Airport Tourist Tram Scam – Redux

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Allison Coe

Nice TramwayBack in July, I posted about the new rip-off tourist airport tram ticket (10€ when it only costs 1.70€ a trip for everyone else!) and how to get around it by buying a normal tram card from the machines at the first tram stop outside the airport (Grand Arenas).

The good news is that the word on the workaround has gotten out… but the bad news is, not just to arriving passengers!   The Grand Arenas tram stop is now attracting pickpockets and scammers, often teenage girls, that hone in on tired luggage-laden tourists huddled around a ticket machine.  In accented English, one sweetly offers to help …while her friend is helping herself to your sweets!  Not a great way to start your trip to Nice…

Do you have an Android phone? If yes, you can skip this problem altogether.   Just download the free tickets app from the Google Store, sign up for a virtual rechargeable tram card (saving the 2€ card fee!), and charge your virtual card up with a few trips; you can do all of this from your home country before you leave. Then when you arrive at the airport just get on the tram and wave your phone over the ticket machine to validate your voyage.  Super easy.   But again, this only works with Android, not iPhones (only because iPhones won’t work to validate the trips) and only for 1 ticket at a time, so if you are a couple, you both need an Android phone.

If you only have an iPhone and need to do the Grand Arenas shuffle, just know that the ticket machine looks exactly the same as the airport ones, but offers all the choices instead of just one.  The machine is in multiple languages, easy to use, and takes credit cards (but you are safer to use contactless cards or ApplePay so no one spies your pin code).  While at the machine have your backpack in front, and if you are two people, have one do the machine and the other on pickpocket alert, and beware of friendly strangers!

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Posted in The Seamy Underbelly | Tagged | 2 Comments

Monaco Makes the News (…but not in a good way!)

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Allison Coe

Prince Albert in a Can

Well this is awkward…

Apparently, Monaco’s longtime Palace CFO may have been involved in some shady stuff, and when he was unceremoniously canned, he decided to spill the tea in the splashiest way possible, handing 20 years of hand-written notebooks to a Le Monde reporter, resulting in an embarrassing media tsunami for the tiny Principality and its ruler Prince Albert II.

Airing a swirling laundromat of dirty laundry, the notebooks allege underhanded deals, hidden bank accounts, informants and spies, backstabbing, embezzlement, a secret apartment, and spectacular spending sprees… all while the Palace was (allegedly) employing underpaid undocumented workers as household help… ouch.

The Palace denies everything and the lawsuits are flying, but at the same time an anonymous wiki-leaks-type website, Les Dossiers du Rocher (The Rock Files) has been disseminating a steady drip of damning documents, the ‘receipts’ as it were, including details of impressive gifts and extravagant allowances to a group that includes some surprising members… Princess Charlene is not going to be happy.

There’s some speculation that this super-sized kerfuffle could ultimately bring down Prince Albert’s rule… but most just take it as par for the course for one of the smallest and richest countries in the world, known for their long-standing and well-deserved reputation for the “most scandals per kilometer of any royal family.”

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Do you like Surprises…?

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Allison Coe

If you like to roll the dice, tempt fate, and take your chances, these out-of-the-box happenings in Nice might be for you!

Destock Colis logoBuy a Surprise:  After the mobs that showed up for the flash weekend sale of unopened, undeliverable Amazon packages, a permanent outlet has opened next to Ikea, with a truckload of  mystery packages delivered weekly.  Play retail roulette… you can handle the boxes, shake them, make your guess, then buy for 15€/kilo, with no idea what’s inside…  Destock Colis is open only weekdays, Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm, at 48 ave Simone Veil, with easy tram access on line 3,  just across from the Meridia tram stop on tram line 3, right next to Ikea.

Blind Date:  You are literally blindfolded before being lead to your table for a dining experience you will never forget!  Select your surprise 3-course meal based on your choice of meat, fish or vegetarian, but that’s your only clue.  Tickets are 60€ for this twice-monthly event at Ornato Restaurant 54 blvd Jean Jaures, tram stop Massena.

