I went to Nice and it was nice - TRIP #1

Yes with that super lame title I'd like to start a collection of posts about trips I had and I will have, hopefully, around the globe.
I try to travel every now and then and I always take my camera with me.

These posts are going to be a mix of guides, stories and chronicles. Basically I'd like to share with you the feelings I had visiting a certain place, more than the things I saw around. I hope you enjoy it. Let's start with Nice.

The Helicopter Curiosity

When you arrive at the Nice International airport you know you are in Cote d'azur, the most fancy and probably the richest area of France.
Just next to the car rental desk, you have the helicopter rental desks, in case you want to reach your hotel faster. Yeaah baby, we got cas$$$h.

But don't worry because if you're not that rich but still you want to feel a little bit special and fly to your hotel with an helicopter, guess who's there to help you? UberCOPTER. Yeah that Uber.

And this is how cool You'd be looking:

So I cannot just kill the curiosity, I need to find out how much it costs flying from Nice to Monaco with another super fancy company having a booth there. Monaco is around 25 km far from Nice.

I go all serious to the receptionist at the rental 's desk. Luckily, he looks friendly, he's a young guy with a clean innocent face. On the other side instead I didn't shave, I'm wearing a sweaty t-shirt, trainers and I'm carrying a big backpack. I guess I'm not the typical customer so I figure that this helicopter must be for my father, who is super rich but gave me an unconventional-hippie education because once he was fighting for his rights and so on. Which is why I look like Christopher McCandless. So I reach the desk and it's my moment.

“Bonjour, I think my father has a reservation for an helicopter to Monaco...” I say with a touch of French and I'm deadly serious... On the surface! Inside it feels so weird to pronounce reservation and helicopter so close in one sentence.
The guy is looking at me a little dazed.
“Ehm ok, what's your father's name, Sir?”
Shit! I didn't think about this! - yeah so smart!
“Robert Phalangie”
I pronounce with no regrets. That was not a great idea...

The poor guy is acting like he is scrolling down the reservations'list but I can clearly see on his face that he cannot hold his laugh anymore. He looks at me with a embarrassed smile, we look at each other and we start to laugh.

He kind of understood my “prank” and we started to chat a little bit. Finally he told me that the fares for a 30 kilometers helicopter ride go from a minimum of 600 euros per person to 900, depending on the type of helicopter and number of people on board. Way over the buying power of his wage.

So good that only 15 minutes walking from the airport there's the train station Nice Saint-Augustin from where in 5 minutes and with less than 2 euros you can reach the city center.

Avenue Jean Médecin from Place Massena

Nice Ville

So we arrive at Nice Ville and we walk all the way from the station to Place Massena, which is an amazing square close to the sea and the Promenade des Anglais.

Many people walking around, trams going up and down and kids playing with water features of the Forum Torrin & Grassi.

Place Massena

Having fun with water features

It's a cloudy but yet super hot late spring day and walking among expensive (touristic) restaurants and fashion shops, I still have the feeling to be in a superfancy, glamorous town.

But the best is yet to come.

A view from the Castle hill

The Old Town

As we enter the old town that feeling disappears. Little dark streets, boulangeries all around, the smell of fresh bread and flowers coming from the Marché aux Fleurs blows our minds away.

This is the real thing. The atmosphere is vibrant. We enter a boulangerie because we want to try the Socca, the local specialty: a delicious chickpea flour pizza. When we ask to the angry French lady behind the counter “Do you speak English?”, she answers with “A little bit”, which is just as nice to hear, due to the french accent, as super pissed her face is, because we don't speak French.

But I love it, I don't care, it's the real human thing. Anyway she was rude so she didn't get to have my money.
Sell your stuff to French People, Madame.

Nice Old Town

A little girl going around with her "chair-stroller"

We go on and we enter another boulangerie, where the woman inside is even more rude than the one before. Good thing there is a cat around, which makes everything fluffier.
Of course you couldn't caress it, because guess what, it was super pissed!

Anyway, this time we are hungry so we take a Pissaladiere, another tasty typical pizza with a caramelized onion topping and a Tourte de blettes which is a sweet and sour cake, that you eat and you wonder how on Earth such a rude person is able to prepare something this amazing.

Tourte de blettes

Well what else...
We went up to the Castle, we took a bath and chilled on the beach, we walked along the Promenade des Anglais at sunset, where the crowd of people jogging, skating or just walking and chatting, mixed with the fresh breeze coming from the sea is just as good as it gets.

Promenade des Anglais

On the Promenade you can find chairs where you can just sit and stare at the sea!

Finally we even managed to have Socca and couple of beers in a place called Chez Pipo. Watch out with that delicious chickpea thing cause it's delicious and very cheap! Did I mention it's delicious?

You after binge-eating Socca

In the end we had great time in Nice. You don't need to go there by helicopter with thousands euros in your pocket. You can have fun and enjoy the place with few bucks. I mean, still considering you are in Cote d'Azur.

Windows in Nice

love
franek

Credits
I took the pictures posted here, if you like them let me know, my ego will appreciate. If you want a print or something, let me know as well. My wallet will appreciate.
A part from the cat at the end, which I wish I had but unfortunately is from Wikipedia.

I edited the graphic at the beginning of the post.
The fonts are from Dafont.com:
http://www.dafont.com/it/deco-caps.font
http://www.dafont.com/it/hut-sut-ralston.font
The decorations from here https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/105879-art-nouveau-vector-elements