A Nice Adventure — February, Michael
February is the winter month when Nice really shines, and this was our second February in Nice so we had a good idea what to expect. Like last year, the weather was mostly sunny and the days started getting longer. It’s also the traditional month of Carnival and skiing, and we profited from both activities once again.
Like last year, we watched two parades as part of the Nice Carnival; a daytime parade on the Saturday and then another parade that evening. The daytime event was pretty long, clocking more than three hours all up. The nighttime event was shorter but more spectacular, with some impressive floats that looked amazing all light up. In summary I’d say we were less impressed compared to last year, but I’m sure that was partly because the novelty of the whole spectacle had somewhat worn off.
Still, there were some amazing floats. Our favourite was a float of the devil puppeteering caricatures of tech CEOs Bezos, Musk, Pichai and Zuckerberg. Steve Cook sat sadly on the front of the creation. The king, as always, was amazing and looked quite realistic with his moving eyes.
On Sunday we headed for Menton for the annual Fête du Citron citrus festival. Strolling among the giant orange and lemon sculptures and watching the parade was pleasant enough although once again less impactful than last year. However, we did enjoy the excursion to Menton with friends and a lovely picnic lunch on the beach.
This year we also checked out the Combat Naval Fleuri at Villefranche, a boat parade where flowers are thrown into the crowd at the incredibly picturesque neighbouring town of Villefranche. We decided to attend the parade as part of an Alliance Française excursion run by our French school, which provided a nice chance to meet some fellow students and speak French whilst attending the festivities.
A week later it was the winter school break and we were off to the snow. With ten days up our sleeves, we decided to travel significantly further north to the heart of the alps, where you can find many of the larger ski stations. The local resorts such as Valberg, Auron and Isola 2000 are around two hours drive from Nice and offer around 40–50 pistes. Instead we drove around six hours to Les 3 Vallées, the largest ski domain with over 300 pistes.
We enjoyed eight days of skiing in total and the massive ski area provided lots to explore. We stayed in Meribel, which is the central of the three valleys and provides easiest access to both of the other two — Chourchevel and Val Thorens. Around 50% of the pistes are blue and green, making it perfect for us to explore, since we were able to access pretty much everywhere in the domain on those easier slopes.
We arrived on Friday and had two days of skiing as a family before the children started ski lessons, which were run each morning on Monday through to Friday. Since it was peak time for skiing in the French alps, we were unable to get many private lessons so the children were enrolled in group classes; Melinda in the 2-star group and Brendan in 3-star. We hoped that the kids would enjoy the social experience of skiing with other children their ages, and for the most part this was a success. Melinda befriended Oliver, an English-speaking boy in her group, whilst Brendan befriended a group of four English speaking kids who knew each other, but welcomed him into their little clan. By the end of the week, Melinda had received her 2-star medal, and Brendan had been promoted an extra level, receiving his Bronze medal, which he was especially proud of.
During and after ski lessons we explored the ski area, making trips up to the surrounding peaks (or cols in French, meaning saddles) then skiing down into the other two valleys. Each day we would do up to 10 to 11 telecabin or chairlift rides, each taking us up maybe 500 meters. So a full day of skiing meant around 5 kilometers of descent.
Unfortunately the whole family fell victim to a virus during the trip, meaning some shorter days, and a day of ski school was missed by each of the children. Combined with the altitude and physical exertion, we were all pretty exhausted throughout much of the week. Still, it felt like a waste of time, money and opportunity not to push through and make the most of it all.
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One evening there was fireworks and a descente aux flambeaux in neighbouring Chourchevel, so I drove over and enjoyed the spectacle. The fireworks looked amazing when reflected over the snow, and the descente aux flambeaux never ceases to impress, with the beautiful sight of skiers carrying torches and winding down the slope.
In between ski lessons and carnival, our French lessons have continued. I’m now up to level B1.2 and Michelle has reached B1.3 so we are definitely feeling more and more confident with our ability to speak, understand others, read and write. The Alliance Française in Nice has an excellent cafe which provides a nice base for hanging out in the morning before class, or having lunch with fellow students afterwards. One evening the school hosted a concert at the cafe which was good fun. We managed to secure a babysitter for the evening and both attended.
My class has also become quite close with the same teacher, Valerie, teaching us over the last four months. Over that time, quite a few students have come and gone; they are usually visitors to Nice who are only in town for a few weeks. However, there is a pretty consistent core cohort of 6–8 of us who have moved to Nice and have regularly attended class for a few months now. With our class graduating from A2 to B1 at the start of February, we got together for a nice little celebratory lunch.
Cool but sunny weather in Nice means it’s also the perfect time of year for doing some more hikes. One Saturday I joined a group for a walk up nearby Mont Boron (the hill on the other side of the port from our house) and then over to Parc du Vinaigrier. It was there that we stumbled upon a fascinating, abandoned house. We learnt that it was abandoned in 2011 after much of the structure was completed, meaning that it is structurally quite sounds and pretty easily explored. The two story house includes a spiral staircase and balcony, and is covered in graffiti. Outside the garden contains the foundations of a swimming pool. There is no fencing around the property, so quite a few other locals were also wondering through the property that day.
Another weekend we returned to Cap d’Antibes, a stunning walk that follows the water along the coast of the cape near Antibes. The alluring Millionaire’s Bay is the highlight of the walk, although the water was likely much too cold for a swim. We did the walk with four other families, and had a mid-walk picnic on the beach, so everyone had a great time. Except, perhaps, some of the locals who were heard grumbling (in French) about all the tourists on the trail after passing a group of noisy English speaking children.
Our time left in Nice is now dwindling with just one month left until we depart. We have started organise some farewell gatherings and preparing to pack up our belongings. It’s going to be very sad to leave but it’s not feeling too depressing right now; after all, we have an exciting final 3 — 4 months of European travel planned before we land back in Melbourne.
