We had another slow day here in Nice. Starting the day with a breakfast on the hostel terrace where we were joined by Denise, the resident turtle that likes to snap at poor unsuspecting feet. We then headed into to town with one of the girls that we'd been talking to last night; Jess from Queenstown, New Zealand. We had all decided they we'd go on the walking tour of Nice this morning and the three of us got some water and headed to the meeting point.
This walking tour was significantly better than the tour we had done in Florence. This young local man as informative, quick to get to the point, and also covered some informative info about modern day Nice as well as the history of this city. For example, the pink house on the hill that we were about to go to thinking that it must have been the Matisee museum, that was also a big pink building on a hill, was in fact the mansion of the first Mr Bond himself, Sean Connery! We had a laugh about this thinking about how funny it would have been to rock up to the the front gate thinking we were going to see some art but in fact would have just been met by the silver fox of an actor! 😍 hahaha since then everything seemed to remind me of something from a Bond story, especially since I was reading From Russia with Love and had just finished Thunderball. Im SURE that Ian Flemming must have spent a lot of time here in the French Riviera!
(Photos coming soon!) painted on windows, covered up river,
After tour ended a very sweaty Claire and I headed back to the beach to cool off with a swim while Jess went back to the hostel for a nap. The water was fantastically warm, and although it was very salty it was a relief from the 30 degree Celsius sun that had been beating down all day so far! We actually took turns napping and reading and swimming for another few hours until again our tummys told us it was time for food!
We stopped at the supermarket on the way home and got Camembert and French baguette for dinner with some fresh tomatoes and some cold ham! How very typically French of us.
In the evening we headed back into town for some cocktails and a wee evening walk along the beach while the sun setted.
We enjoyed our stroll along the promenade but when we reached site of the July 14th terrorist attack it was very sobering. The masses of shrines and memorials to the 80+ dead was chilling and made even more so with the sound of classical music as a local ballet group practiced on an outdoor stage. So it was a rather bitter sweet last night in Nice. I'll definitely be back though as there was a lot more in the city that I'd have liked to explore had we had the time and energy.
F x
Comments
Post a Comment