Thursday evening
The landing in Nice was the most beautiful landing ever. Water, very beautiful water, as can be seen in some pictures below, and chunks of land surrounded by water, created a very beautiful view just around dusk. There were many yachts ‘parked’ in the sea as well. Another peculiar observation from top was many (Olympic size?) swimming pools, most likely personal, with clear blue water.
Anurag, Praveen’s friend, landed ½ hr after me. Since it was already late evening, we drove back to Praveen’s apartment in Vallauris. In the after-dinner discussions, I discovered that Anurag is a big time book reader (he has just finished his PhD from University of Berkeley and is returning to India to be an Assistant Professor in IIT-Kanpur). Starting from discussions over the recent CERN LHC experiments, the topic changed into science and spirituality. Anurag made a very good clarification to me during this discussion.
I said that the difference in science and spirituality is that in science, there is a basis on which you build upon something, whereas spirituality is really like throwing your cord to an anchor that does not exist (difficult to explain, but basically in spirituality, you go without really knowing where you are going; you have to depend on something inside that is as perceptible as ether). Anurag said that the same is the case with science and while science proves things by practical measurements and so on, it is nevertheless based on axioms and a real scientist accepts that he does not know beyond a certain point and sometimes does things without really knowing what to expect. He added that most people believe in science and do not really know science, and that is quite correct. I would like to consider this as ‘belief on scientists’ intelligence’ than actually knowing science. Later, I drew a parallel between people who believe in God because they have been told so and between people who explore the existence of God. An analogy could clearly be drawn here between science and spirituality.
(Coincidentally, I started reading Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik in the flight and that deals very well with concepts of science vs. spirituality.)
I also discovered that Anurag’s reading style is very different (tending to unique). For him, he says, the books are his companions and not merely source of knowledge or entertainment. For him, books are tools for self and spiritual evolution. I still maintain that books can only take us to certain extent, but I also know from experience that without imparting the understanding, a book can impart/transmit its content if you are in the right receiving state. In this way, a book can also bring one to the level of the author’s evolution.
Friday
Coming back to the touristic part, Vallauris is a small town, well known for inhabiting Picasso. I am not sure but this might be the place where he developed his ceramic art. Next morning, in a sunny, clear sky, we spent more than 1.5 hrs in the Vallauris ceramic/porcelain market. Some of the shops actually have a small factory on the backside where they make these items. It is a very beautiful and colourful market and gives a taste of quiet, easygoing town life. Some items were pretty expensive but were piece produced and not mass produced. I bought a ceramic jug for gift and broke it in ½ hr.
Gives a flavour of the kind of shops in Vallauris market
I observed a unique scene that morning. They have a nice local market in Vallauris (equivalent to Sabji Mandi in India, a bit more spacious and cleaner). A guy selling Baguettes was tearing them in two parts (for selling) and dropping the crumbles on ground for pigeons to eat. He dropped the baguettes in a wooden box on the floor. Wonderful enough, there were 6-7 pigeons, all except one of a different feather colour/texture, and they ate the crumbles together but none went even closer to the wooden box to get a bite of the baguette (no one was looking!). Simple though, it was a nice example of harmony in the small village.
Baguettes and piegons; note that all pigeons are different
We (I/Praveen/Anurag) went to Theoule sur mer beach later around noon time. Travelling on the beach line was quite pleasant but observing the chemistry of Praveen and Anurag (old IIT-Roorkee friends, meeting after 6 years, geared back into the college mode) was more fascinating. We had a little sandwich picnic after which we spent some time in water. Although the beach was sandy (artificial), the seabed was usual rocky. Honestly, I never knew about this peculiar aspect of the Mediterranean before exploring about Nice. Another peculiarity of a rocky seabed is that it can go from, say 5 ft to 9 ft in one step and hence the likes of me who do not know swimming need to be very careful. Swimming wasn’t a good experience as seabed was sharp, rocks had a lot of algae on them and there were too many small fishes in the water. After swimming, we had a nice 1.5 hr trek along the beach. I fulfilled my hobby of pebble throwing but couldn’t pass my own record of 6 bounces.
