Nice

Nice was, for lack of a better adjective, so very nice. Though we were skeptical of visiting a summer getaway destination in November, we ignored the questioning looks of haughty Parisians upon hearing of our next destination and took the 6 hour train all the way south. I’m glad we did!

We left the grey and stormy Paris early in the morning and watched as the landscape beyond the train window slowly began to change. First the clouds disappeared, then mud became sand and soon leaf-less winter trees were replaced by palm trees. The last hour two hours of our train journey were entirely along the coast of the south of France, past Marseilles, Cannes, Toulon.

We’d been hearing mentions of the Villa St. Exupery hostel in Nice since our very first stop in Prague so we booked two beds, despite the trek up the hill to the hostel. From the train station we took the tram a few stops and got off and waited until the hostel van picked us up and drove us up the hill. Located atop a mountain, the hostel used to be a nunnery, with chapel and stained glass windows still intact. Because the hostel is sort of isolated and difficult to get to, it seemed everyone made the trek up the hill for dinner and there was a real summer-camp feel to the way strangers sat at communal tables and became best friends by the end of the meal.

Our first day felt like a dream. We shed the parkas and rain boots, meandered through the Old Town and lounged on rocks beside the sea, where we were gently sprayed by the incoming tide. We climbed to the top of a cliff on the edge of the sea and could see Nice to our right and Monaco to our left. The remains of an old chateau are still there and we counted mice scurrying around ancient foundations at an archaeology site.

The weather was warm, over 20 degrees in November, and all along the beach people were shedding clothes and going for a swim. We ended the day shopping as the sun set and what had appeared to be plain white sculptures during the day suddenly glowed various bright colours. The Christmas decorations were hung along the streets, which seemed so silly in such a tropical environment, but cast a nice glow and we popped in and out of stores beneath them. The day ended early, which remains my only complaint about travelling in November, but didn’t bother us since the day lit hours had been so fantastic.