We are going to show you downtown Nice, that beautiful city in the south of France on the
Côte d'Azur.
We'll take you down the main shopping street, show you some of the side lanes and do a little
winetasting.
You'll obviously take time to explore Nice’ s main commercial Street, Avenue Jean Medicin,
stretching about 10 blocks from Place Massena north to the train station and packed with
many boutiques and anchored at the lower end by the large department store, Galleries Lafayette.
You can see on the map of downtown how the main street goes right through the middle,
just near the old town and the busy shopping hub of Place Massena, and we will also take
you over to another great pedestrian street Rue de France.
There is a convenient tram service in nice running along the main avenue, practically
from the beach and all the way to the train station and beyond, which makes it very easy
to get from one end of town to the other.
So it’s really not too critical that you stay at a hotel down by the waterfront but
of course it is more pleasant to be down by the shore.
Riding along on this new tram is a very smooth experience - the tracks are still quite level
so you have a nice view of downtown passing by as you look out the windows.
The tram is convenient because it's right at street level so it's easy to just walk
right on, and there are stops every few blocks, so it's easy to catch.
And trams like this have become quite popular once again in Europe, it's sort of a rebirth
of an old idea.
A lot of money has been spent by the government to upgrade and improve the city with the new
tram, the new parks, really enhancing the quality of life.
Here's a quick flash back to the year 2006 showing the amount of construction work necessary
to create this tram line down the main street.
It's all finished now.
It's really quite wonderful to see how this main street has been transformed in recent
years by the tram.
All the automobiles of been removed, except service vehicles.
Sidewalks widened.
Now it's a great place for pedestrians and bicycles and people, and the tram running
down the middle.
When locals are referring to the street they don't even call it Avenue Jean Medicin.
They just say the Avenue because it's by far the primary shopping street of Nice.
Place Massena is a great hub of the city, straddling between the old town and the new
town and adjacent to it are beautiful arcades of Galleries Lafayette and other major stores.
Just beyond that central square is a remarkable new park called the Promenade du Paillon.
It's 1.2 km in length and it's a result of nearly 10 years of urban redevelopment in
the heart of Nice.
They ripped down an old bus station, they remove various other buildings and they put
in this beautiful park with the mirrored, reflecting fountain – it's kind of a trick
fountain, you can walk through it if you dare.
It covers over 3000 square meters with the beautiful trees and green lawns all around
it, cafe services.
It's a great place for the families, and it's open from early in the morning till late at
night – very safe and clean.
It's well protected, there is a lot of staff around, public facilities.
It's really a sterling example of urban renewal.
The park is also open in the evening, so it's a great place for the families to come out
after work, before dinner, enjoying the playground facilities.
The park is right next to Place Massena, so it is really easy to get back into the shopping
part of town from here, it just takes a couple minutes, and you're walking along this beautiful
arcaded street toward the lower end of the Avenue, and there are more shops tucked away
in these arcades – that great department store Galeries Lafayette, the largest department
store chain you find throughout France.
The Italian style architecture of these arcades, with their red ocher construction, harkens
back to the days a century ago when Nice was more Italian and French.
From here it's only a 2-minute walk south to the beach, or turn around and plunge back
into the downtown shopping arena.
This colorful shop called Pylones was founded in France in 1985.
It's a gift shop with a variety of colorful and animated objects and innovative designs,
and it's been a big hit.
You see it now in just about every city in France.
The Basilica of Notre Dame is the largest church in Nice.
It was completed in 1868 in the Gothic style but it's not the cathedral, which is in the
old town.
In the midst of this busy street the church was pretty empty but right across the street
there is another kind of cathedral for shopping and that was packed.
This urban shopping mall on the main street of Nice offers 100 shops in a very stylish
setting.
Of course you'll also find restaurants bars and cafés inside Nice Etoile.
It's wonderful that this modern multilevel shopping mall is right in the heart of downtown
so it complements the existing street-level retail rather than luring people outside of
the city.
Back out on the main street we ran into a little political demonstration.
That's a common sight throughout Europe.
When exploring the downtown of Nice don't limit yourself to the main avenue.
There are interesting streets along both sides.
Good example is this lovely pedestrian zone in the newer part of Nice.
This is rue d’France.
It used to be the main street of the city about 100 years ago and it's still one of
the most important streets.
Fortunately it’s been converted into a pedestrian mall with a lot of shops, restaurants and
there's some hotels scattered along the street, and it'll lead you right back towards Place
Massena.
It runs parallel to the shore about four blocks inland - it's a wonderful street.
Boulevard Victor Hugo is a main road with many affordable hotels that cuts right through
the central area.
This is the kind of really local and authentic neighborhood that's often overlooked by typical
guidebooks and video tours, but this is really part of the heart and soul of Nice.
This is where locals hang out, where they go shopping, where they get a bite to eat,
go to the café, have a beer, which makes it a good place for shopping and for people-watching.
It's so amazing how these pedestrian streets have transformed the cities of Europe.
Just a decade ago these kinds of streets would've been filled with cars and trucks in pollution
and noise, and the movement swept through the continent to convert these little streets
in the heart of the town into pedestrian malls.
