Nice!

Hannah flew out to Nice from Manchester, today, so I suggested to Abi and the miniMinx that we spend the afternoon in Nice before going to the airport to pick her up.

Thus, after I'd finished work this morning, we drove across into France, parked up at the Promenade des Arts*, and walked in towards the beach. 

However, as we were all hungry, our first stop was at a supermarket to buy a picnic, which we ate on the Prom du Paillon, a green space running between two main roads (see Extra).

To be honest, the walk down to the beach was pretty boring; lots of high end shops, which weren't that interesting. We took a look at the beach, and then made a happy discovery: a network of lanes to the south-east of Boulevard Jean Jaurès, containing loads of interesting little shops, as well as the Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice.

One of the joys of the kids being older is that they don't really need entertaining anymore. And not only are they great company, they're quite happy to come and look around a cathedral!

And by the time we were back to the car, it was pretty much time to go and get Hannah, who was on great form, despite being stopped by security in Manchester airport who were concerned that she was travelling as an unaccompanied minor: "But I'm thirty!"

The journey home was long - the A8 is prone to long queues - but then we had a delightful evening, eating al fresco at the restaurant on the square.

* So, in England, driving to a new city, I'd rarely look up places to park in advance, unless I was looking for one near a hotel. And, even then, I wouldn't look at the reviews. 

Perhaps it's being abroad, maybe it was because I had the kids with me, but not only did I check ahead for parking, I also looked at the reviews. 

Good grief!

The reviews are about fifty-fifty public-spirited car park nerds and people who've had some horrific car park-related experience. I was convinced I'd come back to find the car completely vandalised. (It wasn't and the car park was excellent. Would recommend!)