*guest post by Katie*
First off, I am so excited and honored to be a guest blogger on Birmingham’s most amazing blog. I always enjoy reading the newest events and happenings going on in our town, and the pictures always make me want to be where the action is! However, I hope to take you all with me to Europe over the coming weeks.
First Stop: Nice, Côte d’Azur, France.
Nice has been around since approximately 350 BC, making it one of the oldest known settlements in Europe. Clearly, most of those remnants have taken their place in the past, and today, Nice stands as one of the most luxurious vacation destinations for the wealthy. Yachts are anchored in the port, and casinos both here and in nearby Monaco require top-notch dress and a significant down payment to play with the high rollers. It’s an expensive city all around, but the Mediterranean waters and beautiful weather make it all worth the extra few Euros.
Nice gets about 300 days of sun a year, which would explain why one of my 2 full days in the city was cloudy. Nevertheless, the temperature was perfect during my stay, and as you can see from the pictures, I got my sun time in. The most interesting thing about these beaches is the lack of sand. The beach is actually rocks, worn smooth from years of movement by the ocean. The sound of the waves is different, because right after the initial crash, there’s a sound similar to the rainsticks we used to play with at the bookstore. It’s the shurring sound of the rocks rolling against one another. It’s quite soothing after you identify what it is. The rocks themselves are smooth and seem deceptively easy to walk on. False. These rocks are vicious. They will rip your feet to shreds, despite their soft, rounded appearance. They can also get quite warm in the sun, making sunbathers walk to the water appear something akin to coal walking.
My first stop was, of course, the beach. After 27 hours without sleep, though, my visit was short-lived before I returned to my hotel to sleep off the jet lag. The next day my plan was a walking tour of Old Nice. The city was Italian for a long time, and the architecture, especially in this plaza, as well as the paint colors appear more Italian than French. The city also gained popularity in the late 1800s, early 1900s as a gathering for Europe’s finest. In fact, the beachside boardwalk is named the Promenade des Anglais (The Englishman’s Walk) in a tip of the hat to the English that flocked here. Imagine Downton Abbey taking a stroll along the Mediterranean with their parasols…
To appease the cultural needs of these elite, Nice built an Opera house. Not near as fine as Paris’s (which is my favorite building in Paris by far), the four statues on the top of the edifice represent theatre, dance, music, and singing. Just down the street on the Cours Saleya is a market, where farmers bring produce, salts, herbes de provence, soaps, and other goods for tourists and locals alike to peruse.
No trip to France could be complete with at least one stop in a bakery (pâtisserie). For me, it usually averages once a day, but it’s part of doing as the French do, though I doubt they buy something sweet every time (their purchases usually include baguettes, baguettes, and more baguettes). After wandering in the streets for a while, I got a mini quiche Lorraine from a bakery known for the Best Bread in France and after making quick work of that, I sat in the Palais de Justice plaza to eat the ice cream I soon devoured. The best part of traveling alone: no judgment on the amount of sweets I have eaten here.
My last stop in my journey here was the ruins of the old castle, set high on the hill where Nice was first founded. Though the term “ruins” is quite loosely used, the views were phenomenal and it was the perfect ending to a lovely stay. My next stop on the Europe tour will be quite different! I will keep the suspense up about the next location; let’s just say it will be the opposite of wealthy Nice!