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Vieille Ville, Nice

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
On our way to Corsica our family had a brief stop in Nice. I'm ever so glad we decided to take the ferry from Nice, otherwise I might have missed this beautiful Mediterranean gem.

Small dreams

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The Shopkeeper

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The Road Down

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The Road Down 2

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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jarmo,

It's fascinating how a spirit of entrepreneurship and civic pride can make a would-be cramped very old location, potential unseriable location into a "must visit" quaint holiday walk and fun area to shop and dine.


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The Road Down


Of course, tourists with money to spend, don't pass through run-down neglected neighborhoods to spend their cash! So it just has to be taken by threat of force, I guess to make the local economy work, I guess. But basically we are talking about the same architecture and archaic passageways!

Asher
 

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
Jarmo,

It's fascinating how a spirit of entrepreneurship and civic pride can make a would-be cramped very old location, potential unseriable location into a "must visit" quaint holiday walk and fun area to shop and dine.
Of course, tourists with money to spend, don't pass through run-down neglected neighborhoods to spend their cash! So it just has to be taken by threat of force, I guess to make the local economy work, I guess. But basically we are talking about the same architecture and archaic passageways!

Asher

Yes. I can only imagine how tired the ordinary inhabitants of these old towns must be with peeping tourists flocking their streets! I wonder what it is that fascinates us in the old and historic - modern city centers don't usually have the same appeal.
 

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
Hi

Yes Nice, as many other places at the Cote d'Azur is really a gem ...
Have fun at this beautiful island, we enjoyed our stay there ... http://litta5.zenfolio.com/f97766332


Thanks Wolfgang! Yes, you're right. A wonderful area alltogether.

A little clarification is in place. We have already returned home. I'm just a bit behind my processing, as usual! We did enjoy our visit to Corse, so beautiful with wonderful people. A took a peek at your link, very nice indeed. And very familiar places, too! I'll post some pictures later to show where we went.
 

Wolfgang Plattner

Well-known member
... We did enjoy our visit to Corse, so beautiful with wonderful people. ..

Same here, we were really overwhelmed by the island, the ambience and the really outstanding nice and sympathic people we met. As we both speak french, language was not really a problem so we "dived" in by living more or less private but in every case in direct contact to the owners.
... political discussion sometimes grew "difficult" but it was worth "the struggles" anyway. :)))
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Yes. I can only imagine how tired the ordinary inhabitants of these old towns must be with peeping tourists flocking their streets! I wonder what it is that fascinates us in the old and historic - modern city centers don't usually have the same appeal.

I think they know that without the tourists, their local stores, they rely on will be out of business. Keeping up the neighborhood municipal services, like cleaning, road repair, police, the library needs a budget and the folk must know that their taxes alone, won't cover such massive expenses.

That in fact is why lower income places dry up.

Asher
 

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
Same here, we were really overwhelmed by the island, the ambience and the really outstanding nice and sympathic people we met. As we both speak french, language was not really a problem so we "dived" in by living more or less private but in every case in direct contact to the owners.
... political discussion sometimes grew "difficult" but it was worth "the struggles" anyway. :)))

I'm sure French skills would have come very handy :-D We don't speak any French (well, now we do a few words) and carrying a conversation was impossible. All the menus, all the texts at the venues and museums were in French and Corsican only, Italian in some places. Coming from a small country myself, I find the reluctance to learn foreign languages quite odd... But still, we coped and had no trouble what so ever. It's all about the attitude, I guess. And the people were just charming, even with the lack of a common language they appeared to be very friendly.

Politics and Corsica... I can only guess. I saw a lot of various Liberation Movement merhandice at sale around the island. Some of the symbolics needed no interpretation and at times I felt a bit confused, unsafe even...
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
It's fascinating how a spirit of entrepreneurship and civic pride can make a would-be cramped very old location, potential unseriable location into a "must visit" quaint holiday walk and fun area to shop and dine.

Actually, these locations are very nice to live in. They have the advantages of old cities (everything is within walking distance, you don't need a car) and the sanitation of modern cities. It may look a bit cramped, but is a lot nicer than... I don't know, Los Angeles, maybe? ;)

I think they know that without the tourists, their local stores, they rely on will be out of business. Keeping up the neighborhood municipal services, like cleaning, road repair, police, the library needs a budget and the folk must know that their taxes alone, won't cover such massive expenses.

That in fact is why lower income places dry up.

Nice is one of the richest cities in France. Libraries and city museum are free because they don't need the money.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Actually, these locations are very nice to live in. They have the advantages of old cities (everything is within walking distance, you don't need a car) and the sanitation of modern cities. It may look a bit cramped, but is a lot nicer than... I don't know, Los Angeles, maybe? ;)



Nice is one of the richest cities in France. Libraries and city museum are free because they don't need the money.

Thank goodness! Without the wealth the treasures would leave! In the USA, most museums are funded by private charities. It's a great way for business barons to return riches to the community and become "benevolent" and remembered as great and public-spirited exemplary souls.

In France, there seems to be more of a sense of Civic and National pride to fund many more museums directly from government budgets. Here in the USA, funding for the arts from the government is a big political fight!

I am not sure which is a better system but I do appreciate going to museums for free!

Asher
 

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
I think they know that without the tourists, their local stores, they rely on will be out of business. Keeping up the neighborhood municipal services, like cleaning, road repair, police, the library needs a budget and the folk must know that their taxes alone, won't cover such massive expenses.

That in fact is why lower income places dry up.

Asher

That is very much true and you can sense the friendly atmosphere in Nice. Of course the locals are used to visitors from around the world and Nice being a wealthy area there is no income gap between the visitors and locals.
 
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