It is 9.30PM and still sun has not fully set. I had gone to the beach and 8.30 PM looked like 5 PM in India. This is the first time that i am seeing the day extending for around 15-16 hrs. I am now three days into my stay at Soffie Antiapolis, Nice France. I thought may be i should pen down my experience till now in addition to these long days..
I am staying at Nemea Appart'Hotel at Les Templiers. To reach here from airport on a sunday is a pain.. Here in Nice public transport does not work on sunday. In India we could have ESMA invoked if something like this happen. I reached here by a Taxi. It took right in front of the hotel though this is a remote village sort of environ facing a golf course. This is near the Wipro development center (Did i get it right Wipro of India!! It seems YES :)). The first day i spend waiting to get my keys to the receptionist does not work from 12-4 PM!! And strangely i had company from few Indians who are working for some project here in Nice. They taught me the basics of this place and the transportation.
I took a taxi on day one but now i know i take bus number 1 also called as Ligne (line) in French and this takes you to most of the places in Nice. To reach ETSI from Templiers we need to get down at Albert Einstein stop or Laffitte stop (one before it).. The buses are quite infrequent and i didnt get a single bus from 8.15AM to 8.40PM. It roughly runs every 40 minutes. This is the only bus from Templiers to ETSI route. And bus rate is One euro for 3 hrs and you can get a weekly ticket if you go to the central stand.. you can ride as much as you can!! There is a ligne 100 express which is free of cost and runs every 20 minutes but stops at fewer places. On the return direction from Albert Einstein you have buses at 5.20, 6 etc.
The ligne 1 takes you to the beach as well as Carrefour supermarket in case you want to pick up something to cook at Nemea. Other stops would be Beethoven, in case you are searching for Rohm Haas laboratory, IUP in case you are looking for University of Nice.
Carrefour does not have a large number of Indian items but you can get basmathi rice. You can get some ready to cook pasta. In Nemea they provide a electric stove, coffee maker, microwave, and dish washer as well.. It is for Euro 90-100 per day and i think the more you use the lesser the price is..