But over on the east side of downtown they still have streets with cars and narrow sidewalks,
and it's exciting.
It's hustle bustle neighborhood – again, not that many tourists over here, but you
should come over and take a look just a few blocks east of the main avenue.
You've got lively streets and shops everywhere, sidewalk cafés, views back at Notre Dame.
As you walk along you even get a view of the national theater, a large modern building,
and other side streets that wind around - it's a great place to explore.
There's a wonderful Matisse Museum located in a park slightly away from the center of
town, a little too far to walk to, but you can easily reach it by public bus or just
take a taxi.
Matisse lived in the city of Nice for many years and created some of his finest paintings
here.
You might be able to visualize some of those scenes that were painted from his room looking
out onto the beautiful blue sea, with the bright colors of the south of France and Provence.
Just next to the museum, they love to play petanque, or boule.
The idea is to get your ball near the little red ball and to knock the other balls as far
away as possible.
This is the national sport of France, especially here in the south of France, rivaling only
perhaps football or as we say soccer.
It's believed that some variation of this game has been played for several thousand
years and you can see why - it's a casual friendly game, it's a chance to socialize
and have a little fun.
Next to the Matisse Museum are some major Roman ruins: a small amphitheater, housing
foundations and a small archaeology museum that remind us the Romans had a major presence
here 2000 years ago.
Several other Nice museums will compete for your attention: the Museum of Modern and Contemporary
Art, and the Chagall Museum with the world's largest collection of the artist's works.
France is a wine country.
There's no question France produces the best wine in the world.
And there's something special about it, it becomes a ritual, in the case of the Beaujolais
Nouveau it's an annual event.
On the third Thursday of November every year it's the official release of Beaujolais Nouveau,
which is a fresh young wine.
It is in the bottle eight weeks after it's been harvested so it's very fresh and very
young, and it's kind about pink purple color.
And frankly it's not the best wine of France.
It's kind of raw - you can get much better Bordeauxs that are aged for five or 10 years
- but this is a fun thing because the wine shops celebrate with the release of Beaujolais
Nouveau with free tastings.
So people come down and line up on the sidewalk and gather around, and this is great fun,
free wine.
A national holiday of sorts, celebrated around the world because these cases and container
loads are shipped everywhere, and it's a special day when Beaujolais Nouveau arrives.
They sell 1 million cases of this Beaujolais Nouveau all around the world.
Half of it is consumed within France.
It's the biggest wine party ever on the day that it's released.
A wine that's been harvested, the grapes have been harvested this year, September, and so
it's a great party every year in France, on the third Thursday of every November, comes
out the Beaujolais Nouveau.
These are the new ones.
This is the new one so it's vintage 2013, as it says on the bottle.
And so forbidden by the law to open it before today.
Really?
By law?
Oh yeah, better not.
It's been a good year?
I think it's been a good year.
2013, was a good year.
2013.
Banana, raspberry, strawberry even sometimes, and that's a classic Beaujolais Nouveau.
So, today is Beaujolais Nouveau Day?
Yes, I like it.
Was it a good year?
Yeah, it's a good year, thank you.
After such a busy evening with all that walking through the old town and sampling the Beaujolais,
got to get some rest and then up and at 'em the next day.
I was out quite early for a walk right after breakfast and was surprised to find so many
people out.
The café was alive, there were customers sitting around, this is most unusual, and
the lighting was beautiful.
It seemed like too good to be real...
it almost seemed like, wait a minute, it is a movie shoot.
Yeah these guys have got their equipment and cameras, and they're working hard at about
7:30 in the morning.
It's almost inevitable if you spend enough time in these beautiful places you're going
to run into film productions.
Maybe they're shooting a commercial, perhaps it's an episode for a television program,
maybe it's a feature film, there might even be a famous star around somewhere.
But it's best just to kind of stay out of their way.
You take a look, you can take a few pictures if you like, but just don't cause any problems.
Another surprise this early was to see so much action at a pub.
Well they drank a lot of beer last night apparently.
They've got to restock all those barrels.
Well folks it's finally time to leave Nice.
We've enjoyed a long visit here.
We've shown you all around the town, the old town, the downtown.
We've also taken you to nearby cities in other movies, over to Cannes and Antibes, St-Paul,
over to Vence, Monaco all around this amazing Côte d'Azur.
Now we're heading out, we're taking taxi over the train station and we will continue on
our merry journey to the next destination which is going to be the Italian Riviera – were
heading for Cinque Terre.
It's a pretty long train ride from Nice to Santa Margheritta.
That will be our base for exploring Cinque Terre, and Portofino and other sites of that
area.
The train makes a brief stop in Monaco, one of the cleanest train stations you'll ever
see.
We have a big movie about Monaco you've got to take a look at.
It's the world's richest country and in many ways an ideal model of urban planning, but
that's another story.
And then we carry on along the coast with some beautiful views of the Mediterranean
Sea out the window.
We've got a lot more movies about Provence and the South of France.
Take a look at our YouTube channel.