Leaving London on the afternoon of the 7th of September, I never dreamed that in a few weeks´time, I would be travelling from one place to another non-stop. Boarding the flight to Nice, all I could think about was the last few weeks, which had taken me through a series of truly incredible and wholly unanticipated events. Arriving in Nice, it was nice to be able to take a free tram for just two stops to get to a modern hotel called OKKO. I was a bit shocked to see a homeless and barefoot man lying across some seats in the tram. I could only see his legs from where I was sitting and they were absolutely covered in dark, purplish scratches and ulcers.
Getting off the tram, I felt a bit lost. It was already dark as the freezing cold easyjet flight was delayed leaving from Gatwick, scuppering my plans to arrive in daylight. There were not many people around except for a few who got off the tram with me, but they all quickly disappeared. There were some street lights, but they were quite dim. At least it was quite warm though, I thought, and it was nice to suddenly be back in a place with palm trees. (I´ll tell you more about my many adventures in Mallorca later). I stopped a teenage boy near the bus station to ask him if he might know where the OKKO hotel was. He helpfully tried to look it up on google maps for me, but his phone wasn´t working. Neither was mine, but I´ll tell you all about my iphone nightmares some other time. On seeing me with my big suitcase, a lady who was passing by, kindly stopped and asked me if I was trying to get to the airport and that in that case, I was going the wrong way.
I looked up and tried to see if there might be any signs and then suddenly, somewhere in the distance, I saw a large sign with OKKO written vertically in bright lights on the side of a building. The building itself was not quite visible in the darkness. I had to figure out how to get to where the sign was and decided to take a wild guess. Luckily, I took the right road and got there in about ten minutes, after dragging my big suitcase across the tram tracks.
Unfortunately, on arriving at the entrance of the stylish and modern OKKO, I was presented with a not very modern set of stairs and a non-functioning luggage/wheelchair elevator. Why is this so common in Europe? Stairs at the entrance in 2024 and no ramp? If you have mobility issues, just forget it. I experienced this again at a hotel a few weeks later in Alicante (more about that later). I somehow got the suitcase up the steps and into the main elevator and up to the floor where the reception is located.
After checking in, I decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was very clean, quiet, and modern and the waiter was friendly, but unfortunately, the menu was quite limited. However, I finally settled on Chicken Supreme. Here, I was thinking of the well-known dish that I have always known as Chicken Supreme. But oh no! This chicken supreme had no cream in it and was basically a piece of grilled chicken, no more than 4-5 cm across, in a sort of Japanese sauce with a small amount of salad. It came with a little bit of wild rice, but only because I asked for some sort of carbohydrate to go with it. I must say that it all tasted quite good, but the tiny (and expensive) portions meant that after eating it all, I was still hungry. The young waiter took pity and offered me a free chocolate dessert (as the free chocolate cake had just run out), which was kind of him. It was quite nice and very chocolatey, but tbh, I was still a bit hungry. This was the start of realizing just how expensive eating out in the south of France is. What can I say….unless you are loaded, in the south of France, the supermarket is your friend.
Image credit: okkohotels.com
The OKKO had some nice features that I did appreciate, including a machine to fill up water bottles with drinking water located on each floor and an area near the restaurant with computers for use by guests. They also provide some free healthy snacks and drinks on a counter in the restaurant throughout the day. Interestingly, the hotel seems to have a slightly Japanese influence in both its aesthetic and cuisine.
The next day, the weather changed dramatically and it felt like the universe had conspired to keep me in (which ofcourse it had) so that I could have a day to rest. Heavy rain and then a big storm ensued. I went down to the cafeteria to have a look and then walked out onto the terrace and smelled that nice earthy smell you get after it has rained a lot. Unfortunately, I could not stay long, as a group of Spanish tourists sitting on the terrace chatting, were all chain smoking. Such is the case in so many places… you go outside to get some fresh air, then rush back in having breathed in lungfulls of second-hand smoke. Oh well, I thought, there´s not that much of a view from the terrace anyway, and escaped back inside where I got myself some free snacks and tea. The snacks provided are mainly things like nuts, seeds, rice crackers and so on, but also homemade chocolate cake and other cakes. There was no English breakfast tea or other black tea unfortunately, but I made do with some green tea and told myself that I was being very healthy.
