The view from plane on its descent into Nice Airport was fairly intoxicating. Rippling sparkly sapphire sea blending into sandy beaches that snaked around coves and inlets, hills hotch-potched with villas and distant green hazy mountains. Suddenly the view changed to tarmac and with a bounce of the wheels and a jerk of the brakes the plane touched down. Et voilà I was on the Côte d’Azur.