Nice

I too was pleased to return to Nice. As travel correspondent I have travelled far and widely but for the variety of each resort the Riviera takes some beating.

It was in Edwardian times a winter destination but the story goes that it all started when an English traveller did not venture into Italy because of the plague and summered in the Riviera.

Then came the Americans – socialites like Maxine Elliot, daughter of a Maine sea captain and great beauty – who entertained the great and the good, notably Winston Churchill, at her Villa Horizon in Antibes.

Artists like Picasso, Miro and Chagall came south from Paris in Occupied France and writers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene lived here permanently.

We might just start a Rust debate on hotel versus self-catering.

In the opening few days getting to know the apartment and the place can interfere with the holiday.

Fortunately we know ours well but we did hit a problem of being locked out of the entrance when a new entry phone was installed one day earlier than the letting agency had indicated.

Bob was not amused.

It’s noticeably more expensive than last year.

A bill for a shop in a mini-market of fairly basic items came to €82.

Later on a mediocre meal was €52 per person.

As we drank chilled rose admiring the sun setting over the hills of Nice there was a palpable feeling of well being in the camp.