Après Nice retour à la merde
Bonjour mes amis,
Pourquoi ce titre ?... vous allez en savoir
En fait je viens de Paris (pas vraiment) qui aime bien voyager surtout aller vers les pays, villes où il y’a de la mer, des montagnes et du soleil. Ca me permet de découvrir un nouveau monde, de rencontrer les gens, des voyageurs comme moi, et surtout la cuisine.
J’ai passé une superbe journée à Nice, une ville sud-est de la France qui est fameuse pour son « Côte d’Azur » … je continue en anglais pour ne pas embêter mes amis anglophones.
Well, I have been to Nice, one of the French coastal cities in south-east of France, famous for its beach line “Côte d’Azur” or near by the famous city of Cannes of “Cannes film festival”.
Being born in a family of travel enthusiasts, as a kid my dad used to take us to mountaineering, trekking expeditions and we used to enjoy a lot… time went by and these expeditions lessened. But, this thing is something like in blood, you got time & right attitude, go out and enjoy.
I was getting bored from the usual Parisian life and needed a change. Having limited budget, I didn’t wanted to go out and stay waiting for a job opportunity. I got a call from an institute near Nice to have an interview locally; I hesitated, but thought to give it a try and what a stroke of luck! It was the right time and the right city to be in!
I started my journey on 18th morning and reached Cannes in the afternoon (got to have a glimpse of Mediterranean Sea from the TGV and knew where I was heading), after giving an interview at Sophia Antipolis (Silicon Valley of France), I went to Nice to spend a day & half there.
I lodged the first night (18th) at “Backpacker’s chez Patrick” on “rue de la Pertinax” adjacent to the “avenue Jean Médcin”, that evening I went to walk besides the seashore, amazing, crystal clear blue water, sound of sea & fresh air.
The next morning I decided to discover more of the city, its cuisine and people. In the morning I changed the hostel to “Auberge de jeunesse” and went out for discovery, as I passed by the avenue Jean Médcin, it remembered me of “Connaught Place” in New Delhi (architectural similarities), when I read about the city’s history, astonishingly, there was mention of Duke of Connaught who helped to remodel Nice.
Next was “Colline du chateaux” a site of historical importance and establishment of Nice as a port. Now a day it’s a hilltop ruins of medieval castle which gives a panoramic view of the city.
Haven’t eaten my breakfast, I thought of having “La Socca”, pancake made from chick-peas flour & olive oil. Coming down the hill from Colline to Old Nice (Vieux Nice) was a task (the sign boards on the hill are confusing).
I found a road side eatery called “Lou…” famous by its Niçois food & wooden roadside tables; I got into a discussion with local people about the city, Niçois French accent is different and not so easy to pick up ;) (I can’t generalize having chatted with only a couple of people) …. But it has an Italian influence for sure. …. Next hop was of course sea beach & tanning, it was wonderful, under the sun, cold sea breeze & fresh air. I stayed there for some 4 hours and started again to discover the city, I was astonished to see Russian architecture while coming from Sophia, so I decided to have a look. It’s a Russian Orthodox Church commissioned by Tsar Nicolas II of Russia built on a private property (so it’s paid to enter the church – which I didn’t do).
Tired, I returned to hostel…. here I will meet some interesting people….
2 Germans (a guy & a girl)
1 French girl
1 American girl
1 Japanese guy (I wasn’t able to recollect his name, so I called him Kung-Fu)
All these people want to visit India someday, specially the French girl, she told me she need to prepare mentally to go to India (I don’t understand why? – It’s not like bungee jumping or sky diving) the only preparation I did to come to France was visa & baggage….. still very confused about the “mental” preparation one needs to go to my beautiful country.
The night we had a drink together and got to know more about each-other (Germans, Japanese & myself)… I went back to the same restaurant and had Niçoise specialities:
Pissaladière – a share of Onion&Olive Piza
Farsi – Vegetable stuffed with meat – don’t miss it!!
La Socca again
The next morning we had breakfast together and exchanged our contacts, hope we remain in touch & meet somewhere someday!
And now about the title: After getting a refresher at Nice, I returned to Paris & immediately felt like being suffocated and stressed… that’s why return to “la merde” (the usual shit)
More to come… keep checking…
Yours Pranay
2 Comments:
Yes!
I appreciated the all the sights, the smells, the food descriptions and the atmosphere you captured in this entry likvery much. Well done Pranay.
A true traveler has an open mind and heart seeks and finds with all senses and therefore has rich experience of the places he or she travels to. A true adventurer will seek and find both what's unique, unusual and will also experience the common and expected to. A good travel writer can weave the experiences gained from and open mind and heart into a rich tapestry a story for other's to enjoy at a personal level.
As I cannot in fact take a journey far from home, I remain a traveler of the mind. This means that I require details in order to be drawn into your travelog and read it with interest and anticipation. Perhaps it is a personality trait of my own but I doubt that's unique. Many people are simply so dulled out and dumbed down that they are satisfied with shallowness. Those who are "lively", regardless of their ages seek depth.
And as far as needing mental preparation to go to India that the young woman referred to goes what can I say? Perhaps her impressions of India are inaccurate and stereotypical. It's also possible that a person who has never been to another country will fail to recognize richness of the diverse tapestry that constitutes the places to which they journey, simply because they are focused on negative features they did not expect to find.
For example: those who do not see the desperation in the eyes of the homeless and poor where they live may need "preparation" to be able to see the same thing in the eyes of the homeless and poor in the destinations they travel too. This explains my initial personal experience of Mexico when I went there in my 20's. It wore off only after I accepted the fact that I had spent my lifetime in blinders not seeing similar sights in Canada, like the native north american Indian people living in poverty in our city streets and alleys.
Thank you for taking me to Nice with you. But you must be careful about what you say about Paris because I've been told that Parisians cannot believe that anyone would want to live anywhere else in the world (tee hee :)).
P.S. How did the interview that you referred to go? The fact that you mentioned it only once left me wondering. It's good to tie up any loose ends for your readers, don't you think?
P.P.S. You updated your profile - good on you!
Kind regards
Salal
April 23, 2006
Hey Pranay,
See, I am French and I've never been to Nice! It's funny that an Indian friend makes me discover this typical French city :)
Hope everything is going well for you. I will be back in France for a few days in September, I'll drop you an email!
Arnaud
August 30, 2006
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