Thursday 5/9/19 – Part 1 – Today was a picture perfect day in the French Riviera. Sunny and a high of 72. Gotta love it! So I took so many pictures and visited a few places so I thought it would be easier to split in two. In the morning I toured mostly the seaside promenade of Nice. Then in the afternoon I took the bus to the two towns of Villefranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat just a little up the coast. Then in the late afternoon I came back to tour Vieux (Old) Nice. This entry will focus on Nice and Vieux Nice.
My hotel is only a couple blocks from the beach so I started my walk staring out at the lovely blue waters of the Mediterranean and this section they call the Baie de Anges (Bay of Angels). Legend has it that the body of Nice’s patron saint, Reparate, was supposedly escorted into this bay by angels in the 4th century. The first few pics are taken along the very wide “promenade” that was built for bikers, joggers and walkers. There are always lots of people on it and I think it’s nice that many places along the way they have all these blue chairs set up so you can relax and enjoy the view. But what I found interesting is their beach is not sand but pebbles, which I would think would be very uncomfortable. So there, our sandy east coast beaches are better than the French Riviera’s! Lol
The fancy looking building in the one pic with the pinkish colored dome is the Hotel Negresco. It’s Nice’s finest hotel and is also a historic monument. I couldn’t go inside since you have to be a guest but I read where there’s chandelier in the ballroom that’s made of 16,000 pieces of crystal and was originally designed for a Russian Czar’s Moscow Palace but when the Bolshevik Revolution happened he of course couldn’t take delivery so it ended up here.
The next building pic shows the 1927 Art Nouveau facade of the Palais de la Mediterranee, once a magnificent complex housing a casino, a luxury hotel and a theater. It became one of the most famous destinations in all of Europe until it was destroyed in the 1980’s to make way for a new hotel (Hyatt Regency) but they kept the facade of the grand old building.
The next pic shows the statue that commemorates the 100 year anniversary of Nice’s Union with France. The statue features two beloved women embracing the idea of the union (Marianne – Ms Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood, and the symbol of the Republic of France – and Catherine Segurane, a 16th century heroine who helped Nice against the Saracen pirates).
The next picture with the American flag amongst the others is a part of the promenade called Quai des Estats-Unis (Quay of the United States) which is there to thank the US for helping France and entering World War I in 1917. In the next pic, another way they show that this stretch of the sea is named for the USA, is the little bronze Statue of Liberty. That building behind it is the back of their Opera House.
I took a walk thru the port area of Nice where the cruise ships come in (luckily none today!) and included a pic of George Clooney’s private yacht and his private jet flying overhead. You know, after he invited me inside and I looked around, it really wasn’t that great. Yeah, right! Lol. Just kidding by the way, that’s not George’s yacht/plane!
To show the close connection that Italy has with this area, I found a statue of Michelangelo’s David in this cool city park.
The rest of the pictures after that are all the narrow little alleyways in Vieux Nice. It’s mostly all pedestrian and makes you feel like you’re in Naples Italy. I’ll let the pics do all the talking for these. Enjoy!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 