Please Don't Poke the Cacti . .

D° you think of Nice and Cannes as the haunt only of the wealthy, of the elegant bepoodled film stars, of the sleeklyyachted millionaires or poolswinners with money to burn at the tables ?
You can of course spend £50 a week at the Carlton, stroll along the Croisette or sip aperitifs with a "name." But, on the other hand. you can have the holiday of your life (or one of them at least) by spending no more than you would on a fortnight in Switzerland, Austria or any other popular centre.
Imagine you have booked up for two weeks in Nice. I suggest late spring. Take a look round and see the local prospects: St. Augustine called at the nearby Cistercian Monastery on the Lerin Islands when he was on his way to England. St. Patrick was staying at the same monastery when he was called to Ireland.... You can go there for the day by boat from Cannes.
MILES OF BLOOMS
WHAT about a trip via the " leaping waters of the Gorges du Loup to Grasse—centre of the perfume industry ? In the season you will see miles and miles of beautiful blooms ready to be crushed into a few ounces of scent. ...
Take a bus to Eze, ancient Moorish village perched hundreds of feet above the sea; take the bus too to Monaco, to Monte Carlo—walk up to the Palace and down to the harbour and along to the Cathedral; whatever you do don't miss the beautiful tropical gardens—where you are asked not to poke the cacti . . and if you have time climb to la Turbie above Monte Carlo, and, if you have chosen the right day, you will Just be able to see Corsica.
THESE same buses, plentiful in A Nice, will take you to the delights of Juan les Pins, Antibes, the lovely harbour of Villefranche, Menton, and even across the Italian frontier to San Remo and Bordighera—where many of the Patin Sunday palms come from.
If you are fond of swimming and are not staying at a hotel with its ration of "beach," you would do better to stay a little outside Nice or else you will have to pay to go on the beach, pay for your deckchair, then pay for a shade over it—unless you are prepared to sit on not over-clean sand.
Don't miss old Nice. The streets are too narrow for buses, the buildings so higgledy-piggledy the sunshine creeps only through cracks. Unless you book with an "allin" tour why not book your journey by bus from Paris? This takes two days with an overnight stop in Lyon. You can book one way via Moulins, St. Etienne, Montelimar, the Rhone Valley. Avignon and Aix-en-Provence; then book your return journey by the breath-taking Alpine route via the Croix Haute Pass, Grenoble, Chalons . It's a route you won't forget.
MARIAN CURD.