Most of our Riviera walks are intended for “slow travellers” who do not want or need to pack as much as is humanly possible into a two-day trip. Who love walking for its own sake. Who appreciate the arts and architecture. Who travel either alone or in a group of like-minded adults.
Today’s walk belongs to a different species. It is one for Riviera visitors who do not tick any of these boxes. If you are:
- in a hurry
- like short walks that come to the point quickly
- travel with small children, but
- still want to add a dash of green – preferably with scenic views – to your travel experience,
we have just the ticket for you. And as an added bonus, we throw in a view of the house where Nice’s most famous living resident spends much of his time.
Interested? Then you are invited to read on.
The Parc du Castel-des-Deux Rois of Nice is conveniently located about 15 minutes on foot from both the train station of Nice-Riquier and the old port. This means that you can easily squeeze in a visit either before or after a trip to the Old Town with its historic sites.
Search for the park’s main entrance on the Avenue du Mont Alban.
The land once belonged to the estate of Count Laurenti-Robaudi but was sold in 1896 to (plain Monsieur and Madame) Le Roy and his wife, the two “Rois” in the park’s name. So the park’s “royal” connection is just a cheeky pun, and you might say the same about the property’s former residential building: whatever this is, it is definitely not a medieval castle.
The main attractions of the park are its subtropical flora …
… and the beautiful views it offers, both of the pre-Alpine hills in the north …
… and Nice harbour as well as the Mediterranean in the south.
For the locals, however, the “Deux Rois” is mainly popular as a place where to take the kids. It features a large playground, which is full of well-educated French children on any afternoon of the week.
It also has that necessary ingredient of any French park: a puppet theatre (a Guignol). These are always cloaked in nostalgia and advertised as links to a semi-mythical “yesteryear”, which is odd considering that children are the one group of people who can be safely relied upon to give a monkey’s hoot about “the way things used to be”.
For children, anything more than 5 minutes ago is of merely historical interest, and the only history for which they have any interest at all is the Age of the Dinosaurs.
But, of course, all of these Belle Epoque Guignols are primarily designed to appeal to the children’s parents or, in honesty, their grandmothers. (It’s them, after all, who take the kids to the park.)
If you are not quite old enough to remember the Belle Epoque but still have vivid memories of a distant period called the 1970s, you will also be familiar with a strange phenomenon called Glam Rock – and Elton John who was one of its biggest stars.
Since then he has matured into Sir Elton, the Elder Statesman of pop, and spends much of his time in a Mediterranean villa on Mont Boron.
The Castel de Mont Alban (where Sir Elton John frequently entertains friends such as the Beckhams and Prince Harry with Meghan and Baby Archie) can be seen relatively clearly from here: it is the yellow one on top of the hill.
There is quite a lot to see in the park and not much ground to cover: you can do it all in under an hour, and that already includes some playing time for the kiddies.
And if you are exhausted by the effort: there are plenty of picnic spaces where you can rest in the shadow of a small pine tree forest.
Whether as an antipasto introduction to the city of Nice or as a dessert having walked the streets of the Old Town, the Parc Castel-des-Deux-Rois can work as a great complement of your tourist menu.
