Nice Transportation Tips by NiceLife

'Mode': TO
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Arriving by private super-yacht? Being the size of a four storey apartment building, boats this big require special berths, so you will need to book in advance if you are arriving in a 500 foot long yatch.

Seen here in the Port of Nice at the end of August is Roman Abramovich's yacht Pelorus arriving to watch the Liverpool - CSKA Moscow match in Monaco. Its the biggest of his four yatchs and fifth largest in the world. His three other yachts - Le Grand Bleu, Sussurro and Ecstasea are moored regularly in Antibes International Yacht Club.

Be prepared to lose all sense of scale when you face one of these beasts. There's "big" There's "very big". Then suddenly something like Pelorus comes along, breaking all the rules about how big things are supposed to be.

For the rest of us, please see remaining tips about how to master public transport on the Riviera, starting with arrival at Nice airport..

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'Mode': TO
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Heading for Nice? From Terminal one or two, take the airport bus to town. Half-hourly Service 98 will take you to the bus station Nice Gare Routiere via the Promenade, with stops along the way for all the main hotels. Service 99 as an alternative also runs every half hour and will take you partway along the Prom and then up to the Railway station Nice Gare SNCF. Between the two routes, there is usually less than fifteen minutes gap for one or the other.

In season the 98 Gare Routier bus runs up until about 11.30 pm whilst the last 99 bus for the railway station finishes as early as 9pm. At 4 euro one way there is simply no excuse for taking the lazy way by notoriously expensive taxi to town (typical fares)

Total cheapskates can cut the airport-Nice travel bill to a miserly one euro by catching the regular 23 route public bus service which runs between Terminal 1 and St Maurice (northern suburb, via Gare SNCF) , and use the free Navettes to toggle between T1 and T2. However the public bus has nowhere to stow luggage.

Returning to the airport, the lovely new Voie Rapide expressway serves the railway-station to airport bus, which is the line of choice. Allow 20 -25 minutes and you will almost certainly be fine, but I have experienced "snarl-ups" when an accident occurs on the expressway and traffic is re-routed through the airport causing major jams. A recent trip took closer to an hour, so leave a good margin for the unknown. Better that than missing a flight.

If you still hanker for convenience and money is not such a problem there is an excellent Airport Transfer Service which you can pre-book on line at A-T-S

For all the bus timetables consult the airport bus connections

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: It's always helpful to support your communications with bus drivers and ticket clerks to be clear about what you are asking for. For a start, show some respect - don't launch into English assuming they will understand. Its just a job to them, you are in France and the language is French..

If you want two tickets to town, then of course its "deux billets", but if your french pronounciation is a bit ropey, people will reinforce the message by hand signalling "two".

In some cultures like English, "two" is signalled by a "V-sign" - index and second finger. Remember that the V-sign has enormous significance in old English/ Norman French history, circa 1066. Bows and arrows were a big thing, King Harold having taken one in the eye. It was reputedly a taunt by English archers aimed at their French enemies, indicating their undiminished prowess with the bow and arrow (captured bowmen would have their string-drawing fingers amputated).

Anglosaxon "one" is indicated by the index finger alone, as in "I suggest you consult your proctologist" Recipe for miscommunication.

In France, "one" is signalled by the thumb, and "two" by the thumb and index finger together. For "three" add the second finger, and so on. You'll quickly find it works a treat and you get the right number every time.

But as for the difference in pronunciation, in French, between "Cannes" and "Cagnes", you are on your own! Even the French have difficulty with that one.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Payment ettiquette on French public transport works like this (say, its the airport bus and its a four euro flat fare) :

GOOD ETTIQUETTE

If you tender four one Euro coins or two two's, he will love you, and give a cheery "merci!" or "parfait!!". You understand his needs and have been considerate.

If you offer a five euro bill or a ten euro bill: dishing change is easy - one euro or a five bill and a one coin, so no bother. Smile.

POOR ETTIQUETTE

If you tender the exact amount in a large number of small coins (l'argent") the driver (thats what he is basically) has to count through it all to make sure its right. Paper cups of small change is what beggars collect. "Thats, one plus five is six, and ten is sixteen, twenty six, twenty eight, thirty three........"This guy didnt do well in math, thats why he's driving a bus. Scowl.

Offering a twenty note: beginning to get irritating. All that careful balance of change he has to manage is going awry - you flash a twenty in his face (as they come out the cash machines) , he has to scrabble around with fives, tens and ones.

