Aude and Magaye visiting

It’s been pretty quiet on the visitors’ front recently, so it was about time for somebody to pop over. This time it was Aude’s and Magaye’s turn, who came on the night train all the way from Nantes for the weekend.

After a steady breakfast of baguette, croissants and other French delicacies, off we set on our tour of the Cote d’Azur. Our first stop was Dolceacqua, a picturesque village on the Italian side of the border, about 10 kilometres north of Ventimiglia (which is about as far as most visitors from France make it, Ventimiglia has about the same role for the French as Calais for the English and Tallinn for the Finns - which is to say it's a place for cheap shopping). Dolceacqua, which is one of the prettiest villages on the Italian Riviera we’ve been to, is famous for its medieval bridge which links the two halves of the town, and for it’s castle. After aimlessly wandering around on the narrow and charming alleys, and having tasted some of the local delicacies with some proper Italian coffee in one of the bars, we headed on to the afore-mentioned Ventimiglia for a bit of shopping (it’s a great place to stock up not only on wine & any other alcoholic beverage you can imagine, but also on pasta and other Italian specialities).

After this, Catherine (our selected TomTom voice) guided us back over the French border to Menton. We made a brief stop here to take in the Fête du Citron, which is, as the name suggests, a lemon festival (coinciding with the Nice carnival). Since we didn’t want to pay the 10 euro entrance fee for the exhibition area (where people have put up various statues and constructions made of lemons and oranges), we had to contend ourselves with a few dodgy, out of focus and badly framed photos blindly taken by yours truly over the exhibition fence (sometimes being tall has its advantages…).

The next stop on our tour was Eze, one of the prettiest and most dramatically located (sitting on a cliff overlooking the coastline between Monaco and Cap Ferrat) – not to mention touristy - perched villages on the coast. After a quick walk around the cobble-stoned streets, we pushed on towards Nice.

Our stomachs (not just mine!) were growling by now, so we decided to stop for a Socca (a Nicois speciality made of chickpea flour and olive oil) in Lou Pilha’s (a real Nice institution for Socca). Fortified by this tasty snack, we headed on and spent half an hour or so exploring Vieux Nice. After a quick look at the Promenade des Anglais, our stomachs (or at least mine) were growling again, so we decided to go for dinner. We chose La Tapenade, another Nice institution serving up all the local specialities.

After a filling meal, we headed off for the main event of the evening, which was of course the Nice Carnival. We had a great time looking at the procession of mice (which was the theme this year – interesting choice). There was a rather impressive dragon as well, quite scary contraption. Most of the time was spent ducking kids (including Sami, who even attacked me from behind, bloody coward) spraying sticky stuff at us. After this exhausting activity, we had well-deserved Belgian beers at Mori’s bar, and headed back home to catch some sleep (graciously, Aude offered to drive, faithfully guided by Catherine).

After a night of very little sleep (I had nightmares about my TomTom and Andorra – don’t ask…), and another solid breakfast, we set off to show our guests Haut-de-Cagnes – our very own old town (and one of the prettiest on the coast, I feel obliged to add).

In the afternoon, we headed off towards St-Paul-de-Vence, which is without doubt the most famous historic village on the Riviera. In spite of Catherine’s most confusing driving instructions, we eventually arrived, and parked in a car park with no less than ten levels underground! (I guess that says something about how popular St-Paul is…). Well, there is a good reason for St-Paul’s fame, it is an incredibly picturesque place, a pity about all the shops… On the other hand, you can’t claim the shops are your average tourist traps; what rules the day here are art shops, most of them for people with a fair bit more purchasing power than us.

Having spent an hour or so walking around and making all the appropriate comments about what a charming and lovely place St-Paul is, it was time to head to Antibes, from where Aude and Magaye were catching their train. Before that, we did have time to have a quick walk around the port and the old town, though. And of course stop for a refreshing coffee and a tasty cake ;-). All in all, a nice finish to an exhausting but great weekend!

More photos here.