Pleased to be back

Over recent years nothing excites me more travel-wise than to return to Nice in spring.

In the 1970s and 80s I felt this way about New York. It was a city of vitality and energy living on its commercial, financial and sexual edge.

At Plato’s Republic and the flop houses anything and everything was permitted and happened until AIDS wiped out promiscuity.

I found the grime, crime and the overbearing immigration interrogation at the airport unattractive and it was in 1993 that I last visited the ‘Big Apple’.

European cities with their traditions and culture were more appealing but none gave me that heady sense of excitement as I crossed the RFK/Triborough bridge and saw the Manhattan skyline.

Until Nice….

I have been visiting the Riviera all my life but Nice was the hub – the point of arrival and departure – as I either went east to Cap Ferrat or west to Cannes.

Yet it is a fine harbour city in its own right.

A city with breathtaking views over the Baie Des Anges, 1200 restaurants, an Opera House, a top football team, a charming if touristy old town with a vibrant market at its epicentre.

I rather hoped our driver collecting us at the airport would drive along the sea front, the famous Promenade Des Anglais conceived by an English cleric.

Instead he opted for the quicker expressway which takes you by the less aesthetic railway line and backs of tower blocks.

No matter: it would not be long – and it was not- before I could enjoy this view with a cold beer.

It is good to be back.