From the Italian Riviera to the French
The Italian train network stops at the town of Ventimiglia. From there you step across the platform and board the French train to Grasse, which stops at Menton, Eze-sur-Mer and Monaco among other places before getting to Nice, where we got off. We picked May 1 to travel, forgetting it is a holiday in Europe. The milk run to Nice was standing room only. Pressed up near the door I spoke to a charming young Russian man, and when I noted that Ottawa is colder than Moscow, a young woman next to us said “I’m from Ottawa.” She is an exchange student from the University of Ottawa.
The thing you notice about travelling into France is that it appears to be much richer than the Italy we just passed through, and certainly richer than parts we had been to such as Calabria and Sicily. Statistically it’s true. France’s per capita GDP is $44,000 against $38,000 for Italy. That said, in six weeks in Italy we never encountered a rude person or even somone mildly passive aggressive. We weren’t in France for two hours, when a waiter at our hotel in Nice clanged all the cutlery at our table to the one next to us and then retreated to clean glasses. I guess he didn’t like where we sat. We finally extracted a drink by walking over to him. I didn’t leave a tip. Things improved.
Tipping in Europe is still a mystery to me. In Italy, and I assume France, you can’t do it on your credit card. You have to leave a few Euros in coins or a note. In Canada the machine you are handed seems to almost demand you leave at least 18%.
Nice
The tourism makeup of Nice seems different from Italy. This is my anecdotal reading, nothing based on fact. There is a lot of English and German spoken here; where we had been in Italy was close to the prosperous Italian cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa, and the civilized Italians came to the coast for a few days off.
Nice was once part of Italy. Mussolini wanted to take it back, along with Corsica, if the war had gone his way. Instead, he and his mistress ended hanging upside down in Milan. Garibaldi, the man who united Italy, was born in Nice. I think I mentioned that earlier. This statue in a square in Nice notes it is Garibaldi’s birthplace.
When he was born in 1807, Nice was part of France, annexed just after the French Revolution. It returned to the Kingdom of Savoy and Sardinia with Napoleon’s first exile in 1814, and France got back all that land below in 1860 after a referendum.
Big Planes at Nice Cote d’Azur.
From the Promenade des Anglais along the shoreline in Nice you can watch the jets bank on their approach to the airport. Sitting at a cafe across the street I caught this shot of a giant Emirates A 380 from coming from Dubai at 1:30 pm on Thursday.
The double decker A380 is the largest airliner in the world. It carries a lot of Russians who live in Dubai now.
Yachts and a cruise ship with sails
The Sea Cloud II is a giant three masted Barque that carries 96 passengers in luxury.
Nothing compared to the Odessa II, a 73 metre super yacht, said to be worth $80-million. It carries 12 passengers and a crew of 19. The charter rate is $225,000 a week. It is owned by Len Blavatnik. Len has all his bases covered. As the name Odessa might tell you he is from Ukraine, made his money from aluminum when the old Soviet Union fell apart and lives in the United States has been knighted in England.
The poor man’s Monaco?
Walking along the seaside in Nice, a snooping eye notices lots of Russian names on the buzzers to the apartments. Cheaper than Monaco 19 kilometres away.
Ode to A Razor
On March 20 I bought this Gillette razor in Knowlton. It came with an extra blade so I figured it would last half my trip from March 22 to May 5. I never used the spare blade. I shaved with it on Sunday morning for a run of 45 days. Gillette says you should switch a five-blade razor like this one after 20 days. Fiddlesticks.
A farewell to Europe
And the Last Supper
After seeing so many overpriced clip joints in Nice, includng the place we are sitting at above, I stumbled across this jewel.
It’s been open for just two and half months. The service is friendly, open and helpful.
Marta Alemany, the brilliant young chef
The kitchen is pretty much a one-woman miracle producing some original and spectacular tasing food, such as the beautiful looking appetiser below.
Croquettes
And one of the most brilliant things we tasted in the last six and half weeks.