Theoule sur mer; I liked in particular the close-packed houses on the hills alongside the beach
Saturday
It was the nicest of the three days. It was another nice, sunny day to start with. We made a long drive to reach the The Valley of Marvel, but ended up somewhere else as we were not very clear about the route and later realized that this place was many hours drive further. Nevertheless, through winding roads, we reached a height of 1.5 km where we parked the car. Leila and Shriram (IIT hostel mate who was in Europe for a conference) also joined us on this day.
We started for a mountain trekking and found ourselves in a very natural, rather barren, but very peaceful area (‘‘tranquil-ion’’; the French would understand the joke!). We, and a few other ones, were the only disturbing elements in the whole place. The long hilly terrain was good for the legs and the atmosphere good for the lungs. While spending most time in the cities, we almost forget a better, more natural environment that still exists in places less touched by humans. The spiritual atmosphere of the place, I felt, was also good (closer to nature). Most people we found trekking there were old (50+).
I am not a big fan of barren places – I prefer lush-green and colourful places, but I really liked this one. The mountains had a beautiful stratigraphic pattern and that too varied from hill to hill. We found different small berries on the way (‘Blackberry’, red berries). We had a picnic after about 2 hr trekking, sitting on a rock, enjoying the view. By this time, it had become colder as the day was passing and we were at a higher altitude.
Beautiful rock patterns
Anurag (returning to the country)
After picnic, we continued to trek up. We were looking for a lake at some high point in the hill. At one place on the top, it appeared that the lake had dried up, but when we continued to walk, we finally found a lake, albeit very shallow, surely dried up. But it was, again, very beautiful. In this shallow lake, I finally bettered my pebble throwing record by achieving 9-10 bounces! We also spotted some deer, although not of the normal breed.
Deer; alert from my-Shriram's loud talking
Finally a shallow, but beautiful lake; another beautiful rock (with a little illusory pattern)
We didn’t stay longer at the top as it was getting colder and we could see dark clouds drifting towards us. Coming down was much quicker and easier. The return journey to Vallauris was very tricky for me, given my car sickness in such roads. But we got to see very beautiful sunset (sunset without sun as we were still in the winding roads). Finally, we had excellent pizza for dinner (Nice, being close to Italy, serves very good Italian food).
Sunday
Sunday began with visit to the Nice ashram. The ashram is really beautiful (I like places with predominant white paint) but it also came as a surprise because it is located quite in the centre of Nice, it is quite spacious and even more, it has been constructed from scratch by Nice/French abhyasis (this is the normal course for ashrams in India but in Europe, most ashrams are parts of a building, bought almost readymade). After the satsangh and a video show, I and Shriram left to see Nice (finally).
We spent some time looking in the local market and were looted for a colourful equivalent of petha (actually fruits soaked in sugar syrup for hours and dried). The lunch wasn’t a very good experience as we were served by a very arrogant guy.
Later we went to the Nice beach. While the seabed was still stony, round pebbles were laid down on the beach to make a comfortable sitting/lying. In fact, it was not very uncomfortable compared to a sand beach. However, the water was forceful and after spending a few minutes, we lost energy and enthusiasm to spend time in water. I had another peculiar experience –while I was taking the final shower, I saw small rainbows forming in/between the droplets of water – obviously real, but very beautiful and rare.
Overall…
Nice was a very good experience … in fact I didn’t see much of Nice and I hardly toured it as I tour other places (running and trying to see every famous spot). I did not see Monaco or Cannes, which are very famous for their own good reasons, but not of liking of most of us. Most of the time we spent was in places close to nature and I also fulfilled the wish to see the Nice ashram.
There were many small things that won my heart, most of which I have mentioned above. However, without the company, accommodation facility and hospitality of Praveen and Leila, it could not have been as homely as I felt in Nice. Both of them lost quite some sleep and order with three guys in their apartment. Additionally, the spiritual atmosphere of their apartment was also good and I felt it in all my meditation sittings in their house.
Tired hosts, still managing a smile!
