We took a train after brunch at the college and arrived a little after noon. From the coffee and water I drank at brunch, I really needed to use the restroom. I include this because I had to pay to use a toilet in Nice. Really?! I don't understand the reasoning behind charging to have people been good stewards and not just pee on a sidewalk somewhere. I'm not saying I would ever do that, but I do think it's a legitimate question. And, this isn't just Nice.
Thankfully a few weeks ago now I stumbled across a free bathroom in Cannes, but otherwise you have to pay to use any public restroom, or to use a bathroom at a restaurant you have to buy something. And seriously? You have to buy a drink in order to use the bathroom? Doesn't that almost defeat the purpose of using the bathroom in the first place, or in the end causes you to have to find another bathroom down the road?! Yes, it's a tricky business they run here in France. But, I love them.
We left the station, after I used the sketchy bathroom outside of the station, and walked down the main road. The main road runs into this beautiful fountain. I don't know much about it, other than it's asthetcially pleasing!
From there, we made our way over to the beach. I must say, I think I enjoy the beaches in Cannes better. We have sand on our beaches, which other than making you rather sandy afterwards, is much more comfortable than the large stones that cover the beaches in Nice. It's all rather bizarre!
As we were looking out over the ocean, I looked around and noticed that the opera house was close by. Well, here you are you music lovers. The Nice Opera House:
There was a concert that was a couple weeks after we were there that included Krystian Zimmermann playing Rhaspody in Blue by George Gershwin. If it wasn't during the middle of the week, Nice wasn't so far away, and there would actually be trains running after the concert, I would have gone in an instant. Unfortunately it's not that easy...
There was a concert that was a couple weeks after we were there that included Krystian Zimmermann playing Rhaspody in Blue by George Gershwin. If it wasn't during the middle of the week, Nice wasn't so far away, and there would actually be trains running after the concert, I would have gone in an instant. Unfortunately it's not that easy...
I went back after visiting the opera house and met up with the group. Off in the distance was this old looking castle thing. We weren't sure what it was, but we had that itch of a climbing adventure, so off we went. Everything in France is a climbing adventure... It would get me into great shape if I didn't eat the amount of bread that I do anyway. It's as they say, "When in France, do as the French", which to me entitles me to all the wine, cheese and bread that I could ever want.
Further up and to the right of the castle in the picutre above, you could see a waterfall. Well, only about half the group decided to make the climbing adventure all the way up to the waterfall, and trust me the view made it all worth it.
This is a view from the castle looking out over the water and towards Nice. As you can tell, it wasa beautifully clear and sunny day, like so many days in France. I love France.
I never counted the stairs to see how many steps we climed to get all the way to the top of this mountain (well, mountain by Minnesota standards...) in order to find the waterfall. It was a beautiful sight to see.
And, a picture of myself and my dear friend, Aude, to have pictorial proof that we conquered the journey up...
As we continued around we ran into some churches. They seemed to be everywhere in Nice. This first one is called Eglise Notre Dame de l'Annonciation.
And, they have a organ designed to match the beautiful of this church: (though otherwise rather small).
And a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mother and Child:
From there, we found the Cathedrale Sainte Reparate. Much more gothic in style, and very different from the previous one. Unfortunately, this church was not as well lit, and as it was twice the size of the other church, the pictures didn't turn out quite as well.
And yes, the organ in the back. It looks like quite an organ. I found the console up front. I wanted to search through the organ bench to see if I could find the key. Every organist knows, at least in the states, the key for the organ in Catholic Churches can be found in the bench. I used my better judgement, and refer back to my comment about French people yelling at you in French.... yes, I intend to avoid that.
Further up and to the right of the castle in the picutre above, you could see a waterfall. Well, only about half the group decided to make the climbing adventure all the way up to the waterfall, and trust me the view made it all worth it.
This is a view from the castle looking out over the water and towards Nice. As you can tell, it wasa beautifully clear and sunny day, like so many days in France. I love France.I never counted the stairs to see how many steps we climed to get all the way to the top of this mountain (well, mountain by Minnesota standards...) in order to find the waterfall. It was a beautiful sight to see.