BAD ETTIQUETTE

Offer a fifty note: what are you, a drug dealer?

Offer a one hundred or two hundred note: call the cops - only people carrying these are gangsters, money launderers or forgers.

Offer an international credit card - what do you think - does this look like Galeries Lafayette? Get off the bus, go to a cash machine, and get some money out, damn tourist!

MORAL

Somewhere is a new novel struggling to be written in all this. The cash transaction is the crossroads between French Social Model (you shouldn't have to pay, everything should be free, from the State") and the hated Anglo-saxon economic model - efficiency, consumer-power, choice and hence job "precarite" .

Most bus drivers belong to the communist CGT union. Think about it.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: A raft of warnings that spot- fines have been upped for improper use of bus tickets. They do have inspectors and I have seen people thrown off the bus for ticket infractions. A few simple rules will help avoid any unpleasant suprises.

1. Fines for travelling without a ticket. In London you can travel more or less for free on the bendy buses because there is little inspection so the system virtually invites you not to pay, but not here. You are expected to pay for a ticket - its incredibly cheap - pay the driver

2. Fines for overstaying your destination. Not a good idea.

3. Fines for having an out of date ticket. Not a good idea.

4. Fines for failing to validate your ticket. Because you can make further connecting bus journeys free within 74 minutes, provided it does not constitute a return journey, the system depends on date and time stamping of tickets by popping them in the little machine by the bus entrance.

Its not often that inspectors board but it does happen and the French are very keen on fines on the spot.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: Forget the glamorous 180mph prestige TGV high speed trains from Paris. The basic French Railways are dreadful, run for the convenience of their employees , who when not out on strike, are out to lunch. Be wary of the long break in their schedules at lunch times that can leave you cooling your heels at a station for an hour or two.

If a train arrives packed with people don't assume that anyone will make room to let you get on. You can be confronted at the carriage doors by a wall of passengers who have absolutely no intention of being inconvenienced by moving up to let you on. Appeals to "move up" will fall on deaf ears. The only recourse is to physically elbow your way in. They won't like it, but so what?

The late night schedule can stop early so check the times of the last trains very carefully. Better still, if you can avoid it don't travel on late evening trains on the Cannes La Bocca / Marseilles direction - the service does not have a good record on personal safety.

Buying tickets has a whole lot of issues of its own. See my warnings/ dangers tips on how the avoid the worst of it.

Don't think about freeloading. Though they are run inefficiently, the French railways are quite ruthless about on the spot fines. Oh and the toilets - Nice Railway station's are just awful - just don't go there! On board the trains, they are a mixed blessing.

I hope I am not giving you the wrong impression of French railways - in normal daytime services, provided you are savvy about the things too avoid, the service is fairly acceptable. Its just once you stray out of that window, be prepared for things to go downhill, fast.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: These blue machines are generally the only way to avoid the apalling long and slow queues at Nice Ville Gare SNCF ticket windows. The queue at the ticket windows can be 15 minutes, and is the choice of people who have problems and a dozen questions to ask to plan their journey. On some of the unmanned stations along the Riviera, they are the only way to buy a ticket. So mastering these machines is your key to the universe.

Its not difficult. Firstly, as regards payment, the machine don't take notes - only coins and plastic. So all those 20 and 50 euro notes are going to be no use to you whatsoever. But the amount of coins you will need is not trivial. Billetiere machines now accept chipped Visa and Mastercard credit cards and this is the way to go. Avoid using precious debit cards as there is always a small risk of malfunction, which on holiday is one risk you don't need!

The ticket part is straight forward and logical. A wheel scrolls to highlight your choices on the screen, and the button selects them. You want the "Other tickets" - not various special tickets for locals - travel either today or in the future (up to 60 days), your destination station, second class, adult, one way or return, the number of passengers, no receipt required, in with the card, punch in PIN, collect printed ticket, retrieve card. Job Done.

Advice: Allow time for tourists in front of you who have not read this advice fumbling around to understand how the machines work. And don't go off to the newspaper shop to beg for change - they are not a change machine, and even the "innocent" ruse of buying a trivial item and offering a twenty euro note is likely to be snubbed. For them it happens every five minutes

As an alternative, French rail tickets can be purchased in advance, so you would be well advised to buy whatever tickets you need at a time when the station is not busy, and avoid all the hassle totally. Just turn up ticket in hand, validate (date stamp machines - most important!), and go.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: Nice Gare Ville SNCF , information section, reservations and bookings.

