La Côte d’Azur: Sunshine, Flowers, and Spring-time!
Spring has come in Nice, France!
The colors are bright, the sea clear, and the sun shining. We walked through the old town, grabbing a lunch of traditional foods: socca (flatbread made from chickpea flour), pissaladière (pizza topped with onions, anchovies, and olives), and les petits farcis (eggplant and zucchini stuffed with ground meat and garlic).
We met our Airbnb host and dropped off our bags after climbing four stories of narrow steps to the very top of the building.
These pictures are around the entrance to our apartment. The door is sandwiched between a tea shop and a specialty salt shop in the Old Town.
Like many cities in Europe, Nice has a Roman past. The remnants of an amphitheater can be found in a local park. Built between 70 and 80 AD, the amphitheater was used for gladiator fights and executing criminals. This arena had 6 or 7 levels and was able to hold 4000 spectators.
Then, unable to resist any longer, we headed to the beach. Nice’s beach doesn’t have any sand. Instead, white, flat river rocks stretch as far as you can see.
We ended our afternoon with a short hike up a big hill on the edge of the Old Town, called the Parc de la Château Colline. Don’t get too excited; the castle was dismantled in 1706, though of course I found the few remains.
The views were spectacular and we enjoyed a relaxing evening before finding some dinner and then drinking the complementary rosé the Airbnb owner left for us.
As Margaux, one of my professor’s, always says, “Life slows down in the south of France.” We certainly lived that today and you’ll hear no complaints from me.
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