Dinner Roulette: The newest trend to meet new people is Timeleft, where an algorithm matches up 6 strangers for compatibility.   Already the rage in Lisbon, Paris and Marseilles, the first one in Nice was in January, with 75 people signing up. Fill out the online form before applications close Monday at midnight, then the algorithm works its magic, and Wednesday morning you get an email with which restaurant, and a little about the 5 people with whom you’ve been matched for that evening.  The dinners are held every Wednesday, and the cost is just 13€ plus the cost of the dinner (and even less if you sign up for several).

Mystery Menu:  At Nuances restaurant in the Port there is no printed menu; the 5-courses are a series of surprises as the chef regales you with each unique culinary creation.  5-courses for for 55€, with optional wine-paring package.  15 rue Cassini, tram stop Garibaldi or Port Lympia, closed Sundays.

Zitto logoSecret Speakeasy: The only way to find Zitto Speakeasy Bar in the Port is to apply on their Instagram.  Once accepted they’ll confide the address, tell you how to find the hidden door, and slip you that night’s password.  Open on Thurs/Fri/Sat for more than a year now, and remarkably the hidden location is still a well-kept secret. Continue the game by letting the bow-tied bartender conjure up a mystery cocktail based on your preferences…   And this isn’t the only secret bar in Nice, here are a few more hidden haunts!

See related pages on more Hidden Bars, Nice’s Quirkiest Cafés, unusual Nightlife, and handpicked happenings for January and February.

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Nice Wins the Gold: Hosting the 2030 Winter Olympic Games

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Allison Coe

Olympic Rings at Opening CeremonyIn a shocking upset, Nice just won Olympic Gold!

In a surprise announcement by the IOC, the Nice/French Alps candidature to host the Winter Olympics in 2030 not only made the cut (whew!) …but was the only bid to make the cut, acing out both Sweden and Switzerland.  It’s not official, but since there are no other countries left in the running, barring some giant shake up, in just over 6 years the Alpes-Cote d’Azur will be hosting the Winter Olympics.

The official announcement will come this summer, but in the meantime, you heard it here first!

Nice will host all Olympic Ice Skating events:

  • Olympic Figure SkatersFigure Skating and Speed Skating at a new stadium to be built
  • Ice Hockey at Allianz Riviera Stadium
  • Curling and Short Track Speed Skating at Nikaia Stadium

Nice will also produce the Closing Ceremony (maybe on the Prom?), manage the main Athletes’ Village (to be built near Allianz, which will later pivot to university housing), host the International Broadcast Center (at the MIN) and run the Main Press Center (in the Palais des Congres already under construction in the Port).

Even though Nice has ski resorts just 90 minutes away, the transportation was deemed too complicated, so all the Skiing events, Ski Jumping, and Bob/Luge/Skeleton competitions and Opening Ceremonies will be held higher in the Alps, at Corchevel and Val d’Isere among others.

Nice is no stranger to international sporting events, having just hosted some Rugby World Cup matches this last summer, and the Promenade des Anglais will be the finish line of the Tour de France next July while Paris is tied up with their Summer Olympic preparations, and Nice will also host Olympic Football/Soccer right after.

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi has just pulled off an epic win of Olympic proportions!

Photo credits: Turin Olympics 2006, Vancouver Olympics 2010, and Sochi Olympics 2014 all by Best of Nice

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It’s No Joke: Stand-up Comedy in Nice… in English!

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Allison Coe

Stand up comedy showThe new Bobar Comedy Club in Old Nice is now doing stand-up comedy shows in English!  The new monthly event is called ‘Spill the Tea’ and features an ensemble of English-speaking comics doing back-to-back 10-minute sets for an appreciative anglophone crowd.

I was there last month to test their first foray into English comedy and can report that it was really fun!

Catch the next Spill the Tea this coming Sunday, November 26, and December’s show is scheduled for Sunday, December 17.

Comedians gather on stage at the end of the showThe shows start at 5:30pm, and the cover charge is just 8€ (5€ for students)… so you can treat yourself to live comedy for less than the cost of a movie!   Bobar Comedy Club is at 27 rue Benoit Bunico, tram stop Cathedrale.

For more unusual ideas for things to do in Nice at night check out my newly updated Nightlife page, and also my handpicked monthly event listings for November and December.

And seeing as this is a Sunday event, here are more ideas for things to do on Sundays in Nice, plus Where to Eat in Old Nice on Sundays when many restaurants are closed.

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