Page 6 of 9
Nimes, France
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar, and that's where you're gonna find me
This is the ever famous Maison Carree in Nimes, France, built by the Romans in 2 AD and still standing. Behind it is just a glimpse of Norman Foster's Musee Carree, built some 1,900 years later.
On the Cote Azur yet still under a wonderfully harsh Provencal sun, Nice is actually quite nice.
Nice is a city, and a big one at that. It feels bigger than Oslo or Stockholm, though not nearly as big as Copenhagen or Barcelona. In the city I walked around, went down to sea, walked along its gravely beaches, visited the very impressive Marc Chagall Museum, and once again enjoyed being in France.
When I arrived, I stayed at a Rick Steves recommended hotel, a big step up from the last available option hostel in Carcassonne and from all those railway couchettes I’ve been taking on back to back consecutive nights. When I checked in, the lovely woman at the desk asked me if I wanted breakfast the next morning or not. I stammered a bit, I mean I usually don’t think about breakfast that early, but then she said she needed to know now so she made the right amount of croissants for tomorrow. I heard that and immediately changed my tune. Yes, yes I will take a fresh homemade croissant and damn was it tasty. I never spent an extra 30 FF so well in my entire life.
The Jardins Exotique in nearby Monaco is perched high on the cliffs and is home to aging tour groups, cacti and really nice views. Among the buildings atop the cliffs straight ahead are the modest Grimaldi residences.
I wasn’t as impressed with Monaco and Monte Carlo as I expected to be, although maybe that’s because I just came from Nice (it’s only a half hour local train ride away). Monaco was small and packed with tour groups, the gardens were nice but not spectacular, the Jacques Cousteau Musee Oceanograhique was nice but small, overall it was nice but not as nice as Nice.
Maybe the weather had something to do with my opinion of the place. During my visit, there was a pop up torrential rain storm with fierce winds, as if god himself decided now was the time to smite all those tax evading rich bastards in Monaco. I survived thanks to my travel umbrella I bought in Himeji last year, although it felt a little touch and go for a while.
