The main attraction of Nice is its splendid Promenade des Anglais (see above), which goes for some kilometres parallel to the sea. It is probably one of the most famous walks in the world, with hotels having private beaches in front of them. Hotels there are quite expensive and the same happens with restaurants. One does not pay for the service received but for the situation of the service. Furthermore, what is not so often reported is that the beach itself has no sand, but stones, and that the water is pretty deep soon. So, in the end, maybe not everything is so perfect there...Nice has also a remarkable old town quarter (Vieux Nice), with a lot of
narrow streets full of cosy shops and markets. However, the massive amount of tourists strolling around it may give the impression that everything is just a huge entertainment area for tourism. Some of the buildings, although remarkable, seem to benefit for their situation more than for their artistic and cultural value.If there is a name one has to bear in mind while in Nice is that of Masséna. He, coming from Nice, was a field marshall of the French army in times of Napoleon and he has given its name to an enormous amount of places in Nice: a square, a street, a space, a museum,... I do not want to minimize his achievements in life (which are for sure well beyond what I will achieve in my own life), just to highlight his presence in Nice nowadays.
The area around the harbour is also worth a visit. In our case, we had to stay there longer than expected because a storm caught us by surprise and we had to seek cover there for a while. This time, luckily, we did not buy an umbrella, as we did in Bergen, Paris and Heidelberg. Once the rain was gone, I had the opportunity to go back to my childhood, to the time when I was three years old and I spent hours in Ibiza watching cars going out of a ferry boat. I cannot explain it, but even today I cannot help feel intrigued and amazed by such an usual thing.
Nice Airport is very close to the sea and the planes always take the approaching to it over the beach, so it is quite common to see them landing at any time during the day. The airport itself, although the second largest in France, is quite shabby and not very comfortable: there are queues everywhere and it seems that it is well beyond its capacity. It is a pity that a beautiful and enjoyable city like Nice gives such a disappointing last impression to its many visitors.
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