice we wanted to get some peanut butter, and we could not find any in the huge Carrefour grocery store near the apartment. Plenty of jam and Nutella, but no PB. We find a clerk and ask. He does not speak English, so we type "peanut butter" into our tablet translator app. It translates, and he takes a thoughtful moment, and then does the international hand gesture of spreading something with a knife. "Oui !", we say, and he takes us over to the International Foods aisle ( ! ) and locates a small jar, made with peanuts from the USA. That's hilarious, and I did not think to look there myself. It IS an international food to the French.
For whatever reason, we saw more heavy people in the South of France than anywhere else in Europe, and even less smokers than anywhere else. They may have been tourists instead of local folks, but it was an interesting shift. Too bad, because since they were beach towns, we saw a lot of skin :-( And yes, there were a few women going topless, but not many, and they tended to be older, like my age, not 20 year olds.
Next is a final few days in Switzerland.