A visit at Cimiez to say goodbye
Yesterday, I had time for myself as S decided not to come to the beach, P and J were out and about, Kuya R was stuck in Monaco. I’m sort of grateful to have that time alone. I needed it.
After my lunch and siesta, I organized a big chunk of my stuff before deciding to head out. I first exchanged 300 EUR in Travalex in preparation for my trip to Lithuania, anticipating some expenses and the delay of my stipend. Then, I headed to Monoprix in search of a replacement gel sunscreen. That took me a while because there were a few selection of very small volume and of the two, one was for the face. Then, just when I was about to make it to my next item on my grocery list, I stumbled upon Garnier’s aqua UV spray thing! I bought a travel sized shaved and then it was a hunt for new sunglasses. My sunnies finally gave up when we were in the Asian buffet so I went through the entire Friday without sunglasses. It was not the end of the world but it felt a bit uncomfortable.
I went inside Nice Étoile as I was feeling hot. I managed to grab a cute pair [of sunglasses] from C&A for 6 EUR. Then it was off for the search for the Approche Intégrée book (again) but to no avail. I went around La Sorbonne bookshop in hopes to find some games suggested from today’s training session but decided not to as I thought I probably can make them myself.
I went to search for the bus stop to Cimiez. The nearest bus stop said “arrêt non desservi” (stop not catered) so I had to look for the temporary bus stop. A Maghrebine helped me out as she was also looking for the same bus stop albeit her taking ligne 4 while I was for ligne 17.
We chatted a bit just before our buses came. 20 minutes later, I was back in Cimiez !
I went down the Arènes-Cimiez stop and entered through the Roman ruins, past the pétanque fields, to the monastery and there it was : my favorite garden of all time. It felt so familiar, so reassuring. I was nostalgic of course. I went around, took some snaps just before I settled on a bench downstairs near the French (or is it English) gardens where I read a few pages from my book and meditated for a little bit.
An hour before the garden closes at 8pm, I decided to head out because I still had quite a bit to pack. I couldn’t find my bus on the bus stop Google Maps indicated. When I (illegaly) crossed the street, I asked a girl who went past the stop and she showed me to where I can get a bus to Valrose. She spoke… French but there was something odd about it; as if she had an accent and as if it wasn’t her first language. Yet I chose to brush it off as it might be from some bourgeois accent I am certainly not familiar with.
Well, I was right all along. She is from Moldova, studying in Rennes and visiting her parents who live in Cimiez.
She showed me the bus that stop just a few meters from my dorm. I crossed the street and bought my sandwich for dinner in LeaderPrice. There, the shop owner recognized me and we shared some pleasantries and I said goodbye for good.
I went back to my dorm to have my dinner, pack my stuff, wash up and finally lay my body to sleep. I couldn’t believe it was my last day in France...again. I’ve said goodbye to France a lot of times, why is it still so heartbreaking to do so? Two weeks went by so slow and so fast, I don’t know what to make of it.
NICE, THE THIRD TIME AROUND
The second and last time I was in Nice was in August of 2015. Since then, I have not thought nor planned about going back anytime soon. So when I was granted a free two-week training in Nice in summer of 2019, I grabbed the opportunity right away. I was hesitant at first because my plans (not to mention budget allocation) was set entirely for one month in Lithuania. Even with a generous scholarship, going to both France and Lithuania for summer would mean going beyond the budget. Fortunately, certain circumstances made it possible. And so I was off to France for two weeks before I left for Lithuania for a month.
This entry is an excerpt of a one-week-and-a-half-worth of notes I managed to document at the end of every day.
