Impressions of the French Riviera Haiku

So I thought I'd attempt some more poetry today...

Many pigeons sit

On statues. Many dogs are

The size of pigeons.

Bonjour, ca va, oui.

Oui, bonjour, ca va bien?

Must think of more words.

Sun ripples on sea.

People clutch coats against cold.

I wear a T-shirt.

Sea and Boats and Stones

And Castles and Towers and

Hills and Mountains and-

Step by step, the climb.

Lost: shuttered windows, blue sky.

Destination X.

I just thought: Haiku are perfect for Twitter! You may be subjected to more...

The First Day of the Last Year of the World (Happy New Year everyone!)

I'm now back in London - I trudged back to my flat from the bus stop in the drizzly dark, dragging my suitcase and looking forward to spaghetti bolognese. Then I sat with my blanket and slurped noodles, watched Sherlock (which is awesome, by the way) and went to bed very tired. But, wonder of wonders, it's sunny today! Much colder than Nice, though.

My Finnish friend and I spent midnight of the New Year in la Place Masséna with thousands of other people. There was lots of champagne and cigars and low-flying fireworks (but no public display, which disappointed us both) and people casually dropping small coloured explosives and sidling off before they went bang. At midnight the floodlights pulsed and everyone cheered and wished each other bonne année and bonne santée.

I slept in on New Year's morning, but was up in time to stuff everything back into my tiny suitcase while having a French conversation with a retired lady who was going to climb the mountains of Nice. She was very helpful, correcting my grammar and giving me tips on when to use which word. After a breakfast of apricot jam on potato bread (not French bread this morning... wonder why?) I set off for le Promenade des Anglais, where I sat and read my book in the sun before I had to take the bus to the airport and then board my plane back to Londres, Angleterre.

The sun was just setting as we flew over les Alpes, so I took a few photos.

Happy New Year!

A Nice last day of 2011

I’m getting to quite like my bread and jam breakfast, though today I added tea as well. There’s a cluster of museums up the hills a bit by some Roman ruins, so I wandered down Rue Jean Medecin to Place Masséna, then along to Place Garibaldi where I thought I might find a bus up into the hills.

La Place Masséna

Both these squares are surrounded by tall coloured buildings with French windows (of course), and if you squint a bit and ignore the tram bell you can imagine you’re in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.

La Place Garibaldi

Much of central Nice is apartment blocks, but as you drive further into the hills (at least, along the route the bus took) you find larger houses and mansions and gigantic hotels. I got off next to one of these gigantic hotels dripping filigree and looked around to see which way were the museums and Roman ruins.

Ah. Large amphitheatre to the southeast. That way.

The amphitheatre was pretty cool. You could go right into the arena, under one of the archways, and stare in awe at the remains, building the rest of the amphitheatre in your mind’s eye. It once had four levels and could hold four thousand people, and I think it would be a good place to stage ancient plays, with the ruins backlit and people sitting on the remains of the encircling seats. Though archaeologists mightn’t like their ruins being used in such a way. Imagine the coke cans and chip packets left behind.

The museums are around the edge of a park full of olive trees. The first I came to was the Matisse museum, which is a plain (but large) old villa done up with trompe d’oeil so that it looks like it has balconies and carving everywhere. Some of the rooms inside were also done like this, with trompe d’oeil plaster work over Matisse’s drawings and paintings and sculptures. I spent a while admiring the works and deciphering the French information panels, then descended into a huge modern addition below ground level with even more drawings and paintings and sculptures as well as some photography.

The Matisse Museum

The museum of archaeology was just next door, and I’d seen some ruins out the window of the Matisse museum, behind some people doing Tai Chi on the balcony. I’d expected a few ruins, maybe the size of a tennis court or two, and that’s what greeted me when I left the main museum building. And then I turned a corner and there was more... and more... and more...

One of the buildings was pretty much still standing, albeit without its roof, and you could easily follow the walls and canals of the rest of the compound, imagining the Roman baths (one complete pillar still standing) and trying to figure out if the canals were only for water, or if they were ever used as secret passages. A cat adopted me just as I was going back into the main museum but refused to pose for a photo in front of the ruins, preferring to woggle in the dust or dart towards me for a pat.

