Happy new year everybody! I hope it’s a year filled with joy, peace and love for everyone.
2012 is here, and what better way to celebrate than by sharing some old pictures of Nice with you? My friend’s parents visited Nice in the 80s and bought a guide book ‘To Love and Know Nice’, which they kindly sent me when they heard I was moving out here (thanks VP and JP!).
I looked through it before moving out here, but seeing it this Christmas when I now know it and love it was really interesting. Especially when my friends Laura and Lane’s apartment makes the front cover:
Nice hasn’t actually changed that much – people still saunter along the Promenade des Anglais, even if it’s not in short shorts and long socks:
From the promenade to the architecture, the English left their mark all over Nice when it was their favourite spot to escape the harsh British winter. Those Victorians had strange taste, this pink castle can be seen east of the port and is aptly named Le Château de l’Anglais:
Here’s a picture of the fountain in Place Massena with no Apollo statue – you can read why it was removed (and now replaced) here, which is also a really good source of information about all things Nice:
One of the best parts of the book is also the descriptions – the following picture is accompanied by the text which reads – ‘this extended metropolis, sprawled out languidly like a sunbather at sea’s edge, nibbling patiently at the hills where, but yesterday, the olive trees were seen to quiver.’ They do not write guide books like this any more!
I’ll leave you with the final page of the book, just because I love it and I can:
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The boring legal bit: The book is ‘To love and know Nice’ by Jean Valbonne, ed. Minerva 1982
One More Step Along The World I Go... 
