Day: 10 July 2004

Budget Coté D’azur – Costs Summary

Here is a summary of the costs you can expect to pay. I have used my experiences as an example, these are not always representative of truely the cheapest, you will always find cheaper if you want to work through all the options, but here we go:

ESSENTIALS
> Flight Birmingham to Perpignan and from Nice
(£81)
thomsonfly
flybe
> Hotels/Hostels – 13 nights
(£465)
2x Barcelona – (£48)
2x Nimes – (£45)
2x Cassis – (£95)
1x St. Tropez – (£80)
5x Nice – (£197)
> Cost of Travel Barcelona – Nice (via St. Tropez)
(£68.00)
> Cost of 1 Beer – ave.
(£3.30)
> Three course set menu meal – 1 person
(£14)

ADDITIONAL OOSTS

> Cost to get into a nightclub – Nice
(£10)
> Tour bus
(£12)
> Ice cream
(£1.66)
> Marinated Mussels (France)
(£3.42) without chips

Nice – Nice in Nice

For my last night have decided to attend a concert, open air. Here I can vent my emotions and generally get in the spirit of the occasion.

It has started to thunder and lightening and my performers are being rained on like myself.
Instead, i decide that it may be better in the casino which may have a black jack wheel or something I can get my fingers stuck in.

casinoOn reaching casino they decide that they don’t like my trainers, which I find disappointing as they are Reebok Classics.
Perhaps it’s the smell that’s putting them off.

I move on again, this time to another casino where they just have the monkeys putting the money in the machines. now this may seem like a good pastime to some people, but to me from the outside it simply looks like a load of people sitting in front of machines putting the money in. Where’s the fun in that?

I move on again ,this time to a nightclub called the dancing club, which i’m afraid to say looks astonishingly crap. after what has preceeded tonight this is overlooked and moved to the back of my mind as I pay the 16e entry fee.

On entering I am in fact the only customer and the aged club owner/cloakroom attendant, takes it apon herself to aproach me and attempt to show me a good time, french style. this fails, but I manage to get a cigarette off her before she gets the picture and goes back to handing out the cloakroom tickets.

Negresco HotelsNow the night is young and i am not having a good time swaying in this dancing club and although there are people arriving I just can’t be arsed hanging around, drinks are pricey and the place is shit.

I decide to leave and take a joant down past the Negresco, this is where if there are any celebs in town, they might be staying.
Nothing flying out of the windows or motorcades indicates tonight might be a quite one.
I decide to skip a drink in the bar and move on to the central area of town.

I think i’ve probably passed about two hours since the concert got rained out.

I decide to try one more a place called the klub, where they turn me away for not being a homo. I insist on my homosexual credentials, splaying of the the buttocks etc. but to no avail the door is slammed in my face.

This is my last night in Nice. I’ve had better ones.

Nice – Museums

Modern Art

Nice has its fair share of Musuems. Due to failing weather, I felt that these museums would be a worthy way to while away the hours.
Kitting myself with cagoule, camera and other shoes and stuff I set out bright and early to this museum of one of the most famous artists who has hailed from Nice. That famous artist Matisse.

Taking the bus, not the bugger bus, but a normal one no. 15 or 17, (for those bus spotters out there), up to the important stop which is Cimiez Monastry. This was quick and effective and took me to the top of the steep hills which sorround Nice in little time or effort.

There where 3 museums to see on the way back into town. These three museums where:
The Musée Matisse
The Musée Marc Chagall
The Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain.

Without going to much into boring detail. There were all worth visiting, especial if the weather ain’t great. The best, I thought, was the Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, becuase it had such mad and varied displays.

I also went to another museum, that was the musuem of Asian art.

These i usually find really interesting because
a) we stole all the stuff of them and they can’t get it back.
b) because their cultures are different.

At this museum they gave you a funky headphone which would tell you stories as you wandered from statue to statue. This i found on reflecting made the whole expreince much more valuable and wandered what was the point in having those little bits of paper next to things when they don’t tell you anything at all.