March 30, 2012

Trip 20: Nice (Carnival) and Èze, France

Trip date: February 18 -19, 2012

Nice is located in the South of France next to the Mediterranean Sea. Our visit was planned during Nice's Carnival - a carnival that first started in the 1920's. This year's carnival theme is "sports".

All in attendance: Gordon, Pat, Tom, Ryan, Kathryn, Bikram, Nolan, Jason, Carmen, Parth and Kristen

We bought an easyjet flight out of Basel to Nice for 7:25am on Saturday morning. The Saturday SBB connections for this flight are very unforgiving and the results are scrambling out of the house at 3:30am (Pat, Gordon and I) and a very cumbersome route to the airport which includes a a 25 minute walk to the station, a night-fare fee, a long wait at a train station and a taxi for the last stretch to the airport. Other people either slept at the airport or took another train connection at 2am in the morning.

But we arrived! Nice's airport is extremely close to the city. Much closer than anywhere else I've been. Perhaps even an hour walk away from downtown. It's lovely because the airport is on this strip of land almost surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. I'm glad we arrived during the daylight hours where I could appreciate how stunning the South of France is right from the get-go.


We took the airport bus into town where everything was just beginning to open for the day. We bought our parade tickets to the Nice Carnival. Call it skepticism, hesitancy or pessimism but 10€ for a parade ticket seemed very steep. Especially when you buy 2! There are 3 parades that run throughout the 3 week long carnival. We bought tickets for the Flower Parade and Parade of Lights.They didn't disappoint!!

Little cute shops, little cute bakeries, little cute places to eat - all affordable since it's all half the price of Switzerland. Palm trees, sunny skies and beaches along the Baie des Anges - it's hard to believe it's February. We walked along the Promenade Anglais, the seaside pathway along the water until we veered off-path into Nice's Old town. There we happened upon a book market and the most tastebud stimulating outdoor food market I have seen yet.



Fresh fruits and vegetables, all kinds of variety of candied fruit and dried fruit (kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, etc), over 40 types of teas, 40 types of salts, olives, multiple bottles of special olive oil, fresh breads, fresh cheeses, bouquets upon bouquets of flowers, handmade soaps, hand made candles - the list goes on. Presentation was at 200% because everything looked so tempting. I ended up getting some sundried tomatoes and strawberries. I can't even imagine all the fresh and delicious things that would be in my every day diet if I lived here.

We then happened upon the Colline du Chateau - a beautiful park with a waterfall that gives you a great panoramic view of Nice. In fact, when you google image "Nice, France", 80% of the photos of the city were taken from a vantage point in this park.



Time for a quick snack and we queued up to get into the parade area. I thought it was quite ambitious to section off a huge part of the streets for a ticket-parade but everything seemed to be running especially smoothly. Carmen and I secured front row positions, a necessity for anyone under 160cm.

The Flower Parade / Bataille de fleurs is parade with dancers, music performers and elaborate floats where the participants throw a huge quantity of flowers into the crowd. You could get some serious bouquets here and I saw a lot of people leaving who did. People freely silly string attack the parade performers too. At the end of the parade, the floats are nearly naked since even the intricate flower arrangements on them are thrown into the crowd. No wonder the ticket is 10€ - these type of flowers arn't cheap.




I was unsure of how a sport-themed-flower-theme parade would look but I guess I got my answer!

I went to check into my hostel after. I had to arrange something last minute because I was going to stay with a friend in Nice but plans fell through at the last moment. The hostel everyone else was staying at was already full but Nice is not too big and I found something else right by the train station. I parted way from the rest of the group and after a quick detour to get my hair fringes trimmed, I went to my hostel.

It's my first experience with an overbooked/lost reservation. The lady was really apologetic and I was in an especially good mood so I told her I didn't mind (things happen!). She found me a place at a nearby accommodation for a similar price. This other place is under hard renovations so there was no sign (or name! I was just given an address)- I went around the block twice before I happened upon the owner who took me inside.

The man who checked me in is also the contractor of the renovations. He was from Berlin and he was staying at the hostel while he over saw the construction. In fact, we stayed in the same room along with another girl from China. The room even had a private kitchen and bathroom. The three of us spoke German together the whole time we were there.

Meeting up with everyone else, we had a dinner (some people got all you can eat mussels), and then went to the Parade of Lights/Corso Illuminé. I have never seem floats like this before. The lines between cheerful parade and ominous-nightmare have never been so gray.




Confetti flights and silly string flights are prominent here. I've never seen the large appeal of confetti until this night where you can take handfuls of the stuff and throw it in the face of all your friends (and let someone else do the cleaning up).

We met a German named Erik and went out for a few drinks in the old town before heading to bed.

The next day, I woke up and chatted with the people in my hostel before checking out. I spent this day by myself (everyone else was going to Monte Carlo (in the Principality of Monaco) and other cities surrounding Nice but I wanted a more relaxing trip.

I bought some delicious french pastries for breakfest and went to see the Cathédrale orthodoxe russe Saint-Nicolas in the morning. Then I went shopping for some clothes and then went back to the outdoor market where I bought some dried kiwi and strawberries. A booth was selling 30+ small pears all for 1€ total and I thought to myself:
WOW that's a lot of pears!!!!
The stereotype asian in me was screaming about what a good and tasty deal that was. I figured even if the 30+ pears became too heavy, I won't feel bad about having to leave them behind as long as I ate two.

So everywhere I went that day, I had a pear. A walk around old town? Let's have a pear. Stop for a coffee? Have a pear. WW1 monument? Have a pear. Another walk along the beach? Have a pear. Wait for the bus to go to Èze? Have a pear.

Needless to say, I didn't have lunch since I was bursting full of pears. I took the bus to Èze, mostly to see some of the beauty of the Côte d'Azur area. I happened upon some of the other interns in Èze as well and gave them some pears too. Can you believe that my backpack was still heavy from pears after all of this?

I walked through the Jardin Botanique which was unlike any garden I've been to. Flowers are at a high minority to cacti here. The French Rivera is stunning. Absolutely stunning. So much so that it has convinced me to come back before the end of my internship.



More relaxing activities. I read my book for a while in the garden before heading back to the bus stop. Then there was time for more wandering in Nice's old town before going to the airport. Perfect timing because I met up with everyone in the security line up!

Things I learned:
  • There is a reason why everyone makes a big fuss about "the South of France" - it's naturally beautiful
  • French cuisine is so fancy because high quality ingredients are widely available everywhere
  • It creates a whole different attitude when a big event has no sign of corporate sponsorship. No coca-cola ads here.
  • You can bring a ridiculous amount of fruit through European airport security.
    I also made a short cake with the extra pears I brought home.
Things I liked:
  • The way a backpack full of pears looks on the security screen at the airport
  • Delicious Food
  • Disconcerting Floats
  • Semi-relaxing on a trip instead of endless sightseeing and running around
  • The lack of eye-sore corporate ads that are usually in surplus at the parade