Travel Tips

EasypeasyJet new slipper class, suspended on piano wires, brings Mr and Mrs NiceLife into Nice . Life as a sixties cult TV series.

As the sun sets, the gin and tonic rises, and Sir Elton can sit back and enjoy his view of NiceLife sitting back on his balcony, enjoying his view of him. Lets be clear: I don't like Eltons music. "I'm still standing - after all these years- " has a certain resonance. What I do admire is Eltons's talent at spending money. He spends with style. Unlike rock skinflits like Paul McCartney ("$1000m: taking it with you, Paul?"), or say Rod Stewart (described by a close friend as "tight as two coats of paint"). Another thing we can be grateful for, Elton won't be a new dad at 60 ("definitely not" says partner David Furnish, blushing coyly.). That's a relief !

Lowcost airlines have transformed the way we live. Bye bye the annual fortnight holiday, hello the " I live in France AND England", the best of both worlds.

250 days of sunshine a year, a full ten degrees warmer than London, and only an hour and a half in the air courtesy of EasyJet. Plus beautiful food, culture and people.

OK France is a bit hit and miss. Strikes, social unrest (riots), erratic availability - closed for lunch, closed for holidays, closed for no particular reason ("merci pour votre comprehension"), labrynthine bureaucracy, lazy public servants, bolshie trade unions and dreadful television full of dubbed American crime series. Then there's the doggie poo... don't get me started.

Brits and Americans used to 24/7 availability and consumerism can fume, but France is different. Not necessarily better, just different. Different, as in less litter and graffiti, polite children, less political correctness, better food, better fashion, better weather, cheap public transport, better education, better healthcare, better life. (Didn't they do well?! )

Plus belle la vie.

View of home, Nice Centre from the Chateau.

The great thing about the centre is that you are just two steps from everywhere, be it beach, bus or train. Around the corner is flagship supermarket Monoprix if you run out of loo-roll, and the Galleries Lafayette if you run out of style.

It is possible to live in the centre of this city - the big business offices that dominate most city centres are way out of town. Everywhere the ground floor are shopfronts, whilst levels one to six are apartments. The top floor - dernier etage - is the one that holds the covetted views out over terracotta roofs over the city out to the hills or the sea and sun.

And everything looks better against an azur blue sky.

Alas no doric columns, Tiepolo ceiling or infinity pool here, just a modest studio in central Nice. But its got animal prints! How clever of nature to create such a perfect pattern. And in contemporary monochrome too. The studio's gone to the zoo with zebra stripes.

This is the ops room, Mission Control, where that crucial question is answered: "where do we want to go today?" and plans drawn up to boldly snoop where few have snooped as boldly before. I see a map of the Rivera spread out on the table, with two armchair Generals plotting their next sortie:

General NiceLife: "If we can hold our position for just a few hours, advancing down the coast by sea from the Port, we should be able to take St Tropez by lunchtime"

Mrs NiceLife: "That'll be nice dear"

Meanwhile...
The cd player soothes with global sounds - Cesaria Evora, Caetano Veloso, Bebel Gilberto, Madredeus, Yousou n'Dour, Omara Portuondo, Ozomatli, Bonga, Faudel, Cheb Mami, Saoud Massi, Orishas, Sergent Garcia, Yann Tiersen, Noir Desir... anything EXCEPT Rap, Reggae, R&B, or Rock. : - no transatlantic angry young man stuff thanks, just the rhythm of the world.

Update 2008: selections linked to YouTube videos!

Hey Nicelife - this is France! What about something a little more French, eh?

Well you can forget Johnny Halliday's 30,000 greatest hits, or 1001 things to do with an accordion (apart from play it.)

Chanson Francaise. Voices with passion, outstanding songs, tunes that go round in your head for weeks and weeks, all in French. Try and Florent 's "Chanter" Try Natasha St Pierre and Pascal Obispo's rocky Mourir Demain", Try Zazie , or the quirky " M ". I can recommend Chanson Francais, a remedy for tired ears. Yann Tiersen's Amelie offers hypnotic inspirational soundscapes. Patrick Fiori hitting his best form ever, Gerard de Palmas - masterful tuneful cool. PaulineCroze, voice and tunes that made me give up listening to anything else. Play it till the light shines through the CD, then buy another and play it some more.

2006: It never stops! Tina Arena - Australian chanteuse first all-french album: verdict FABULOUS. Nolwen Leroy's Histoire Naturelle - mentored by Laurent Vouzey TOTALLY FABULOUS, Gregory Lemarchal - star academy winner sadly died so young, but shared with us the voice of an angel.

2007 New artists abound. First, the musical "Roi de Soleil" - brilliant songs to last a lifetime, discover Christophe Mae and Emanuelle Moire with their own albums. Christophe Willem, geek-style with a voice like few other.

The Antilles-scene offers the sinuous voice and songs of Perle Lama and the outstanding find Soha rarely off my cd player

2008: The fearless hiphop satire of Michael Youn's Fatal Bazooka hits number one with "Parle a ma main" feat Yelle. Hilarious

Revival: the towering giant of French pop Michael Polnareff with Goodbye Marylou, a song that hits falsetto notes you never knew existed. What a man.

Nicelife on his soapbox.
Move forward not back. Ditch the stuff you grew up with and what the record industry wants to sell you. Forget only buying records if they are in your own language, or what your friends are buying. Your ears are your own, and have a thousand adventures ahead of them. You have the whole world to gain.

Ceaselessly awe-inspiring, the ambiance of Nice by night, and the hills back towards the airport and Cap d'Antibes beyond glowing in the dark.

I've stood on the viewing stage at night of the John Hancock and the Sears in Chicago, tongue-tied. There is beauty in the solely man-made urban landscape, but the siting of Nice between the sea and the mountans - a vibrant city at peace with its priviledged natural landscape, is still something special.

Just enough room to sit , watch the sun rise or set. or just watch the cactus grow.

In the distance the sound of the occasional klaxon horn as the emergency services accelerate through the city centre, and the everpresent whirring of air-conditioning units.

At dusk the Chateau begins to light up. Seagulls float by in ghostly silence, underlit by city lights. On the horizon, flocks of birds can be seen heading south for the winter.

On the way to the Promenade des Anglais I chanced on these two keyrings. Symbolically side by side, each a beach shoe attached. Found accidentally amidst tourist trivia, the course of Love, Life and Destiny. My rock.

The shopkeeper, seeing my camera, waved his hands to obstruct my view. "Non"! Too late. You don't obstruct the course of destiny with the wave of a hand!

My attempt over recent years to create a lush Mediterranean Jardin Exotique in London.

Yuccas, Cordylines and palms blended with Phormium and bamboo on a tiered site, which culminates in a paved circle, and table for two, offset with a grecian urn. And a $50 a week bill on slug pellets.

The flight path to London Heathrow affords a steady stream of planes high above in the sky, coming and going to and fro exotic destinations.

You can smell travel in the air.