A *NICE* Weekend in the South of France

I am back from a weekend in Nice! Man, was that one beautiful place. I went with four other friends, and we rented an apartment for three nights overlooking the city. The weather was in the high 70's the whole time, and the water was just as warm. We spent a lot of time relaxing, but also exploring the restaurants, shopping, and the small amount of night life. Three of us took a partial day trip to Antibes, which was about an hour bus ride away form Nice on the coast (in hindsight, the train probably would have been faster). Anyway, both places were absolutely gorgeous and I feel lucky to have been able to explore them.

 Walking off the plane had a similar feeling to arriving in Hawaii because the air was just so much warmer than where we came from. We left rainy Paris for very warm, and sunny Nice! It was so amazing to see the water from up above as we landed. The airport is actually right on the water (much like Oakland Airport), and we could see lots of cruise ships and boats on the water. The ripples from the waves made the water look like leather from up above. We got a taxi at the airport instead of trying to figure out the bus situation. Entering a new place and figuring out how to get somewhere is hard enough, but not speaking the language does not help at all. As we got closer to the apartment, we started driving up a hill with a very narrow street. There were so many switchbacks and cars parked on either side of the street. Our taxi driver was mumbling to himself and eventually stopped the taxi and said "You walk from here - 5 minutes." I didn't blame him. I wouldn't want to drive up that hill either. Every car had scratches on the side as if the owners just gave in to the idea that that was the way it was going to be if they wanted to park there. After 15 minutes we finally found our place! The owner came to let us in. The picture above shows the view from where we were staying, which was absolutely unreal.

Waiting for the owner to arrive with the keys, and admiring the view. It was breathtaking

So, the less than awesome part of the apartment was that there were literally hundreds of stairs to climb to reach it. Going down the switchbacks would take forever, and so the stairs were the best option. We had to use the stairs to get down to where a bus could pick up up and take us closer to the center of town. I certainly did not expect to be sore after this weekend, but these stairs definitely changed that.

We went down town as soon as we unloaded our things to explore. Again, I had to restrict my building picture taking habit because there were so many buildings here that I loved. The town had SO many shops and markets. I could have easily spent the entire weekend shopping if I wasn't so interested in going to the beach.

 We made it to the beach just in time for sunset. Since the beach is all rock, there are private beaches all along the shore with chairs that you can rent for about 15 euro per day (totally worth it to not have to be in pain form the rocks). I think I got goosebumps when we made it to the beach and saw this. The colors were so vivid and everything just looked crisp. We went down to feel the water, which was incredibly warm.

 There were many people strolling along the promenade near the water at sunset. We decided we had to find a placer to eat where we could look out at the sea.

 We decided on a nice pizza restaurant just across from the promenade. The best part (in my opinion) was the piano player across the street who provided smooth jazz tunes as we ate. I ordered a cheese pizza with ricotta and eggplant (I have developed an obsessive eggplant addition while I've been here - no idea why). Anyway, the food was incredible. I especially liked Kayla's truffle gnocchi! Sitting here in the warm breeze and breathing in the sea air was the perfect start to our mini vacation.

 We met up with our 5th friend Friday morning and headed into town for breakfast. After breakfast, we made our way to a private beach where we stayed most of the day. We each got a towel and reclining chair. The umbrellas were extra, but I didn't mind because I loved being in the sun anyway.

 blue water

 Oh, I forgot, we picked up some wine before heading to the beach but could not take it into the private beach so we sat along the edge of the promenade and drank it.

As we sat, a musician was playing behind us adding to the peaceful feel of the afternoon. I think all of us were a little bit overwhelmed by how nice (haha) this place was. I clearly remember the phrase "it's just so pretty" being said many, many times. Enjoy the soothing music!

Kayla and I enjoying the sun at the private beach!

I took this picture from the small dock that went out above the water. You can see the promenade and all of the hotels lining it. I love the color of the water here. I am also happy I didn't capture any of the nudists in my picture haha.

