_NICE._
WE were due at Mentone on Wednesday the 29th November, and intended to
have spent two nights at Nice by the way; but the Monday was so very
wet at Cannes that we delayed leaving till the Tuesday morning, and by
so doing obtained a brilliant day for the short but delightful railway
ride. Passing the Croisette, we first skirted the Bay of Antibes, where
the French squadron was then lying at anchor, and in which is the spot,
denoted by a commemorative monument, where Napoleon Bonaparte landed
from Elba. A little farther, the distant snowy Maritime Alps came into
view. Here, as elsewhere in the Riviera, curious villages, looking
very dead–alive under their rotten brown roofs, are seen upon the tops
of hills. These villages were so built in the olden times, with the
view of securing some protection from the Moors, who, crossing the
Mediterranean from Algeria to capture the inhabitants for slaves, kept
them in terror when they landed. We passed over the wide course of the
Var, and in about an hour from departure arrived in the gay town of
Nice.
* * * * *
Nice is a large town in the province of Nice, formerly part of the
Sardinian kingdom, when the boundary line between France and Italy lay
about four miles to the westward of the town. Ceded to France, it is
now the capital of the French department of the Alpes Maritimes. The
population, which forty years ago was 34,000, is now stated by Bædeker
to be 50,000; but as the town has been from year to year rapidly
extending under the influence of the railway facilities, and now covers
a large area, it is probable that this estimate is much under the mark,
and that it numbers greatly more. Arriving by the railway, the station
is left, and the town entered by a wide handsome street or boulevard
called the Avenue de Longchamps. This leads straight down to the Place
Massena and the Pont Neuf, where are the public gardens, the Promenade
des Anglais, the Boulevard du Midi, and other noted parts. The river
Paillon passes through Nice, and is crossed near its mouth by the Pont
Neuf.
Nice is a very lively place, and in some respects is attractive.
The town is well laid out, and it has many good shops, though none
of them large. It is a commercial town, but does not possess many
notable public buildings. The cathedral lies in a quarter I never
visited; but a handsome Roman Catholic church, externally large, but
internally contracted, has been recently built of a fine white stone,
and forms a feature in the avenue. The streets, houses, and hotels
are imposing. The Promenade des Anglais is a long wide roadway along
the beach, extending westward between one and two miles; and upon its
landward side, many of the largest and best hotels, a theatre, and
other buildings have been erected. This promenade is the great resort,
particularly on a Sunday, of the inhabitants and visitors, and it has
certainly a magnificent aspect. A handsome iron bridge of three arches
over the Paillon connects it with the Boulevard du Midi, which forms a
continuation eastward towards the harbour.
* * * * *
Nice was, and I suppose still is, a free port, and therefore possesses
some advantages. Its harbour affords accommodation for many large
ships. Before reaching it, however, and to the south–east of the town,
a hill interposes, rising abruptly above 300 feet high, popularly
called the Chateau, of which castle, however, nothing is now left but
its ruins. The slopes of the hill are covered with trees, many of them
exotics, through which the road winds gently to the top. We drove up
this winding road to the harsh music of innumerable French drummers and
trumpeters (one would have thought the tyros of all France were here
assembled) practising upon their respective instruments all sorts of
disagreeable rat–tats and military signals of contradictory import in
dinning, hoarse, distracting, discordant, ear–cracking immaturity—a
very Babel of uncertain sounds, tending to realize, perhaps faintly,
the Highlander’s dream of heaven,—that delectable thought of ‘four and
twenty bagpipers all in one room, and all pleyin’ different chunes.’
Nevertheless, every visitor desirous of obtaining the best view of
Nice and its environs should make the ascent, previously bribing the
concierge to ascertain if possible at what hour the unhappy musicians
dine or otherwise disappear. On the top of the hill there is a
platform, from which is obtained a most striking panoramic view. Below,
on one side, lie the harbour, and the hills beyond to the eastward,
over which the Corniche road proceeds to Mentone and Genoa; then on
the south, the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, hemmed in by promontories,
and basking and glittering in the sun; westward, the promenades; and
thence northwards and eastwards, the city, bounded in the distance by
mountains. But what arrested our attention most was the extraordinary
torrent bed of the river Paillon. Crossing the Var, we had seen a
similar bed, and much wider. In a railway train, however, one has
little opportunity of catching more than a passing glimpse of things,
especially when the railway line is nearly on the same level. But
from the platform of the chateau we were looking down upon the bed
of the Paillon from a considerable elevation, which enabled us to
see up the course of the river for some miles away to the mountains,
where it became lost to view. As the torrent beds are a remarkably
characteristic feature of the Riviera, I may just describe their
appearance. The bed or channel of the river consists of a broad stony
course, through which usually a streamlet trickles; the bed being out
of all proportion to the size of the stream as usually seen. It is,
however, stony, and no grass grows in it; and sometimes, after heavy
rains or from snowy meltings, the water comes down from the mountains
in torrents, and more or less covers the channel from side to side,
even occasionally, when the rains are more than ordinarily protracted,
flooding it considerably—a fact which I believe the contractors in
forming the railway found to their cost. But although we have seen
heavy rains lasting for days together, I do not think that, with
one exception, we ever witnessed such a flow of water in any of the
river beds as completely to cover it. The strange aspect of the river
course, however, is produced by men continually digging into it when
and where dry, and riddling out the fine limy earth which has been
borne down from the uplands, and carting it away for building and
other purposes; by doing whereof they leave behind them all over it
large holes and little heaps of riddled–out stones, imparting a very
mottled and singular appearance to the channel. The river Paillon,
therefore, extending for miles in this condition, had a most novel and
extraordinary aspect from the chateau. Although there had been heavy
rain the day before, the stream was very diminutive.