Observe Cat to the right

The third museum was a Franciscan monastery, but had unfortunately closed for the year about forty-five minutes before. I visited the adjoining church instead, which looked like it belonged in Spanish California (or how I imagine churches in Spanish California might look) and was covered in beautiful paintings inside. Those on the roof depicted divine scenes towards the altar, drawing into scenes of Franciscan monks near the main door and all lit beautifully.

Monastery gardens

Next on my list for the day was lunch, for which I was determined to have socca. The kiosk café in the park did not have socca, so I took the bus back into central Nice and stood in line for my socca at the German market. Socca is a Nicois speciality made from chick pea flour and olive oil and cooked in a wood oven. I sat beside the ice rink to eat, noting that the skaters in Nice were not as accomplished as the skaters in Monaco. The socca was very good, but the lady gave me rather a lot and by the time I finished I was ready for something else.

Pomme d’amour! This is what toffee apples are called in French. I sat eating mine on the beach with book in hand, trying to see if I could finish the book before the new year so I can add it to my books-read-in-2011 list. (I still haven’t finished the book... but still a few hours to go!)

The Russian Church was my next stop. It, too, was closed, but I got some very good photos of the onion domes against the blue Nice sky, then set off back to the hostel.

I’ve just had galettes (savoury crepes) in the old town with a very nice Finnish girl, and we’re planning to go to la Place Massèna for midnight. The old town has many small alleyways and we got a bit lost looking for restaurants that were open at 1830. While walking down one alley, some nearby church bells began to ring, reverberating through the walls, and down another alley we were distracted by the smell of a chocolaterie/patisserie and had to buy some macaroons before we could go on.

Last sunset of 2011, looking along the Promenade des Anglais

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Mon coeur à Monaco

Today I arose slightly earlier and braved the luke-warm shower before breakfasting on tartines de confiture d'abricot (bread and apricot jam). The plan for today was Monaco, but I spent rather a long time trying to figure out where to get the bus from and how to pay, and ended up walking around the point between Nice the town and the old Port. More luxury yachts here, and one of those stone harbour enclosures with a lighthouse at the end.

Finally I found the bus and used my day pass (which I'm pretty sure wasn't actually meant to go all the way to Monaco) to get on. the bus was packed, but I managed to get a good spot to take pictures from as we wound our way along the coast.

The scenery was spectacular, with dry mountains plunging down to meet the sea and villages clinging to the rocks high above perfect beaches. The road was very familiar, either from James Bond or Grand Turismo or maybe both. We went through a few tunnels that I'm sure I've driven a virtual Elise through, and arrived at last in Monaco - a very small country within France. I took the bus a bit further and had to walk back and then get a bus through Monte Carlo and up to Monaco-Ville.

At least I've done my walking for the day.

Harbour and Monte Carlo from Le Rocher

Nice was once an independent state, but was conquered in the nineteenth century by France. Monaco still stands as an independent state today, and to see its position you can understand why. The main town itself, with palace and cathedral and shops and apartments, is set high on a rock jutting out over the ocean. If anyone ever tried to attack you, you could just retreat to the main town and close off the access route, then laugh and throw stones as the opposing army tried to get at you. The palace itself is a hodgepodge of ancient castle and more modern additions perched on the land-side of le Rocher (rock), and has a guard standing in a booth outside, like many palaces do. I walked all the way around the edge of the town, staring down at the waves crashing on the vertical cliffs, and found a pohutukawa tree in flower in the jardin exotique. Christmas tree!

CASTLE!

View from the edge of the Rocher down to the sea

There was another German market down in the valley, so I wandered through that and considered the ice rink, but decided to save skating for another day when I don't have a large bag to carry. German markets, by the way, are 'German' because the stalls are done up as little wooden houses like you'd expect to find in a Bavarian forest. I have yet to find any stalls selling Bavarian sausages, however.

I'd seen a little church set in a chasm as I went by in the bus (foot of the chasm being at sea level), so I went to take a closer look. The church looks like a toy, framed by cliffs on either side with bridges spanning the chasm behind and in front. In any other place it would be a smallish church, but here it's dwarfed by the scale of its surroundings. Quite incredible.

I had another long search for the bus, a long wait at the bus stop (where I managed to take a few more pictures of the castle) and then a ride back along the coast on the packed bus.