On the dock! This was a fun place to jump in! The water so so incredibly salty! It was refreshing until i gulped up a bunch of salt water - I was much more careful after that. It was so easy to float because of the salt in the water, though. i think that was my favorite part, besides the temperature. There were so few waves that just floating on my back was possible to do for 20-30 minutes at a time if I wanted to. A couple of times I'd find myself a little too far down the beach and have to swim back.

We tried not to be too stressed...

So I actually tried to take a picture of a cat, but it ran away form me at the last second so this is what  the picture is instead. You can kinda of see him in the far left under the chair. Anyway, I like how this turned out.The lifeguard had a twig and was moving it around trying to get the cat to pounce on it. I came over and asked to pet it, and he told me the cats name is "Titi."He was trying to get the cat to jump up onto the small stump of the plant seen in the picture. He really didn't speak much English, but it was okay because we both spoke "playing with cat" language. Anyway, I really tried hard not to laugh when he said, "If you want to see cat climb tree - this is now!" I also found it amusing that everytime the car would grab the stick he would say "Bravo!!!" like we would say "Good boy!" in America. That night, we went out to explore the night life, and went to a bar called Wayne's. It was full of travelers from all over the world, with many Australians specifically.  Since we got there late, there was a lot of dancing and so we joined in. It was a lot of fun! I highly recommend this place to any young people visiting Nice. The crowd is fun and lively!

Antibes! Like I said, three of us took a trip to Antibes on Saturday which is not far from Nice. It was very lively and had lots of little squares that were bustling with people and filled cafes. The buildings here reminded me of what I expect Italy to look like. I tried to hard to not take pictures of every building I saw here that I actually was sad afterward that I didn't have pictures of the buildings. Not doing that again!

There is that big blue sea again!

The Picasso Museum! This sat right on the water and had the most incredible view. We went inside to get tickets and they told us, "Today it is free!" I am having really good luck with this free entry thing! Haha. We explored the art, were very intrigued by all of Picasso's pieces, especially the ones with goats. I liked those.

A cool outdoor sculpture!

I got in trouble for taking pictures, so this is really the only one I have from before I got caught (oops!). If you look close you can see that all of the animals have little smiley faces on them. I though this was so funny, especially because he continued this simple smiley face theme in so many other paintings that we saw. My friends and I loved looking at each piece art art, specifically the ones that were supposed to be a "woman", and figuring out where each part of her body is in the painting.

When we left the museum, we stumbled upon a wedding on the sea. We waited to watch the bride and groom come outside. I am not sure if any of you have seen these, but there are these very large balloons that have lots and lots of small balloons inside. They are usually clear and the balloons inside are often multi-color. Anyway, they had one of these balloons and popped it just as the bride and groom exited the church, sending hundreds of little heart shaped balloons into the air! I loved it so much. It was beautiful.

We made it back to Nice in time for an hour on the beach and the sunset. We found a place where they had imported sand for a volleyball net and sat there!

Here is my proof that I got some sun in Nice! And I didn't even burn. It's a miracle!

The last sunset.

We ended the trip with a dinner among the hundreds of restaurants in the busy square. We did some shopping at the little stands they had after dinner, and then went home. We all went straight to bed because we were so tired!

So now I am back in Paris. I was actually very happy to come back and it felt like home walking into my tiny little room. In 48 hours, however, I will be in Barcelona! I leave Thursday afternoon after class and return home Sunday. It will be another fun weekend of adventure and I cannot wait. We are meeting up with some friends from UCLA there and staying in a hostel with them. I have hear amazing things about this city from so many and cannot wait to see it for myself. Thank you specifically to my cousin Ariana who sent me a long description of what to see and what to do! It is supposed to be in the high 70's or low 80's, so I am sure we will spend some time at the beach!

I know it seems like I am not even in classes, but I am! I promise! It is hard to explain because my classes don't really feel like school - they kind of just feel like an acticity. My language class is the most school-like because it is actually hard and I do have to study. But, my other two classes are going well and I am enjoying them so far. I still have  pictures from the past two weeks that I want to share, but it will have to wait until after Barcelona!

Have an amazing week <3