Waterfalls are wonderful. There is one in the middle of the Nice city, on on top of the hill with a great view. You do not need take a bus to get there, just walking and climbing is needed and while doing that there is nice alleys and churches to see and visit.
Visiting in Eze village was on a to-do-list also this year, it is a nice place and also going there is a small trip itself. This summer we have taken buses a lot instead of taking trains mostly because we discovered that they are nice (you see different places) and easy (our hotel is actually located near to many bus stops), and last but not least we bought a seven day pass for Lignes D’azur lines so local buses are ‘free’.
Number 82 took us direct to Eze village and we climbed in a hot weather to the most top where the view is magnificent. Tuomas took a lot of photos when climbing up and on the top as well. It was real hot so the next stop was on the Eze beach. We took a bus number 83 to Eze railway station which is located near to the beach. There were a lot of people on the beach enjoying the Sunday sun and warm water.
I rented a SUP board but this time I enjoyed even more swimming in the warm sea. I also realized that Finland is actually very good place for SUP. There are different kind of rivers, lakes and sea coasts with variety of landscapes and water birds. You can really enjoy the SUP trip, not just concentrating on keeping standing on the SUP board going up and down on (monster) waves.
Near but in a way far away from Nice is an old touristic attraction place: a tyrol type house with waterfall. It is build in 1883 and is very cute as your can see in photos. The place itself was cool due to waterfall and the cave under the house. But the trip was hot, and it was turning to become almost too hot.
We took a bus number 25 from the Nice center to the direction Cernuschi to get to the Cascade de Gairaut. This bus goes just once an hour on Saturdays. The ride was very bumby and the road was climbing up and down in the mountains. It was ok, and good way to see places round the city, the bus trip took about one hour. Then we took off, admired the scene, took the pictures and enjoyed the coolness around the place. Then we started to wait the bus to go back to the city. It was really, really hot to stand in the bus stop (+32, no wind, no shadow). After ten minutes we saw the bus coming, we waved to stop it and the driver waved back and just drove ahead. The bus was not definitely fully booked. We saw no-one inside.
What the #¤%&/&¤! It is hot here, do we need to stay here an hour more!!!!! A small village road,in the middle of nowhere. The sun is shining, it will burn us, it will kill us!!
After thinking two seconds we decided to change the direction and go to the bus directing Cernuschi to get in to that bus because it should come sooner than the next one to heading towards Nice. And it came in another 10 minutes and it stopped and we were so happy about that. We were rescued!
In the end what happened was that in a few minutes we landed in a very urban place and realized that there is a tram stop front of us. Quick checkup from the bus driver “yes, the tram stop is on the left”, “merci!” very fast act of leaving the bus and walking to the tram stop.
So thank you the first bus driver for not taking us to the bus. We were much faster back to the Nice city with the new route.
Today´s visit was into the village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, which was noticed as the very best beach in the area by us last year. This time we took a bus number 81 which is leaving very near to our hotel (very practical!) and we took off the bus stop called Octroi. By taking a bus instead of a train (as we did last year) we were able to enter the town itself when walking towards the beach.
The town is a beauty. Small and narrow streets with old doors and archs was a pleasant place to walk and take pictures. After for a while we ended up to the beach area and continued walking to the very end because the SUP rental location is in the far end.
I changed shorts and t-shirt in a small private tent, kind of funny but it was nice to have some place to do it. The SUP board I paddled on was a new model for me, the shape was a very sharp and it was said to be fast and stable, and it was. It took a short time to get familiar with mediterranean waves but when I did it was fun indeed to paddle.
At the moment in Finland it is raining and having a cold July. But it does not matter if you are in sunny French Riviera. And we are. Smiling. Smiling. Yesterday we took a train to Cannes to make a small boat trip to the historical island called Sainte Marguerite. Crossing the sea to the island took about 15 minutes, which was a nice refreshing moment in a sea wind when a temperature is +32 and the sun is shining in a sky where is no clouds at all.
After a short but very nice boat trip we arrived in the island. Travel guides tell that the island is an old monastery island and it is a quiet place to have relaxing moment away from the hectic urban atmosphere. It is. And at the same time it also well organized with two restaurants and several small kiosks so you can easy find soft drinks and ice cream when needed. And you need those in that kind of heat.
In the island you can walk around and see different kind of forestry types and different kind of birds on the artificial pond. Only bad thing was that it was really, really hot for a walk and you really enjoyed to stand under the trees to be in shadows but the trees were magnificent indeed.
We visited also in a Fort royal and Maritime museum, which was a reasonable size of museum having an interesting collection of roman archaeological findings from the area and also interesting stories from the 17th century when the island was a prison for the people which the king himself felt to be a risk for the monarchy. The most famous prisoner was the Man in the Iron mask.
The island was definitely worth of visiting. The cost of boat trip was 14 euros per person and every needed fanta and ice cream was fun to eat and drink anyway.