Later that evening, I had dinner at the hotel´s restaurant again, and this time, there was a Spanish couple in their early twenties sitting next to me. They were from a small town near Barcelona and on a three day trip, but their flight back had been cancelled due to the storms and so they had to stay on in Nice for one extra night. They were already feeling homesick and so wanted some Spanish food to cheer themselves up. They took a very long time to order, with the girl getting quite fed up with her partner as he simply could not decide what to have. However, after ordering and finishing their meals, they told me that the gazpacho (a tomato-based Spanish soup served cold) they had ordered was the best gazpacho they had ever tasted! Quite a compliment to the chef I would say!
image credit: google maps
The following day, the rain had cleared up completely and it was a lovely sunny day! A French friend living in Grasse had recommended that I go to a place called Mandelieu-la-Napoule (see to the bottom left of the map above), so I thought, why not, and booked an apartment in a location that I thought was close to the port. It wasn´t, but more about that later…I checked out of the OKKO and headed towards the nearby train station, Nice Saint Augustin. Right next to the hotel, was what seemed to be a specialized high school of some sort with lots of students in their uniforms hanging around.
Arriving at the train station, luckily, there was an elevator to take people up to the station from street level. Once up there, it seemed that there had been some sort of incident and part of the station was cordoned off by police who were gathered in one area. The ticket office was closed for the staff lunchbreak, so you could only get a ticket by purchasing one from one of two ticket machines. Luckily, there was a man standing next to the machines, helping tourists to buy their tickets. I had to take my suitcase up in an elevator and walk across and then an elevator back down to get to the right platform, which was a bit of a pain. However, I was happy that at least there was an elevator, which is unfortunately not the case at all train stations along the Cote d´Azur.
At this point, I discovered that my train would not be arriving for a good fifty minutes. It was quite sunny and warm and the few spots on the platform with shade were already taken, but it was was not unbearable. However, there was a recorded announcement playing literally every five minutes, warning passengers to be vigilant as there are pickpockets operating on the platforms. Listening to that for nearly an hour ended up making the waiting passengers rather suspicious as they silently eyed each other while clutching onto their bags.
I ended up chatting with an Italian guy who was waiting for the same train and was in Nice for the first time to visit his brother. He told me that he owned a pizza restaurant called Retrogusto in Lisbon and asked me to follow it on instagram. It´s a good thing I did, because now I can mention the name of it to you!
Finally, the train arrived and it was quite packed. As I had a huge suitcase with me, I had to stand right next to the doors. The trains going along the coast are handy, but are not very convenient if you have luggage with you, as you have to go up some steps to even enter the actual carriage and there is nowhere to store suitcases. To get to the upper floor of the carriage you have to go up even more steps via a narrow staircase, which is essentially impossible with a large suitcase. So, if you´re planning to travel along the Cote d ´Azur by train, I strongly recommend that you bring only a small case, or even better, just a small bag or backpack and no luggage at all.
In any case, I ended up standing next to a lady from Amsterdam who had her sweet baby girl in a pram and therefore also had to stand by the doors. The baby, who was probably around seven months old, kept us all entertained between stops by squealing and tapping her face with her foot with the ease of an Olympic gymnast. The train stopped at about ten different towns along the coast including Cagnes-sur-Mer, Antibes, and Juan-les-Pins, taking about 25-30 minutes to reach Cannes. In Cannes, I had to change to another train to get to Mandelieu.
Luckily, my train to Mandelieu was in just ten minutes and from the same platform that I had arrived at in Cannes. It took only about five minutes to get to Mandelieu, first stopping at Cannes La Bocca. Arriving at Mandelieu train station, I discovered that I would have to drag my suitcase down some stairs (see the photo above) and then up some more stairs in order to exit the station. That was really not very fun, but there are some intriguing undersea murals and sonar-type, pinging sounds playing in the underpass. It´s to do with the famous novel, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by the French author, Jules Verne (1828-1905), and is designed to make you feel a bit like you are in a submarine. I´ll tell you all about my week in Mandelieu-la-Napoule in my next post!
For daily magic from the universe ✨ 
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