A Nice Silent Night

‘No thanks darling, I’ll stay at home and watch the football with Tan.’ ‘No you won’t – you’re coming to church with me.’

And so on Sunday afternoon I reluctantly drove into Nice to attend the International Baptist Church’s Christmas Carol Concert and, against all the odds, a very nice afternoon/evening it turned out to be.

The Boulevard des Anglais was unusually quiet but the warmish weather meant that there were still quite a few families having late lunch picnics on the beach. The sea was a flat calm and fishermen could be found every five yards looking for those elusive fish – in ten years I have never seen a fish caught out of the sea here!

We managed to park quite easily although expensively (€13 for 5 hours !!) and headed for the church. The Avenue Jean Medecin was buzzing with people shopping, strolling and having coffees in the pavement café’s - the Xmas lights made it a very festive scene. All that was missing was the sprinkling of snow.

A group from J’s church were on the steps of the Basilica of Nice singing their hearts out and entertaining the passing Niceois. Inside, the church filled up with people of all varieties, old, young, French, non-French, tourists and locals alike.

One hour and about a dozen carols later, seven of us headed down into Old Nice to try and find the Socca Shop, that elusive place tucked away in a corner of the old town which sells the delicious chick-pea pancake. We found it relatively easily and sat on the outside benches eating plates of pizza, socca and farcis (stuffed vegetables) – all washed down with copious quantities of rosé wine. It was starting to get cold but we had a great time.

A long stroll back to the centre of Nice took us past the Xmas Fair and the Place Massena (pictured –not very good) which had the most amazing light show and we all agreed that when the French do this sort of thing, they do it incredibly well - unlike my photography.

A coffee was called for and we sat at another outside café looking longingly at the very popular pasta restaurant, the Villa D’Este which had refused us entry because two of our party had only wanted coffees whilst others had fancied a bowl of pasta. Hot pancakes were ordered all round as a sort of compromise whilst the Turkish waiter quizzed me on Scottish football in general and my team, Glasgow Rangers in particular – it’s a small world!

It was decided that I’d had too much of the old vino to navigate the jeep through the streets of Nice so J took on that responsibility and drove us home which was exciting and worrying in equal measures. A fitting end to what had been a great afternoon out.