After a few weeks in Nice the winter weather arrived in southern France. At least along the coast we were protected from the winds by the surrounding hills, the Esterel mountains to the west, and the north-western barrier of the Marcantour Alps.
Cradoc and I came to Nice to see if the city would work as one of our home bases. We spent two fun days there in 1990, but hadn’t been back to Europe since 2001 when we spent the summer in Paris.
We rented the apartment in Nice from an American. It came with all the creature comforts Americans were used to; a comfy bed, fast internet, good lighting, decent frig. And most importantly good heat. I remembered the winter we spent in Spain in 1991. I was always cold. Cradoc and I huddled in the bed under a pile of blankets. A propane heater blasted in the corner. When the room was warm enough we turned it off so we wouldn’t die in the night from fumes. We couldn’t open the door again or we lost all the heat. It really didn’t matter anyway because within an hour the room froze again. We walked around the apartment with hat, scarf and coats on. Some things were priceless, and being warm on cold days was one of them.
Located six blocks to the beach we were out of the main rush of the city. A good thing since Nice, the fifth largest city in France with the second busiest airport, was more hectic than I remembered. A beautiful city that curved around the Bay of Angels on the Mediterranean Sea, it turned out Nice’s reputation as a glamorous playground for the rich and famous had been replaced by its reputation as the Pickpocket Capital of the World. Also, in the year 2000 Nice was voted the champion of purse snatching from motor scooters. Champion of the world, with over 2,500 snatched purse in one year (mostly in summer).
Anytime we walked along the Promenade des Anglais we couldn’t enjoy the views of the water because we were stalked by seedy looking characters. They didn’t seem to care we were on to them, even when we yelled at them to get lost. There weren’t many police around and from what the locals said they wouldn’t be much help anyway, especially at night.
Nice was a gritty city past its prime and probably had been for many years. Or maybe it always was gritty. Unhappy stressed looking people chain smoked everywhere. Dog poop covered the sidewalks. There was rude customer service (at best) in every shop and restaurant. Everything was expensive with the bad exchange rate. The Europeans I spoke with said since the euro replaced the franc as legal tender in 2002, everything was more expensive for them also.
Since the EU was now in full swing it wasn’t so easy to disappear into the wood work any longer. The rules were much stricter about how long a non-resident could stay in Europe. The Schengen visa, fully implemented in 1999, broke down the EU’s borders and enabled EU member state residents to travel without a passport inside the euro zone. Americans could stay in Europe for three months, leave the Schengen zone for three months and then come back for another three months. If we made the mistake of staying just one day over this six month time allowance we’d be liable for French tax, a very expensive mistake.
Cultural Misunderstandings
At the supermarket the other day I thought I could fit all my purchases into the one bag I brought with me, but it was going to be a tight fit. I started to reach for the pile of plastic bags the cashier had out. She’d used these bags to pack up the elderly ladies’ groceries who checked out before me. Before my hand was three inches from my body she swooped down and put the whole pile under the counter. I wasn’t sure who got those bags and why she wouldn’t give me one. I stuffed all my groceries into my bag and left confused – and a bit pissed.
On another shopping adventure Cradoc reached for a brown paper bag hanging on a hook above the cashier. The cashier grabbed it from him and put it back on the hook. She didn’t bother to explain why he couldn’t have it (or buy it?). I had told him it looked like everyone took the bag from the hook from the front of the cashier line and the one he took must’ve been the display bag.
So the next day he went back to the same supermarket and took a brown paper bag from the front of the cashier line. It said, “Sac gratuit réutilisable pour vos produits surgelés.” Knowing that “gratuit” meant “free” he was surprised when the cashier yelled at him in bullet fast French. His mind went completely blank and he didn’t understand what she was saying, or how to respond. He thought she and another cashier were saying something about 10 Euros and he assumed he had to spend that much to get a free bag. Then the cashier saw his frozen fish and said “Oh, ca va.” He thought the fish put his purchase over 10 Euros and he left with the groceries in his free bag.
When he came home I translated what was written on the bag. It said, “Free reusable bag for your frozen products.” This was a big paper bag with handles like you get at every grocery store in the U.S.. Not an insulated one to keep your frozen products cold. But because he had the frozen fish he was eligible to get the bag. The day the cashier grabbed back the bag, he had no frozen items.
The bag drama continued. We went to a different supermarket yesterday morning, armed with plenty of our own bags. We were ready. Then as Cradoc reached down to put the groceries into our bags the cashier yelled at him. He backed off from the groceries and luckily his brain didn’t fail him this time. He realized she wanted to look into his backpack to see if he stole anything from the supermarket. Happy to have understood her, he showed her his empty backpack. The cashier dismissed him with a wave of her hand.
Today at the market a French woman picked up a bag from the front of the counter and set it with her groceries, which didn’t include any frozen items. The cashier rang up 10 centimes and handed her the bag.
Part of the bag mystery was solved by reading an email from the woman we were renting the apartment from: “SHOPPING BAGS!! IMPORTANT: As of this past Monday, Nice has stopped handing out recyclable plastic bags in grocery (and other) stores. This means everyone is responsible for bringing their own bags to the store to carry their purchased items. The stores do sell heavy-duty plastic bags with handles for between 30 – 85 centimes, so you are never stuck without a bag. The slogan is, “On remplace jettable pour durable” — “We’re exchanging throw-away for long-lasting.” This sounds like a Chinese slogan, but bless them for getting the plastic out of the landfills.”
