24 hours isn’t a particularly long time to stay anywhere, let alone a city that you’ve wanted to visit for a significant amount of time. In a way I’m quite pleased I didn’t do too much research before we arrived as it meant that we chose to do things as they came and took the time to enjoy it rather than marching our way through a list of pre-planned activity. That said, there is clearly plenty more which can be done than we fitted into our 24 hours so hopefully another trip to Nice will be on the cards for the future…
As we were staying close to the Old Port, it made perfect sense that this was the first place we visited after dropping off our bags at the hotel. Whilst I had been expecting to see a range of rather nice yachts, I hadn’t quite realised how many there would be, or how fancy they were! I think my favourite sight was this set all lined up – you thought the smallest one was nice but then they just keep getting bigger and fancier the further along you walked!
From the port, we headed around to the Promenade des Anglais, after a quick stop to take some photos by the I Love Nice sign (along with all the other tourists…). After lots of photos of the beach and admiring how blue the water was, we headed into the streets of the old town to find something to eat. After a galette (pancake with savoury filling) each we headed on through the narrow streets which were thankfully quite shady and filled with interesting little shops and places to eat. We headed towards the Cathedral to admire the bell tower, but mainly because we had been recommended a great place to go for ice cream (and I really love ice cream!).
Fenocchio has 94 different flavours, 59 ice creams and 35 sorbets, ranging from the ordinary to the bizarre. James had cactus flavour (which is slightly citrusy and very refreshing) and whilst my choice wasn’t quite as exotic, it was still very tasty. We followed our exciting ice cream with a purchase of some rather unusual cheese – bright green and basil flavoured.
Having cooled down slightly after the ice cream, we decided it was a good idea to tackle the Colline du Chateau, the highest point in old Nice. Whilst I was seriously questioning why we had decided to do it about half way up, the waterfall on the hill was lovely and the spray from it was incredibly refreshing. There were also some fantastic views from the top – and I particularly liked the fact that just by looking at the rooftops you could easily distinguish the difference between the old town and the new.
Seeing as each day of our time in Toulon had involved a dip in the sea, it seemed mad not to do the same in Nice. Whilst the water actually wasn’t as clear as it had been further west, it was still a wonderful blue colour and it was really easy to float in. James usually sinks and even he was managing to float! The beach and sea were also great spots to yacht watch and see the variety of boats coming in and out of the harbour as well as a huge monstrosity of a cruise ship which was so ugly (and covered in Looney Tunes characters) that it looked like it shouldn’t have been allowed in the area.
The next day we only had limited time before our flight home but still managed to fit in some of the extra bits we wanted to see. Firstly we went to the flower market which again had been recommended. The bouquets were beautiful and I was really surprised by how cheap they were in comparison to what you would pay for an equivalent size in the UK. We also saw some of the new town by popping into stores like Galeries Lafayette and Fnac which are two of my favourites when in France.
We actually managed to fit in quite a lot for the amount of time that we were there and it’s definitely somewhere I’d like to go back. The old town was my favourite area – I could have spent hours admiring the pretty balconies and shutters. Where would you recommend visiting in Nice?
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