La Vieille Ville

Our final day in France and we finally made it to the old town section of the city. As I’ve previously mentioned, our apartment was a bit far from the center of town and even further from the old town, which, combined with our day trips along the coast, meant we didn’t make it down there until our final day. Which was fine; it is small enough that a half day was sufficient for us to get our fill of the tiny, rabbit warren-style streets.

I actually got a preview of the area alone in the morning, while my friend slept in. I walked downtown, intending to grab a couple of croissants and pains au chocolat and head back to the apartment, but decided to keep walking over to the old part of town first. I got a bit lost among the streets (no map, since I was just going to walk to the boulangerie), but ultimately I found the water, which meant I knew where I was again!

I ultimately did make it to the bakery, after getting slightly damp as the sky started spitting rain, and got back to the apartment with little ado.

A little while later, full of apple-stuffed croissants, both of us left the apartment and made our way back down the hill to the old town. The rain had stopped by this point, much to our delight. So we took advantage of an afternoon with no specific plan and moseyed around the streets, stopping to relax on the stoney Nice beach.

Our energy restored, we returned to explore more of the vieille ville. Somehow our wanderings took us through this square about 4 times – all roads seemed to ultimately lead to it:

It’s a pretty square, I suppose. Although the kneeling guys on the poles are a little strange. Left me wondering what the story was behind it. Our guidebook did not shed any light on the situation.

We did finally tire of wandering around and ducking in and out of stores that ranged from cute to tacky. So it became time for another cocktail. We wanted to visit the bar of the swanky Hotel Negresco. Sadly, when we arrived, the door was closed and a sign indicated that only hotel guests were allowed in. Sad times.

But not that sad because there was another hotel bar that welcomed us just down the Promenade des Anglais. Kir Royal and nibbles were had and enjoyed.

Happy ending after all.