And, a picture of myself and my dear friend, Aude, to have pictorial proof that we conquered the journey up...
We continued to climb a little further to get to the panoramic viewing point above this waterfall. The pictures that bookend this blog entry were taking from that point. It was incredible. After spending much time just taking the view in, we worked on trying to find our way back down. Now, it would have been far too boring to just go back the way we came, so we enjoyed getting drastically lost at practically every turn trying to find our way back down. We eventually found it, and truly the best way to see a city or anything is to get lost in it. We managed to get around to the other side of the mountain, which provided a great view of the otherside of Nice with several very large ships who had there docking stations over there. Very cool.
So, we then continued in and around through Nice. There ice cream shops everywhere. This one that we stopped in had so many options! I took a picture of some of the more creative options. Including different flowers, a catus flavor, and if you look in the middle of the back row, to the left of the coca cola one, yes indeed your eyes are not deceiving you - CORONA! Who knew!?
As we continued around we ran into some churches. They seemed to be everywhere in Nice. This first one is called Eglise Notre Dame de l'Annonciation.
And, they have a organ designed to match the beautiful of this church: (though otherwise rather small).
And a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mother and Child:
From there, we found the Cathedrale Sainte Reparate. Much more gothic in style, and very different from the previous one. Unfortunately, this church was not as well lit, and as it was twice the size of the other church, the pictures didn't turn out quite as well.
And yes, the organ in the back. It looks like quite an organ. I found the console up front. I wanted to search through the organ bench to see if I could find the key. Every organist knows, at least in the states, the key for the organ in Catholic Churches can be found in the bench. I used my better judgement, and refer back to my comment about French people yelling at you in French.... yes, I intend to avoid that.
Afterwards we ended up in a Virgin Records store. There is nothing more calming to me than to looking through classical CDs at a store in France. No matter how frustrating this language might be to me, the is one thing that is international: music. I love it. I just gives me back my chi, my center, my serenity, even if they are outrageously expensive, their existance is all I need.
As a close to the day in Nice, I must talk about the return to the college. First, we rushed back to the train station in order to catch this one train, only to get there and realize we would need to pay more money to be on that train because its an express train, so we got to sit around for 20 mintues, which thus defeated the running to get to the station. In killing time, I went with Aude over to the bank so she could get some money from the ATM. While I stood next to her, a felt a splat on my head. I looked up, and sure enough, three stories above me, a pigeon was sitting on a statue with his bum right above me. A bird pooped on my head!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I wish I were kidding right now, I was so upset. Luckily Aude happened to have napkins with her, and another girl had sanitary wipes, so we pretty well got the bird poop out. After I complained, loudly, in explatives how exactly I felt about this, I began playing the Pollyanna role my mother taught me so well. "Well, at least the bird poop only landed on my head an not my shirt, because I really do love this orange shirt, and I don't hink bird poop would have ever washed out of my dry clean only shirt. At least I can wash my hair and be fine." Somedays I make myself ill that I've learned to do that so well...
Well, the trip wasn't quite done. We got back to the train station at Cannes at 6:40, it's a solid 25 minute walk back to the college, landing us right on time for dinner. However, we had walked so much that day, so we didn't want to walk, well, others didn't want to walk, I would have been fine! Well, maybe. Anyway, we got on bus number 2, the bus that goes by the college, and after about 15 minutes, of which the bus ride should otherwise be 7 minutes back to the college, a couple of us began to wonder if this was the right bus. Well, after another 10 minutes, and we realized our group were the only ones on the bus, my friend Aude, who is a French native, went and talked to the bus driver. Well, apperantly there are two bus number 2's. One that takes the top route, which we were on, the other which takes the route by the ocean and goes right by the college. So, we sat on the bus for another 20 minutes as it went back to right were we came from and then continued the proper direction. So, as we had missed dinner we went to leader price and bought wine, chesse, bread, fruit, and pudding cups to finish out the wonderful day. Even if my hair did still have residue of bird poop in it...
No comments:
Post a Comment