Carnet de Voyage: a Golden Wedding Anniversary in Nice  

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To celebrate our 50 years Golden Wedding Anniversary we decided to take a trip to one of our favourite destinations – the fabulous Nice on the Côte d’Azur! 

One of the main reasons we love Nice, is what attracted many artists over the years, namely the wonderful colours – so vivid you can understand why they wanted to paint there, as the light is so inspirational. Also, the transport links are excellent to explore the area. 

We arrived via a flight from Luton to Nice and it was cheap as chips (Easyjet £23.99 out and £31.99 return)!  Upon arriving at Nice airport there is a tram system that is one of the best in Europe – immediately on exiting the airport with our luggage, the tram was outside waiting to take us to your nearest tram stop. There are two tram lines across Nice, Line 2 runs from the airport all the way to the port. The other, Line 1, runs north of the city through the centre to the east with many stops to make it easy for you to travel around.  All this is at a fantastic cost of 20 euros for a weeks’ travel per person. 

Wherever you choose to stay around the city you will find a tram stop nearby. Ours was just around the corner and much used throughout the week to go to the main shopping area “Place Masséna” with its varied shops, from designer boutiques to the Galleries Layfette and the Nice Etoile indoor shopping centre. Also, many excellent restaurants, cafés and bars. 

If you need to take a breather from shopping, or after lunch, then the lovely park with water fountains provides a much welcome rest. 

There is also an excellent train service which runs from the station in Nice all along the coast either to the east with stops at Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Monaco and Menton or in the other direction, where you can travel to Cannes with stops all along the coast such as Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, Golfe Juan.  

One of our days out was a visit to the hilltop village of Mougins where Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life. The village is a tribute to Picasso and other artists who lived and painted there. There are an abundance of art galleries and artisan shops, together with a variety of lovely cafes and restaurants. We ate at the restaurant L’Amandier de Mougins which has wonderful views from its rooftop seating area (the 29€ lunch menu is a bargain and includes a main course with a glass of wine followed by a café gourmand). The views from the top are quite magnificent. It is worth noting that Picasso isn’t actually buried in Mougins – apparently the local mayor refused to let the family bury him in the village because, in his opinion, Picasso was a communist. So, the family had his body buried at Château Vauvenargues, in Aix-en-Provence. 

To reach Mougins we took the tram to the station in Nice, (which has recently undergone a refurbishment and has lots of cafés bars and shops). Return tickets to Cannes costed 12€ each (take note UK trainlines!). At Cannes the very convenient bus station is in front of the train station and we took the bus to the Val de Mougins, which took around 20 mins. You can walk from there uphill to the village but we decided to take the bus from the Val de Mougins to the top at a cost of around 2€ for a worthwhile 5-minute ride to the top. 

Another day, another visit, was to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, another beautiful hilltop village where Winston Churchill loved to paint, and actually painted a picture of the fountain in the centre of the village. To get there we, once again, took the Cannes train but alighted at Cagnes-sur-Mer. There again, the bus station is directly outside the train station and a short bus ride takes you to the village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. There are also many artisan shops, cafés and bars, art galleries, and viewing spots of the magnificent scenery. As a special treat for our anniversary, we ate at the famous La Colombe D’or restaurant and were seated in the beautiful garden area. A main course will set you back between 22€ and 65€ but is worth it just for the experience – and special memories. 

The rest of our time was spent either walking around the Cours Saleya market in the old part of Nice, which is well worth a visit for the beautiful flowers. Or along the magnificent Promenade Anglais with plenty of beach bars to take in a coffee or aperitif. 

Our week-long holiday was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary and lots of memories to treasure. 

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