Nice is nice! (part 1 of 2)

(Part 1 updated with Photos!)

See what I did there? That play on words? You read that more than once I bet, didn't you? I apologize, I am in the airport waiting for my flight and I just couldn't help myself. This blog is being written in the airport and maybe a bit on the plane, and then when I get back to Rome and can upload photos and make it all pretty looking I will do that, so if there are no pictures on it you haven't seen the final version! So be sure to check back, unless after reading you are not interested in seeing all of the beautiful pictures I took, in that case you are missing out on half of the experience. (Updated: This is part 1 of a series, like I’ve done for past trips. Be sure to keep checking back tomorrow for additional parts! Internet is at a crawl tonight, so pictures will be up tomorrow as well, so this post and additional posts will be updated with embedded pictures/links to the entire album!)

Okay so, as I mentioned this was my Villanova pilgrimage trip. That means besides getting to visit another amazing city and experiencing the culture, I also had the goal to take some sort of religious or spiritual journey. I'd say I accomplished that.

Becky was nice enough to agree to make the trip with me, though convincing her to come to the cote d'azur wasn't too hard. So let's start from the beginning shall we?

Friday:



I arrived in Nice on Friday around noon. The flight from Rome was only fifty minutes, a hop skip and jump if I do say so myself. When we touched down I woke to see one of the more ironic views I have seen in my life. To my left, literally right off the tip of the wing, the most beautiful water I have seen. As the plane turned into the parking space, I caught site of palm trees on the ground, and in the background the snow covered alps. If I had my camera at hand I would have snapped a picture, but you can imagine the laugh I got out of it.

Becky wasn't supposed to get in until nine or so that night(more on that later) so I checked into the hotel and then headed out to explore. It was a beautiful sixty degrees and not a cloud in the sky.



I headed down the main street to a small winding street full of stores and cafes. Nice is not, at least in February, a touristy city. It has a genuine small town feel and look.



Church number 1:



I happen to come across my first church of the trip. It is right on the small street I am walking down. There was nothing particularly stand-out about it, but it was pretty nonetheless. A Few minutes of contemplation and exploring the church and I was on my way.
As I exited the church Becky called me in a panic. Her flight had been canceled.

Boycott easyjet:
I am making the vow right now to never fly easyjet. They are a "budget " airline with low fares but nickel and dime you on fees and taxes while providing minimal services besides getting you to and from where you are going. I have no problem with that, I pay a lower than normal fare and they fly me there. But when they fail to uphold their end of the promise, well then we have a problem. When six hours before a flight they cancel it wit nothing more than a "sorry!" email, well that to me is a problem. It didn't seem any other airline were having problems with flying to France, yet easyjet was blaming it on France and saying other airlines had similar problems. Luckily Becky acted quick and booked a flight through British airways, but the flight was not until Saturday morning.

Solo in Nice:

This twist in events left me alone in Nice. Still unsure for a while whether she would actually ever make it here, this is where the real pilgrimage began. I visited another church, the church of Jesus, and just sat there for a while, not much running through my head.

The Beach:



From here I made my way down to the beach. The beaches in Nice are all stone. Large stones to be exact. It is a pretty beautiful site and are surprisingly comfortable to sit on. I sat for a long time, my spiritual pilgrimage in full swing, as I contemplated all sorts of stuff. I realized that Monday(today) is march 1st. March 31 marks the end of my program in Rome. That fact took me a while to grasp. While I have done so much, I cannot even imagine what march 31st will be like.

I sat on the beach for a pretty good while, then headed to walk around more. I spent the night getting myself lost and then finding my way again, never once looking at at a map (I had one with me just in case). I called it an early night.

Saturday came and I went back to exploring. I stopped at a French pastry shop and got a chocolate croissant. French breads and pastries never cease to amaze me. They look good and taste even better. I then made my way to the port of Nice.

The port:



This may have been my favorite part of nice. For one, I love boats, and the port had plenty of them. From big yachts to twelve foot row boats, it had it all. The second feature I loved was the church of our lady of the immaculate conception.

Church of our lady of the Immaculate Conception:



This is one of the first churches in Nice and rightfully so is one of the first things sailors ans seamen would see when pulling into the port of Nice. It is located at Right near the water directly inside the port. The outside reminded me of the Pantheon, but was more colorful than it. The inside seemed smaller than it looked from the outside, but had a nice feel. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the size, but it kind of felt just right. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I felt at home because of the name. My parish at home, in New Jersey, is Immaculate Conception Church in Somerville. Yes, I know there are plenty of other churches of the Immaculate Conception, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit at home, even though I am thousands of miles away. We went to mass here on Sunday and I really liked the feel of the mass, even if it was in all French. The interior was very beautiful but unfortunately I feel as though they could use some money to do some restorations of the artwork and inner façade.



In the church was a small shrine to our lady of Lourdes. Though I tried hard to fit a trip to Lourdes into my journey to Nice (train takes ten hours a flight costs a large amount of money) this would be the closest I would get to Lourdes. The shrine had a statue of Mary, and was surrounded by plaques which contained dates, names and a message. By my translation from my limited knowledge of the French Language, these plaques were donated by people who had visited Lourdes or prayed to Our Lady of Lourdes and who had been healed. There was even a bottle of Lourdes water at the base of the statue. It was quite a powerful experience. I lit a candle for those in my life that are sick, praying that they will get better soon. We spent a few more minutes in the church and then headed out.


A word on boats:




As I mentioned before, the port held many boats. Too many for me to take in. I love boats, and to see the size of some of these yachts was incredible. Each was bigger than the next, and I can only imagine how amazing they look on the inside. To the other side of them though were the much smaller boats. The quaint twelve foot boats that have small 10 hp inboard motors, painted in all sorts of bright colors. No matter how spectacular the yachts are, there’s no better satisfaction than jumping in a small boat and just putt-putting around for an hour or so. It’s the simplicity of being of just being on the water sometimes that makes the biggest impact, not the fact that you have 3 bedrooms, air conditioning and a Jacuzzi on your boat.

Okay, that's all for this part, check back tomorrow for pictures and a continuation!