The last beach visited in this holiday in Nice was Antibes. Antibes is located in South-West from Nice, a half way to Cannes. The trip there took about a half an hour by train, the train was not crowded and there was air conditioning so the trip was very ok. From the train window we saw a very, very long beach area before the actual Antibes. But have to say in a way that seemed to be a bit boring, nothing but small sandy area between the road/rail road and sea, no palm trees, or any trees or other plans, no cafes, no any sea activities, just sand and sea.
But in Antibes there is a nice village and sandy beach with lot of sea activities available (kite boards, wind surfing, different kind of boats and SUP boards to rent). To get to Antibes beach area take a bus number 14 from the train station, you cannot miss the beach.
The day was the hottest this week (+35), the board I got was a a smaller version of my own BIC board (10’4”). It was hot so I wore swimming suit. There was a small area covered with a breakwater so it is a good place for beginners and for practising different skills even the beach is located by a busy port and boats and jet skies are passing by.
Sometimes it is good to nourish the soul with cultural experiences instead of visiting beaches or paddling so we went to see five of municipal museums in Nice.
Natural History Museum is the oldest museum in the city. The collection is told to be very large but the part to be seen in the premises is quite limited. You can get a good Asterix feeling when looking into the eyes of a wild boar.
In the beautiful hill of Cimiez there are two museums: Archeological Museum and Matisse Museum.
Archeological Museum. It is always an enjoyment for a former latin language student to see Roman ruines and statutes :).
Matisse Museum. Full of nice and famous lady figures. Photography was not allowed inside the museum, so no pictures from there. You have to go and see them in live.
Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. Excellent environment for exhibitions. Both temporary and permanent collections. Also fun.
Palais Lascaris. Baroque building with magnificent paintings in the ceiling. Lot’s of awsome old musical instruments (e.g. pianos, harps and pipes).
All the visited museums were worth of visiting. (You can buy a 7-day-ticket to enter all 13 municipal museums for 20€). A not French speaker would get even more out of the fabulous collections if there were English information texts available. But anyway, art and artifacts speak all languages.
Today’s beach was in Villefranche-sur-Mer located seven minutes from Nice central (Nice-Ville) by train. It is Saturday so lot’s of people are heading to the beaches to get refressing sea wind and to cool themselves in the sea. The train was full of both locals and turists. The beach in Villefrance-sur-Mer (or part of it) is sandy which is not so common in this part of France so it is quite nice for the small children too.
The train stops very, very near to the beach, but the SUP rental service (www.seasurfandwind.com) is in the other end of the beach, so we needed to take a walk first. Weather is hot but there is a slight wind coming from the sea, and in a shadows of trees in the sidewalk it is very comfortable to walk. In the end of the road there is a van with different SUP boards. You can select a board based on the experience level: beginner, performer and racer. I saw that there was exactly the same board I have at home, so that one was an easy choice.
The beach is located in peaceful bay so the waves were reasonable and I had no difficulties to stand up and paddle. I paddled quite a long way to the sea where were actually lots of yachts anchored and people went to swim from those. I took photos of nice views form the sea, but mostly enjoying the sea and the SUP moment.
The beaches I have visited in France during this summer holiday I liked most this one, Villefrance-sur-Mer. The travelling time from Nice is very ok, the beach itself is comfortable, the bay is calm but nicely windy for SUP, offering in the SUP rental is good and prices in cafeterias are reasonable.
After having paddled for an hour I jumped to the sea and swam a small round. After that it was nice and cool to walk back to the train and go back to Nice-Ville.
Visiting the medieval village Eze was in today’s program. The village is very beautiful located in the top of a high mountain and to get there you have to drive on a serpentive road on scary cliffs. Luckily we got a bus with a experienced driver. In the end, after climbing up by foot to the highest point on the mountain, we enjoyed a magnificent view including the beach we visited yesterday (SUP in Eze).
The Sun is shining, wind is warm and temperature is only +26 (in the morning, during the day it rises untill +32). Time to make one dream to come true: to sup in Mediterranean Sea. Just swimming suit on (with shorts) this time, no vest, no leash, no belt for camera, no sport tracker. But neoprene shoes yes, the beach in Nice is covered with big stones so it is nicer to walk with those on.
It is hot so being on water or in water is really comfortable. Waves are really bigger than I am used to so I rather stay on my knees on SUP board. Other people on SUP boards also prefer that except few ones, but they seem to enjoy swimming during a sup paddling as well :). (I am not that into to fall into a sea with my glasses on, swimming as it own is fun though).
Going up and down on the waves is relaxing. But beeing on the knees is really killing after a while so the joy lasts about a half an hour. Time to paddle back to the beach, carry the board to the rental point, get a quick shower to rinse the salt away from the skin, enjoy the moment and have a cup of refreshing soda.
