This was my first time on the Cote d’Azur. Unfortunately it also was one of these frustrating standards meetings with a schedule that did not allow me any sightseeing, and no time spent out of the hotel and meeting rooms excepting for the social. Well, enough complaining, there are tougher jobs than mine, there is always a next time or so we like to say, and I had the time to take some photos and share them with you.
The campus near the meeting place in Sophia Antipolis is called Les Algorithmes (The Algorithms), it may be the name of a company. Above are the signs at the entry.
Can you imagine that I was a mere 20km from Cannes and that I left the area today, the day the Festival opens? Will I ever live through such an event, I do not know. Anyway, this is the closest I got to the Festival, the evening we traveled to Nice for the meeting social event. The bus I was in turned left.
The social event took place in the Palais de la Mediteranee on the Promenade des Anglais. No, we did not go to the Casino.
Here is a view of the famous Promenade des Anglais by night. Would I sound a little snobbish if I say that I was not extremely impressed? Maybe I need a second visit. Sure I need a second visit.
A closer view of the Le Negresco – one of the famous if not the most famous hotel in Nice. Its name comes from Henri Negrescu, the son of a Romanian Gypsy inn owner and violin player, who came to France at the beginning of the 20th century, started a restaurant in Nice that became that famous that it allowed him to get financing and hire Dutch architect Edouard Niermans to build the hotel that opened 99 years ago. More about the history of the hotel (in French) here.
A brutal 4AM wake-up took me today to the Nice airport for a sunrise time take-off.
Au Revoir, Cote d’Azur!
Fabulous view atop of the Alps before plunging into icy rain at the airport in Zurich.