* * * * *
We stayed but one night at Nice, although we went several times
afterwards from Mentone to spend the day there. I do not therefore
pretend to know it well. It is the most expensive town in the Riviera,
but is alluring to those who go in good health for pure enjoyment.
For promotion of enjoyment and gaiety, it is, I presume, everything
that can be desired; but although the climate is better than that
of some other places, being, it is said, equal or similar to the
climate of Florence, it wants the shelter which is so necessary to
invalids. The mountains are not near enough to afford protection, and
cold winds, keen and piercing, blow down the streets, very trying to
delicate constitutions, especially to those suffering from pulmonary
complaints. In fact, it would seem to be the battle–ground of all the
villainous winds which afflict the south. The _bise_, the _marin_, the
_tramontane_, the _mistral_, the _sirocco_, are in continual conflict
for the ascendency; and sometimes the one and sometimes the other
has it, and enjoys its triumph for a few days in dealing misery on
the inhabitants. To many the sea–breeze is most trying. I met on one
occasion, on the railway, a gentleman in bad health returning from
Nice to Rome because he could not stand its sea–breeze. But given good
strong health and a relish for the kind of life, and Nice is charming.
The hotels and pensions are legion in number; but those considered good
by English people, it is well to know, are costly.
Theatres, skating rinks, bathing, exhibitions of paintings and
sculpture, each in turn claims patronage, while delightful excursions
by carriage can be made to places of interest in the neighbourhood.
There is a constant stir of life in Nice, aided not a little by
military promenades and military music, a band playing each afternoon
in the public gardens.
* * * * *
But we were impatient to be off to Mentone, which, from all we could
learn before leaving home, was thought to be the most desirable of all
the health resorts in the Riviera for winter residence. Our friends had
preceded us from Cannes, and secured quarters for us in the same hotel
with themselves.
The carriage road from Nice to Mentone, about 24 miles, is one of
the most charming parts of the Corniche drive, and, if weather be not
cold and expense be no obstacle, it ought, unless the traveller be an
invalid, to be preferred to the railway, which, although it skirts
the Mediterranean just at a sufficient elevation to give a charm to
the view of its lovely waters, suffers the great drawback of passing
through numerous tunnels, some of them long. On the other hand, the
drive by road, for which 40 and even 50 francs are asked (though less
will be taken), rises at one part to a great height, overlooking the
ocean, and being there on the top of the hills, is without protection
from the cutting north wind.
It was not warm enough to warrant our venturing to drive, and we
decided to go by rail. Soon after leaving the station at Nice, we
crossed the torrent bed of the river Paillon, but were still in the
town or suburbs of Nice, and in the midst of orange gardens, the
fruit shining, like everything else, in the brilliant sun. At the
other end of a long tunnel we reached Villefranche, where the gulf
of that name presents a large natural harbour, in which one or more
men–of–war are sometimes to be seen. From this point the railway hugs
the coast, passing under or through the hills by tunnels, whereby
many fine points of view are missed, and particularly the sight of
Eza, a curious town perched on a precipitous rock, formerly a Saracen
free–booter’s stronghold. The Corniche road is more inland, and
commands the whole prospect uninterruptedly. As the train emerged
from these tunnels successively, bay after bay, filled with the
beautiful blue Mediterranean water, hemmed in by rocky promontories,
upon which lonely trees sometimes grow, met our sight, but, most
tantalizingly, immediately after disappeared from view, eclipsed by
the next tunnel. At last, after rather more than half way to Mentone,
the bold, peculiar rocky promontory of Monaco, for which we had been
watching, appeared, stretching out like a tongue of land, or rather a
long steep rock, into the ocean. The view of Monaco either from west
or from east is very striking. The rock is from 200 to 300 feet high,
and dips perpendicularly into the ocean, crowned by the town, the
handsome palace of the Prince of Monaco, and by fortifications. It is
inaccessible on three sides, and can only be reached by a fortified
road upon the east side sloping up the side of the rock. Upon the north
end, which is also steep and inaccessible, it is connected at the
bottom by a low narrow belt of land. I shall, however, recur to Monaco
in describing a visit to Monte Carlo, which lies about half a mile to
the eastward. After leaving Monaco station, the passenger, looking
down, sees on the ground below, and leading up to Monte Carlo, a
number of villas, pure and bright in their colouring, looking so clean
and tidy in the sunshine with which on this occasion we were again
favoured. Monte Carlo is not well seen from the railway, as the line
and station lie below and even in part under it. All trains stop both
at Monaco and Monte Carlo, and at the latter place they generally set
down and take up a considerable number of people, who resort either to
the gaming tables, or to the delightful gardens which surround them, or
to the music room of the Casino. Leaving Monte Carlo, we came in sight
of another long projecting though not precipitous point of land, or
rising hill ground, covered with trees, principally dark pines. This,
the promontory of Cape Martin, is the west boundary and termination of
the western protecting arm of Mentone. It necessitates another long
tunnel, escaping from which, and passing extensive terraces or forests
of old olive trees, and crossing two river courses, we at last arrived
at our long anticipated destination, the subject of many thoughts
during past months—Mentone.