After our month in Italy, our next stop was Nice, France. It was a short 1-hour train ride from Ventimiglia. Once we arrived in Nice, we took the tram from the main train station over to our hotel. To get around Nice, we bought a rechargeable La Carte transit card for €2 – this was one of the few places we went where you couldn’t just tap on/off with your credit card but once we had the transit card, we could add rides to the card using the phone app. We got off the tram at this square (Place Saint François) and I realized this was where I stayed in an AirBnb when I came here with my parents in 2015! For this trip, our VRBO (https://vrbo.onelink.me/ItNz/c3gkk3gh) was a couple blocks up the hill behind this so we trekked up the hill to our place.
We had read in the reviews that the stairs in this building were tricky. But after some steep and narrow stairs in Florence and Rome, we thought this couldn’t be any worse. We were wrong – these were definitely the most treacherous stairs of any place we stayed! But we managed to get through our stay without falling down them so that was a plus.
Once we got settled, we walked further up the hill behind us (Castle Hill). On the way, we came across this Israelite Cemetery (a Jewish cemetery & Holocaust memorial). Near the entrance there is a sign (in French) that was set up as a tribute from the City of Nice to the victims of the Shoah in order to preserve the memory for younger generations and to combat extremism (paraphrase of the dedication on the sign). There is also a wall of names of victims of the Shoah.
This is a summary of the sign from the picture on the left (the sign is in French – this is a summary of the Google Translate into English):
In 1940, this unoccupied area became a haven for many Jews. In mid-July 1942 massive roundups of Jews took place in Paris and across occupied provinces. Over 15,000 Jews were arrested and deported during this time. On August 26, 1942, 6,000 Jews were transported from Free Zones to internment camps. 554 Jews arrested in the Basses-Alpes were transferred from a transit camp in Drancy to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp (16 from the Hautes-Alpes, 45 from Monaco, and the remainder from the Alpes-Maritimes area). Families were allowed to leave their children behind rather than being deported to camps (and the majority chose this option).
From November 1942-September 1943, no Jews (except for one anti-Nazi journalist who was extradited to Berlin) were transported from the Nice prefectural region as the Italian military authorities opposed the anti-Jewish policies of the Germans, the French State, and Mussolini. However, from 09 September 1943, the Germans occupied Nice and over 3000 Jews were deported (including 31 from Monaco) or even murdered on the spot.
The memorial (on the right) has the names (and birthplaces) of 3,602 victims deported from the 2 train stations in Nice.
After stopping at the cemetery, we continued up to the top of Castle Hill. Castle Hill is an old fortified site. But in 1706, Louis XIV had the defense system dismantled and the hill then became host to new cemeteries in 1783. Then in the 19th century it was covered into a park and has some amazing views of the Mediterranean, the harbor, and the Maritime Alps.
We happened to be in Nice during Carnaval so we got to see some great sights around town related to the festival.
Place Messéna is a large central square in Nice. Normally you can walk through it and right around the fountain but during Carnaval there were these giant floats in the square and they had a barrier around them to prevent anyone from getting too close. There were also grand stands near the square for parade viewing.
There’s a big #I Love Nice sign overlooking the beach that changes into various themes throughout the year. Unsurprisingly, it had a Carnaval theme while we were there.
When we walked over to the harbor, we even got to see them moving floats for the Flower Parade!
After that we walked around the harbor – I loved all the colorful boats!
Place Garibaldi is another large square and was not too far from our VRBO. We had amazing weather while we were in Nice so we stopped for a drink and a snack in the square to soak up the weather.
Just down the hill from our VRBO was a long rectangular park – Promenade du Paillon. There was a lot more going on (vendors, etc) due to Carnaval but it was still a great park to wander through.
We spent 3 nights in Nice and walked up Castle Hill for 2 of them because it was such a beautiful view for sunset!
Chris got a great time lapse of it too.
On one of our days in Nice, we took a day trip over to Antibes along the coast. It’s only a 20 minute train ride. We walked around the harbor to see all of the boats and also up and around the Fort Carré (we didn’t get a chance to go in because they closed for a couple of hours mid-day – poor planning on our part). Then we walked around the town and also enjoyed the view back towards the mountains (the Alpes-Maritimes) before hopping on the train back to Nice. (https://www.antibesjuanlespins.com/en/discover/the-must-sees/antibes-the-city-with-rampart-walls)
On our last day in Nice, our train to Paris didn’t leave until the evening so we checked out of our VRBO, stashed our bags in a locker, and walked around Old Nice and along the water so that we could soak up all of that sunshine before heading further north to colder climates.
We stopped at a bar called Topaze that was on the Quai des États-Unis and snagged some great balcony seats. What an amazing view!
Eventually we got our bags and headed to the train station to get on our 6-hour TGV train up to Paris with a plan to overnight there and head over to Belgium the next day. We picked up baguettes, cheese, meat, and wine for our picnic dinner on the train. What a great way to travel!