MORE CASTLE

Back in Nice, I was determined to take advantage of the day pass I'd paid 4 euros for, so took the tram the entire length of its route just as the sun was going down. There's a very impressive, very modern building at one termnius (Las Planas) that looks to be entirely for the trams but seems like it should have some much higher purpose as an exhibition centre or opera house.

So now, after a nice rice-rocket-chorizo-tomato dinner (works really well if you slightly burn the chorizo and create large clouds of smoke in the kitchen), I'm getting to know my latest room mates and thinking I should really get to sleep...

: )

Un séjour à Cannes

(To add from yesterday: There's a waterfall at the top of the chateau hill too! It's man-made, cascading over the remains of buildings, and has rainbows!)

Still tired. But today I saw dolphins! I think. I didn't have my glasses on...

My day started with breakfast with a Turkish girl at the hostel, where we attempted a conversation en français (or rather, I attempted and she succeeded). I shied away from the pâté for my French bread, but realised when my friend slathered it over hers that it was not meat pâté but CHOCOLATE pâte. Must try tomorrow.

I wandered down the main shopping street and looked through le FNAC, which sells entertainment - movies and books and computers and televisions. They were selling a mini arcade game housing which turned your iPad into an old arcade machine, so I had to try it out with Pacman. On the top floor I found a huge range of bandes dessinées (comics) and manga, taking up as much floor space as the children's section. I was looking for a good YA book set in France that I can add to my round-the-world-in-80-books collection, but many of the books I picked up were translated from the German or Italian or English. The best was set in China, written in German and translated into French, which I would attempt to read as an English speaker.

After a quick look in the cathedral (beautiful gothic arches and a mix of stained glass windows ranging from ancient to bold modernist), I took a train to Cannes, about half an hour down the coast. This was when I saw dolphins: two fins slicing through the water beside the train. By the time I retrieved my glasses and camera they were gone.

Cannes is full of rather expensive shops, palm trees and apartments. There were lots of tourists taking photos of the red carpet at the Festival theatre (Cannes has a little-known, not very important film festival, fyi), so I joined them, and then took pictures of Whoopi Goldberg and Julie Andrew's pavement handprints.

I walked around the waterfront and found a marina filled with extremely shiny luxury yachts. Behind them on the hill I spied what looked to be a castle. Castle? I thought. I'm there!

Well, not quite. I had to get lost first, wandering around to the next bay (which, by the way, afforded me an excellent view of the mountains coming down to the sea) and up some pretty streets.

I realised I'd forgotten my phone, so could not even rely on Googlemaps to lead me to my destination. Instead I followed a sign promising 'Panorama', and ended up at the summit of the hill right by the site of the old castle, which is now a museum.

Some of the buildings, including an eleventh century 22m tower, are still standing, and house things like an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, bits of Greek and Roman statues, Inuit hunting weapons, Polynesian fishing hooks and paintings of the French Riviera. The former great hall, with huge vaulted ceiling, contains hundreds of musical instruments from around the world. It was strange to be in this great, silent space, surrounded by so many things meant to make music and yet hear nothing but the sound of your own breath.

The tower was definitely worth the climb. You could see the remains of the former staircase/climbing wall running round the inside of the tower, much steeper than the current stairs (and those are pretty steep themselves). Windows at intervals let you gaze out at the vistas as you climb. It is true about the light of Provence - there's something different about it. Everything seems a bit misty and golden, softening the landscape and making you feel like you're in an impressionist painting. I tried to take photos to capture this light, but my camera doesn't understand and won't comply. As I reached the top, the nearby clock tower chimed three. I was a bit disappointed - I'd wanted to hear it chime while I was at the top of the tower - but then it chimed three again! Slightly confused clock...

There's a church at the top of the hill that looks very beautiful, but unfortunately it's closed for renovations until at least 2013. I had to make do with taking pictures of the outside, then made my way back down the hill via several tiny alleys between shuttered buildings.

There was a market here too, and I wandered the stalls before deciding the time was right for my first proper French crepe. Unfortunately the crepe was not up to the standards I've come to expect from crepes (the Wellington crepe shop really is very good), and I think I would only give it a 4/10. I shall have to try again when I go to Paris, or even Brittany (this is where crepes come from originally).

Before I left Cannes, I had to buy a can of tomatoes (my inner punner made me do it).

The can from Cannes

The can of tomatoes ended up in my dinner, which was much improved.