Before I say anything about this lovely city, I have to express that the lychee/pear sorbet combo gelato is great, oh wait, literally all of the gelato there was phenomenal or should I say NICE. Had to fulfill my pun quota.
After our beach time in Les Issambres, we got into our Citroen once again and made our way for Nice, the capital of the French Riviera or Côte d’Azur. The drive over was very enjoyable, unfortunately, we didn’t get many photos in Nice. I think we were enamored, but unlike Paris or Rome, we could only stay for a day or two. We did have trouble finding the hotel we were supposed to stay in, once again, and, since I was in the backseat I could disengage and watch the ongoing struggle between my dad and Ronan whilst I spammed neutral aerial with Shulk, battle music blaring in the background. Sometimes not riding shotgun pays off.
The Hotel was very nice but the main highlight was the shower, as it had a mode where you could change it to a rainfall style shower.
One thing I liked very much about the city is that it always seemed so lively, and there were two parts of the city called New Nice and Old Nice, as to be expected. New Nice has more modern buildings, and Old Nice seems much more historical with its classic design. We caught a few french songs from the buskers and a fire dance. The fire dancers made a few missteps in their choreography/fire handling and you could tell they were in pain by the end of the performance. I had a lot of respect though for their full commitment to the show, however, it must be noted they didn’t turn themselves into a living matchbox, so all is well. We also got gelato every day we were there, my favorite being the aforementioned lychee/pear sorbet combo. The gelato place we went to had more than 60 flavours, no joke. Take that Baskin Robbins.
The Second Beach day
We made our way towards the bus to the beach, or la plage as they call it. The bus was rather crowded, and every time there was a bump in the road, you wanted to make sure you didn’t fall into anyone. The water was not exactly warm, but warmer than I can remember the Pacific Ocean being of my youth. These are ancient civilization waters and I am bathing in history. My mind got lost in the thought of all the people through the ages who swam, lived, or battled here. My dad and I also played some Qwixx on the beach, which is a dice game that we like to play occasionally. I wish I could’ve touched the boat that was resting out beyond the far tides, but I would’ve swum too far out.
The Waterfall
It was a long walk, but at the high point of Nice there is a waterfall and park that are spectacularly situated about the ocean with ancient Roman ruins. It resembled a fortress of some sort which would make sense from this vantage point. We ventured both below and above it, as the above photo is below, and the below photo is above.
When we arrived at the top, we heard an alarming cannon sound, and my heart nearly lept out of my chest. Later I would learn that in Nice they fire a cannon at 12 pm every single day to memorialize the exacting of time. Since 1861, Thomas Coventry-More, an English barrister and astronomer who lived in Nice was very concerned about the importance of knowing the precise time of the mid-day hour. He even wrote a letter to the mayor of Nice at the time to request permission to fire the cannon as he felt the inhabitants of the city did not have a notion of proper time with the many church bells that would go off throughout the day and people would get confused. He wanted something the citizens could rely on to make the day more consistent. This all started the day after Nice was taken back for France courtesy of Napoleon III. After Coventry-More’s death, his daughter continued the tradition and so on. Today time is easily known and this daily cannon blast is seen as an annoyance to the local residents and frequently scares the bejesus out of uninformed tourists.
Le Saviez Vous? (Did you know?)
About 400,000 years ago, Wooly Mammoths often roamed the area and called it home in this place we now know as the city of Nice, France. Ice Age, anyone?
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