Round The World and other travel

February 2012: Nice

Nice is France's fifth largest city and is the main settlement on that part of the country's Mediterranean coastline known as the Côte d'Azur. It has long been a popular destination for British people and I myself had visited several times since my first encounter with the city in 1984. This latest visit was prompted by an excellent 'Try Business' deal from airline bmi in its last few weeks of existence as a Lufthansa subsidiary. Late February turned out to be a most agreeable time of year in this part of the world: as is hopefully evident from the photos, the weather was glorious most of the time, but never uncomfortably hot.

Old Town & Flower Market

Nice's Old Town, with its rabbit warren of narrow streets, is an excellent place to begin any visit. A colourful flower market is held most mornings. The district is also home to a number of impressive buildings, including the cathedral (not shown here) and the opera house.

Castle & Port

The Colline du Château (Castle Hill) is a popular viewpoint over the Old Town and the Quai des États-Unis / Promenade des Anglais to the west. Good views of the port area to the east are also available.

Other views

Villefranche-sur-Mer

For a late-afternoon change of scene, I took the train a couple of stops to nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer. The picturesque little town has appeared in many movies, but sadly my visit coincided with a short-lived spell of cloudy, cooler weather.

Carnival

Although Mardi Gras had been and gone and Lent was underway at the time of my visit, the Carnaval de Nice was far from over. Why go to the trouble of constructing all those impressive floats for just one day? Or to put it another way, why party for a day when you can do it for more than two weeks?