The start
This was a 10 day trip to the South of France to support a friend in an Ironman competion. He spent the first week acclimatising to exercising in the 34+ degrees C heat whilst we sat on the private beach at the Beau Rivage:
Ironman Nice 2009
Just popping out for a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a 42km run…
First up was the swimming event – 2500 competitors lined up along the coast to swim out to a buoy over a kilometre out to sea, return to shore and repeat. Dan completed the swim in an excellent time and after a leisurely transition set off on the bike ride.
We had hired Olivier and his lovely air conditioned Mercedes to drive us round the course, allowing us to support Dan during the bike race. Driving through St Pauls to Vence we finally got an appreciation of the steepness of the mountain course, but seeing Dan for the first time he still looked fresh. We later caught up with him near the top of the main climb, but it became obvious that there was a problem with the water supply stations around the course as most of the competitiors had empty water bottles and were borderline dehydrated. With the help of a friendly French lady we resupplied Dan with water but then due to road closures couldn’t reach him for another 3 hours, by which time he’d been stopped by the race officials. A real shame as he was looking good and was almost at the high point of the entire course. We later found him back at the race start, looking annoyed but still rightly proud to have got so far.
Italy and Monaco
In the second week we moved hotel, slightly closer to the train station. It turned out this was unnecessary as the whole town is very compact, but it made a change. This allowed us to take a couple of trips along the coast. First we headed to Vintemille, just over the border in Italy. It’s worth noting that any signs will read either Vintimille in French or Ventimiglia in Italian, but they are both about twenty miles from Nice… Ventimiglia wasn’t much of a town and they really seemed to dislike English tourists. I can understand the resentment when people just talk English loudly and slowly, but between the group we were proficient in about 10 languages, one of which was excellent Italian.
We spent another day in Monaco. We actually tried to go the day before, but the chaps at the train station sold us tickets before telling us that there were no trains. The next day we had another go and made the 20 minute train ride in complete comfort – the double-decker, air-conditioned trains being far superior to those in the UK. Monaco is very attractive, yet despite being famed as the playground of the rich and famous is far better value than most parts of Nice. To address the balance I decided to go and lose €100 in the Casino de Monte Carlo. Less than 10 minutes later I emerged, mission accomplished, and met the girls in the Cafe de Paris, just to the right of Casino square and drowned my sorrows with a €12 euro milkshake and a €14 sundae, which sounds expensive, but were both about as good as a milkshake and sundae can get. Cold drinks were much appreciated as Monaco is built in a natural harbour, which is great for the boats, but also denies the residents any sort of cooling breeze, and it felt considerably hotter than the rest of the area.
Despite this we chose midday to walk round the harbour, looking at the huge yachts, then took a €1 ferry back to where we started and climbed up the hill to the aquarium – an excellent combination of sea life and ocean going history.
Cannes and St Tropez are also easily reachable from Nice by train, but I think we probably made the right choices.
Old Town
Back in Nice we spent the last few days wandering round the Old Town, probably the most attractive part of the town and and ideal place to sit, eat and people watch. Particularly recommended are Acciardo, on Rue Droite, and Le Bistro d’Antoine on Rue de la Prefecture. Both are small family-run French/Italian restaurants. The main square also houses Fenocchio Glacier (not to be confused with the Pinocchio chain) and it’s 96 flavours of ice cream. These range from the standard chocolate and vanilla through to the more exotic pecan or Kinder egg to the less appealing basil or oregano.
Notes
I stayed in the Hotel Star, which is in an excellent location and has particularly friendly and helpful staff along with life-saving air conditioning and free wi-fi. If you stay there, be sure to try the restaurants just across the crossroads – 5 in a row and they’re all excellent and far better priced that those in the more touristy areas. The most obvious sign is that the menus are only available in French. At the main strip end of the road is Monoprix, a very good french supermarket which sells not only a full range of foods, but also freshly made bakery goods and ready meals, so if you’re on a budget is a great place to pick up filling snacks.
Try and avoid eating on the main strip or Rue Massena as they charge 2 or 3 times the price of food that is nowhere near as fresh, delicious or welcoming as that in the old town. Low point was a smoothie on the main strip at La Kitchena – we could see the kitchen and with some dismay I watched the lady take a bite out of a banana and throw the remaining 3/4 into a blender, along with 2 small strawberries, some sugar syrup and no ice or ice-cream. This was blitzed and topped up with warm tap water to create an €8 delight…
Quick Note: Just found Olivier’s website: http://www.frenchrivierasightseeing-tourguide.com/
