Recently I moved to a new neighborhood, 5 minutes walk from the beach, 10 minutes from the central station, 15 minutes from Vieux Nice.


The Jardin Alscace-Lorraine is a nice little park, on the corner of Boulevard Victor Hugo and Boulevard Gambetta, and my street is right next to it.


This side of the park is a rather residential area, quite peaceful too, while the boulevards on the south and the west are extremely busy.


Only five minutes walk to the beach; boulevard Gambetta direction south.


Looking to the north: boulevard Gambetta, my little park, the railway viaduct, the Voie Rapide, and the Alps.


Since centuries Nice has been the favorite holiday resort for Russians. This is the Russian Cathedral in Rue Tsarewitch, off Boulevard Gambetta, and there's a Russian Church in Rue Longchamps.  


In my neighborhood you can find Russian stores, Russian restaurants, and many Russians who's families live here since generations, or only moved here recently.


This is "Gastronomy Nissa", a Russian snackbar and foodstore.


Halal butchery Selim, in Rue Dante. Gigi is a nephew of the owner, and he works for his uncle as a butcher. His father is Tunisian, his mother is Italian, and every year he goes on holiday in Cuba.


When more and more Russians came to live in Nice, the Ashkenazi Jews came to join them, because of the cultural similarities. For the same reason the Sefardi Jews followed them, and they in turn attracted the Arabs, also because of the fact that they had cultural things in common. Now this is a neighborhood where you can hear French, Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew, and occasionally some English, Swedish or German.  


This is the K'Gel Supermarket, where all kinds of people, not only Jews, buy their kosher food and wines. The local Casino supermarket, however, also sells matzes, kosher wine, memorial candles, falafel (or ta'amia), etc.
A friendly young man in front of the Synagogue asked me not to take photo's, because of security reasons. The Synagogue is a rather nondescript building and the Jewish community isn't particularly keen on attention. Quite understandable, because the political party of Jean-Marie le Pen is still quite active here in the south of France.

All in all this is a nice multicultural area to live in, and I feel at home here. But I still visit Vieux Nice every day, and my local (Irish) pub is there.

Volgend artikel in dit blog