Nice diary

• Lufthansa flight from Bangalore to Frankfurt over-booked. Free upgrade to business class for me!


• They had given me the normal economy class boarding pass at check-in, and switched the ticket during boarding and told me there is a seat change. I told the guy I had asked for an aisle seat and now they were giving me a window seat. He replied that it was a business class upgrade; do I want to decline it? I grabbed the ticket and fled before he could say anything else. The unrestricted view from the business class window seat was amazing. And free champagne – unfortunately I don’t drink.


• French are obsessive about their bread, water and wine


• Extremely lucky to have a great bunch of colleagues in Nice, they ensured that I visited a new place every evening, ate at a different restaurant every night and guided me so that I could visit maximum places in and around Nice


• Two Lamborghinis and a red Ferrari parked outside the Carlton in Cannes. All with Saudi number plates. Apparently, the oil rich sheiks like to bring their cars along on vacation


• Out clubbing almost ever night and back to the hotel not before 3 AM. Up again at 7 AM for work (in theory, at least)


• Visited two Salsa clubs in Nice – WOW! Danced Salsa with a French mademoiselle, she said “Merci” or “Mercy” at the end of the dance, not sure which was it


• Salsa dancers in Nice club (Barrio’s) were amazing. Especially the ladies. They would do multiple turns in a couple of basics effortlessly


• French dance Salsa with closed hold. I learnt it with open hold. System incompatibility!


• Dinner in France is longer than an Indian marriage – start at 8 PM, finish at 11 PM. Every day!


• The French Riviera coast is simply too beautiful. The train ride from Saint Laurent du Var to Vintimillie is absolutely breathtaking


• Paris metro is too good. I took a 3 day pass and would have taken around 50 metro rides in 3 days


• Paris is too crowded during summer – average waiting time at Eiffel was half an hour for a ticket. So I walked up till second stage since the queue for that was smaller


• Stupid people standing in front of priceless paintings at Muses Louvre & Musee d’Orsay and having their pictures taken while showing a “V” sign!


• Bought books for close to 100 Euros – one from every museum in Paris


• Liked Musee d’Orsay better than Musee Louvre


• Went to Italy to have ice-cream (apparently, they make the best ice-cream). There they call it gelato. It’s glace in French


• Pizza in France is amazing. Couldn’t have it from Italy because of lack of time. Only thin crust pizza available. Apparently thick crust & stuffed crust are Pizza Hut innovations


• Saw many people play “Petanque” – a French ball game played with steel balls which is kind of similar to the game of marbles played in India.


• Rs 150 for half a liter of water!


• Ate scorpion fish. Remember reading somewhere that they are poisonous… But survived nevertheless


• If you are vegetarian and you see “Fruits de la Mer” on a French menu under Pizza – it means “Fruits of the sea”. A Pizza with clams & oysters & shrimp as topping


• Very few American or Japanese cars on road. Most cars are French or German