Cannes and Nice, France
We so enjoyed our rail trip from Avignon to Marseille that we took a train trip today, going from Cannes to Nice (pronounced 'Neice'). It is only about an hour away, to the east and north, along the Cote d' Azure. Our tickets were only 12 euro each, return, and as the train passed along the Mediterranean the view was lovely with short stops at stations along the way like 'Entibi' (Antibes, in English).
Nice was nice, of course. The train let us out at 'Nice Ville', the city center train station, and we walked the twenty minute distance down the main street to the harbour and the old town. Along the way we stumbled into a carnival, which grew and grew as we walked. Eventually, as we got to the waterfront promenade, we realized what a really big deal we had stumbled into as this carnival is a major event for the locals. Fully eight city blocks along the Nice waterfront, the fancy hotels and stores, were blocked off and barricaded with metropolitan police (gendarmes) everywhere and crowd control police with cans of mace and batons and riot dogs wearing tear-away muzzles. Made us wonder what kind of carnivals they have here, but certainly all was peaceful as we walked along.
We saw some rides, lots of kids and moms, and some extremely artistic face painting going on, see the photos below. Then, growing hungry, we went in search of a beach restaurant for lunch. But we couldn't get to the beach, barricades everywhere, so we walked and walked to the west. Finally we got through and found a restaurant on the promenade with all its tables set outside in the sunshine but nobody there. Jan and I sat down and the waiter appeared, gave us menus, and chatted with us in a very friendly way. He had nothing else to do he said, the carnival is great fun but very bad for business. We had a marvellous lunch, Jan having a seafood salad that was very fresh and excellent she said, and I had a 'Salad Nicoise', or 'Nice Salad' that was the specialty of the house. When in Nice, have their salad I thought, and all of the beach restaurants specialize in seafood which is Jan's favorite. And we had a bottle of very good Chardonnay. As well during lunch, we got a call from Leanne with whom we chatted for awhile and then with her school friend, Peter Manson who is visiting London. Jan and I hadn't spoken with him since we saw him in the Fall of 2008 at the Atwater Market in Montreal, and a lot of water has passed by since then so it was good to catch up.
Later we watched the carnival parade for a while, then made for the train station and home to Cannes for the night. A great day.
