If you've been keeping up with my schedule as a Teaching Assistant, you know that we have more vacation time than we know what to do with. Basically it comes down to this: the French go to school for 6 weeks, then have a mandatory 2-week vacation. In the middle of the year. Literally, every six weeks.
When you're only teaching 12 hours a week to begin with, that vacation can seem daunting/exciting/tiring/or just poorly timed....when I get into a schedule, I like to...you know...stay there for awhile. Enjoy the routine till it becomes too routine, then find a new routine!
But, I have to admit, I really enjoyed the French school/vacation system. With two of my schools the vacations kinda cramped my style, but with my worst students, it could not come at a better time, any time it came. Literally, I counted down to vacation, and sometimes even left early on the day it started.
For winter vacation I went to Madrid and Segovia with a dear friend for a couple of days, then returned to Nevers, had some unexpected adventures, and then found myself with a whole week of.....[crickets]
No, that's not true--if you know me at all, you know I'm WAY too high-strung to leave myself that much leisure time! In fact, a couple of weeks before, on a stormy night that saw me crouching alone at the foot of my bed with an empty bottle of wine and a credit card in hand, I found a sweet deal on first class overnight train tickets to Nice.
That's right: I paid less than half price to take a night train to the French Riviera for a long weekend during Carnaval.
Cue envy.
The rest of this blog will be filled with the exorbitant amount of photos I took on that trip. (Please, don't leave now! You're so close to spiritual enlightenment or something!!)
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| The first class cabin of the train was actually pretty cushy, and it came with complimentary water bottles, tissues, earplugs, and pillows. At least I think the pillows were complimentary; I definitely took one anyway. One thing you can never trust in a hostel is the pillows... |
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| After a quick nap at my hostel to recover from my all-nighter (which I spent bracing myself against the wall as the train jerked through stations; not pleasant, but not entirely unpleasant, either), my first order of business was exploring. I found this great free museum (Musée Lascaris, for any who follow in my footsteps) right across from my hostel (which cost 15€/night, for those who REALLY follow in my footsteps), and it gave me some shelter from the afternoon storm...not to mention some great photos. |
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| I'm still not entirely sure what the museum was a museum *of* (as it had a strange mixture of hand-hewn harpsichords, pharmacy paraphernalia, and ornate bedchambers) but I saw this awesome mock-up of a traditional French apothecary |
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| And it had some stellar statuary and tilework (this photo is for my boyfriend, simply because I think he'd like it.) |
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| Out in the streets, Nice looks generally very French. The buildings are tall, with businesses below and apartments above ,and everything is very narrow and a bit cramped. The main difference? Through some of the narrow alleys you can see the ocean. :) |
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| The main square was full of stadium seating and the two main floats for Carnaval, le Roi et la Reine de la Méditerranée. This year's Carnaval theme was King of the Mediterranean, and many of the floats were built to honor the Italian influence that gives Nice its special je ne sais quoi. |
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| Part of the main plaza faced the beaches and the Promenade des Anglais (read: major shopping avenue), but the other view was the one I found most gratifying: palm trees, mountains, and craggy outcroppings. Not something you'd imagine seeing in the fifth-biggest French city... |
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| I made my way down to the coast and sat on the pebbled beach and reread The Great Gatsby; I had the miraculous feeling of not being watched, of enjoying my "I-am-an-island (on-a-beach)" anonymity. |
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| See those orange arches leading all the way up to the top of that mountain? Yeah, they're stairs. I climbed them. |
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| Here's the requisite picture of my face halfway up the mountain (which turned out to be a gigantic, pretty-much-vertical city park called Colline du Chateau [Castle Hill] that subtly showcased Nice's Roman history. Very cool.) |
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| Colline du Chateau offered some incredible views of the city. The weather wasn't perfect, but it certainly didn't dampen my spirits, and in fact I think the aggressive, roiling horizon really made these pictures. |
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| At the very top? A cemetery. I want to go to there...to die and stuff. Imagine the eternal view. |
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| From up high you can tell that the city has hills...but when you're down in that maze, it just feels insulated and intriguing. |
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| What goes up must come down, so Kali followed the checkerboard road into the heart of the Old City once more. |
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| The thin mountain air (yuk yuk yuk) made me forget that it was Carnaval, but a fearsome (aka adorable) parade of baby lions reminded me of that fact real fast. |
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| I stopped at this plaza... |
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| for this gelato... |
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| and got swept away by this parade. |
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| The sun had set, and the city was glowing. |
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| I made my way to the beach for a well-deserved night shot, |
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| Then headed back to Place Massena (the main plaza with the carnival rides, parade floats, and bleachers). |
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| There I treated myself to a coupe de champagne with Italian-inspired amuse-bouches (basically tapas, but not nearly the equivalent of most American restaurants' "appetizers.") The bowl in the photo is full of the zingiest, most satisfying tuna salad I have ever put in my mouth; when I travel whilst stationed abroad much of my food choice is guesswork and occasionally turns out...questionable. This café, with its 5€ champagne special and its view of the Ferris wheel, was one of those rare, reaffirming surprises :) |
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| I then rode the Ferris wheel alone, and had a very satisfying Personal Moment. |
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| I then went out for dinner, as all the Niçois do during Carnaval, and treated myself to dinner and a remarkable lemon tart. +Strawberry. :) |
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| I then enjoyed a late evening of local folksy-jazz funtimes |
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| And then ended my evening with a glance down this mysterious gilded alley. |
End *amazing* vacation.
