Nice Blog

A nice visit to a nice city – Nice.

Our trip to Nice was quick, but it was the perfect amount of time for us. The city was a big change from Barcelona… Nice was quieter, more relaxing and filled with more scenic views than tourist monuments.

The biggest blessing of our time in Nice was that Margeaux is fluent in French. The other four of us attempted to learn some French phrases, but for the most part we stared blankly when Margeaux conversed with the locals.

Our only true mishap of this trip was the fact that day 1 we were exhausted from “sleeping” at the airport the night before. A full day in Barcelona followed by maybe 2 hours of very spotty sleep leading up to what was supposed to be a full day in Nice was not the best idea. But on the bright side, we made that early morning flight in Barcelona and our bags checked all the way through to Nice.

After stepping off the tram that took us from the airport to the heart of downtown Nice, I was hit with an overwhelming smell of bread – I was living for it. Everywhere I looked I saw baguettes that were half the length of a person.

Bring on the carbs.

I ended up eating two croissants and two slices of a baguette for my meals on day 1 – I was thriving food wise.

Energy wise, I was crashing. We explored the city and familiarized ourselves with our area. The view from Promende des Anglais was incredible – the ocean water was bluer than any sky and the rock beaches extended for miles.

We even went shopping along the main avenue. I swear Margeaux and I didn’t have to beg and drag the guys to come with us, they willing and even a little enthusiastically said they wanted to shop with us.

Our favorite find among the stores was a clothing shop called Bershka. I had to remind myself repeatedly that I was on a budget so I wouldn’t buy the whole store.

Right around 6 p.m. we hit a wall and had to reschedule our plans to climb to the top of Castle Hill for sunset.

The following morning we felt refreshed – charged and ready to go.

The morning and early afternoon was spent on the beach. The rocks actually weren’t as uncomfortable to lay on as you would think. They were smooth and flat. The only difficult aspect was walking on them.

Lesson learned: bring shoes to wear in the water. There were a few humorous close calls to falling over trying to walking into the ocean.

One of my favorite parts of the day was exploring the Port de Nice which docked Yachts the size of small cruise ships and sail boats with all the bells and whistles.

Here is where I learned my first “out of the ordinary” French phrase – j’aime les gros bateaux. The meaning is “I like big boats.” Lets just say my accent is a little rusty… okay more like a lot rusty.

The evening was spent gazing at the breathtaking views of each of Nice’s lookout landings. It didn’t matter how many times we found a new spot to see the city or how long we spent there, the view never got old. It was enough to make even the chattiest of people speechless.

Nice, being a smaller-scale city with less noise and crowds, was the perfect stop between Barcelona and Paris.

Now the city of lights awaits us. Unfortunately, we way overestimated the amount of time it would take at the Nice airport – we have 3 hours to wait around. The taxi ride was 15 minutes, their was no check-in line and the security consisted only of us 5 travelers. So if anyone wants something from the duty free shops, let me know.

Au revoir!