(Cue music). " You are about to enter The Twighlight Zone , the space between light and shade, between today and tomorrow, the French National Railways. Anything can happen in the next thirty minutes." And if you're very lucky, something might...

Look around you: thirty seats, thirty or so forlorn lost souls in Limbo, waiting silently for service, the undead, waiting for their number to come up. The clock ticks by. The number 103 blinks impassively in red neon on the display. No-one seems to be being served. You look at your ticket: 136. Number 103 left long ago, in despair. After a minute, 104 lights up. Two window lights go out as the five desks manned drop to three as staff go for their tea break. An old lady comes forward clutching ticket 104, a litany of problems follow that will occupy one desk for the next ten minutes.

There are ticket numbers displayed above the windows, but no ticket roll to get a number, as you'd find in any supermarket. How do you get a number to join the queue?. You must queue at the information desk. Nothing tells you that. But if you ask, the young man will solemnly issue with a ticket number. Now join the undead, sit, and wait.

They tell you you must allow at least twenty minutes to make a reservation. It took nearly forty minutes to come round to my number. Many times a number came up and the ticket holder had long since given up and left. A minute passes, and rollover, the next number, to the indifference of the staff. Good job I was in no hurry, I wanted to book the following days travel through Italy, for which "reservation obligatoire". I emerged forty minutes later clutching my booking, for some reason, feeling strangely grateful.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: The French railway system will put every single imaginable obstacle in your path to buying a ticket. But don't think that will excuse you when the inspectors move through the train.

In some countries, a kindly gent looks to see if you are holding something that looks vaguely like it might be a ticket, or lets you buy one one from him. These guys travel in threes, and are recruited from men thrown out of the French Foreign Legion for being "too hard".

They will read the smallest of small print religiously, check the date and destination, the validation stamp you must apply to the ticket before boarding. If there is the slightest infraction, or you don't hold a ticket, you're in deep doo doo. The pens come out, forms in triplicate are solemnly completed, the spot fines up to 100 euro can be demanded in addition to the correct ticket price.Resistance is useless, or its off at the next stop accompanied to the police station.

Sitting in a first class compartment with a second class ticket is heavily frowned on. Mumbling something in Swedish that sounds like an apology might, just might allow you to move without paying up for the upgrade.

TGV seats are all only by reservation, and that is what you have to have to board a TGV, even if the train is self evidently empty, having completed the bulk of its journey from Lille or Paris. There are fines for ocupying a seat without reservation, though you can book a reservation if you have 20 minutes to spare at the station. Boarding a TGV without a reservation is common, I've done it myself, but the smart thing to do is stand in the corridor or around the boarding entrance - so you are not actually seated.

They hire very clever people to run the railways. Unfortunately they never had a Margaret Thatcher to sort out the unions. Any whiff of reform and its out on strike, to which the government's response is to cave in immediately. Welcome to France.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: People often ask if its possible to catch a train to/ from the airport, and the answer is "yes, but"

The main railway line between Nice and Cannes has a stop "Nice, St Augustin" ( Bd. Edouard Grinda) which is officially the airport stop. However its near the airport, not at the airport, and not very near at that. Experienced local travellers use it because it avoids the risk of traffic snarl ups that occasionally happen, and they know the route to Terminal one via subways, road crossings and around the large Arenas office blocks.

From Terminal 1 :

- Exit at arrivals, Gate A1.
- Cross along the pedestrian way towards "Arénas", under the RN98 bridge (Passage de la Caravelle).
- Cross Av. Lindbergh and turn left (Lycée hôtelier Paul Augier).
- Turn right (Bd. René Cassin), to the traffic light.
- Cross to the left, under the SNCF railway bridge (Route de Grenoble), then turn right (Av. Edouard Grinda).

Its a very small station frequently deserted and often unstaffed - tickets only from machines - about a half mile 15 minute walk , as long as you don't get lost - the signposting is non-existent. If your flight is Terminal Two, you can shuttle between T1 and T2, but the extra hassle means its not a good way to reach Terminal 2 - not a practical journey on foot.

Also you must ensure your train is of the stopping at all stations when going to the airprt this way - not all trains out of Nice and Cannes stop at St Augustin.

That said, its not too difficult a connection provided you know what to expect

UPDATE: June 2008: The local Lignes d'Azur stopping bus route 23 ( early am until around 21:00, every ten or so minutes) from Terminal One to Nice SNCF (and beyond) has added a stop for Nice St Augustin. brings you within 50 yards of the Nice-bound platform.

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