Today, Nice parties for France
150 years ago, Nice chose France. Well, at least that’s what all the posters say–but really, the territory that has switched hands between Italy and France countless times in its history was ceded to France as a territorial reward for French assistance in the Second Italian War of Independence against Austria.
Regardless of the shady political circumstances, Nice is now French–albeit with plenty of Italian influence. To celebrate, Nice put on four days of festivities. While I wasn’t able to attend all of the free events because of work, I was very impressed by the ones that I did catch. I missed the open-air classical music concert, the creation of an enormous bell in the middle of the city, and part of the air show over the sea. Luckily, Nice has videos of all the events available to check out.
On Saturday, there was an open-air demonstration of Nice’s top chefs—complete with 9,000 free samples. While I snagged sushi à la Niçoise—complete with sundried tomatoes, pesto and pine nuts—I spotted giant prawns, fruit tarts and sorbets.
I still can’t believe that so much food was given away for free—and without any sort of line or organization system (similar to the open-air barbecue in Paris a few weeks ago). In America, I can already picture the lawsuits: someone else had two samples while I only had one! The food wasn’t kept at exactly such-and-such temperature while it was prepared! And in true capitalistic spirit, I’m pretty any American city would have charged a fortune just to enter the event, and even more for each tasting.
The grand finale was a fireworks show over the Mediterrean on Monday night. After grabbing dinner and drinks, my friend and I headed down to the beach for the show. It was fun to see a huge exodus from Old Town toward the beach as soon as the first fireworks could be heard. The Promenade des Anglais (the pedestrian walkway and road lining the beach) was full of people, but it wasn’t overly crowded and the vibe was positive. The fireworks were spectacular, but I was more amused with the music choice. Lady Gaga and explicit American rap blared from speakers along the beach.
Not a bad way to celebrate a city’s anniversary. Cheers to Nice!
