Nice

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This morning, we went back to the same boulonnerie as yesterday for their classic breakfast which includes coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, and a croissant. It is delicious, convenient, and cheap which makes it the perfect breakfast. 

We noticed that it was supposed to rain for part of the morning, so we decided to start the day with a ride through Old Nice on a little train. It was very fun to see the town, but the audio was not very good and was hard to hear over the sound of the train bumping along the cobblestone, so we didn’t learn very much about the city. Even so, we enjoyed the views and the escape from the rain. One thing we did learn is that the sculpture of the man with a square head actually houses the offices of the municipal library. 

Since it started raining harder, we stuck with the theme of the morning and hopped on one of the hop on hop off busses in hopes of seeing more. We rode the bus through Nice and over to Villefranche. It was nice to be able to see more of the city and to see Villefranche from the land, but we were constantly wishing we could be outside and enjoy a nice walk without getting soaked. When the bus returned to the stop we started on, we hopped back off and found a small lunch before climbing up the hill to the Marc Chagall Museum. 

At this point, it had finally stopped raining which made the walk more enjoyable. The museum exhibit was focused on printing and the books he illustrated which included everything from the Bible to the Tempest to poetry. We also spent a lot of time admiring his glass which Stephanie had learned a lot about in her glass class. We both had fun spotting the animals and other designs he had hidden in the large glass panels of the creation story. 

After the museum, we headed back down the hill to the train station and took a short ride to Monte Carlo, Monaco. The ride was gorgeous, on our right was the Mediterranean Sea and to our left was the mountain side and ginormous celebrity villas with stunning gardens. We also loved that it seems like almost all the flowers in the French Riviera are purple. 

When we got off the train in Monaco, we were greeted by a red carpet leading down the hill toward the port. We followed it to an ice cream shop where we each got a cone of Oreo ice cream (what else?) before we set out to explore the city. We wandered past the fancy car stores, jewelry stores, casinos, and huge yachts. While it was clearly elaborate, it honestly felt underwhelming. We did enjoy our walk especially because it was no longer raining. The train back was less easy because it ended up being very crowded since it had become rush hour, but we made it on a train and made our way back to Nice. 

We made it to our hotel and took a few minutes to reorient before heading out for a walk along the promenade to dinner.  We loved our lunch from yesterday so much that we knew we had to go back. We ordered the smoked salmon again and then got a different style of mussels over pasta and finished with a pavlova. Everything was amazing…again. It was definitely the right choice to go back and we loved every bite. It was the perfect last evening in Nice and if anyone visits the French Riviera, we highly recommend that you go to Le Rocher – Chez Mina (even if it means traveling into Nice). 

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Yes, Nice is nice!

5 Comments / Nice / /

WE LOVE NICE! Yesterday, we took a 6 hour train through the French countryside from Paris to Nice. When we finally arrived, we stopped by the tourism office to pick up our French Riviera passes before walking down the promenade to our hotel. The hot sun beat down on us as we lugged our bags along the walkway between the beach and the buildings, but we knew that we were going to love being in Nice. 

After checking into the hotel, we did some laundry before heading back to the beach. We wandered around looking at different restaurants before finding a good spot to sit by the water. We enjoyed our view for awhile before choosing a restaurant for dinner. We really wanted to eat on the beach, so we did. Isabel ordered salmon tartar and Stephanie ordered Pad Thai, both of which we really enjoyed. While we were eating, we spoke to a couple who were seated at the next table over and learned that the man owns the company that provides all the milk to the University of Delaware and his coworker’s son started the creamery! Sometimes it really is a small world. They were very nice and were very excited to hear about our trip and share some suggestions. After dinner, we walked along the beach some more and looked at the rocks before heading back to the hotel for the night. 

This morning, our first destination (after breakfast) was a boat trip around the point to see Ville-Franche and some of the promenade from the water. We learned that Ville-France has some of the most expensive land in the world and houses a number of celebrities including Bono, Tina Turner, the king of Egypt, and more. The views were amazing and the fun facts about the owners of the homes was very interesting. 

After the boat ride, we found a small local restaurant that boasted famous mussels, so of course we had to try. We ordered a smoked salmon appetizer and mussels that were cooked with lemon and parsley. The salmon was probably the best quality salmon either of us have ever had, it was so fresh and we loved every bite. Then, the mussels came and they were just as fresh and just as delicious. It made us wish we could stay in Nice and eat seafood forever. 

After lunch, we headed to a snorkeling trip where we got our gear and hopped on a small dingy which took us over to a bay to swim and snorkel. Unfortunately, we had to leave our phones in a locker so there are no pictures of us in our wetsuits, but we had a great time and saw a lot of fish. 

After snorkeling, we decided we wanted to go back to the hotel to rest for a minute and hang up the wet bathing suits, so we headed to the tram and made our way back. After dropping out stuff, we headed back out to find a wine store that was offering tastings with our passes. We tried some Prosecco which was amazing, and then bought a bottle of rosé to go with dinner. Dinner was the next task and we ended up settling for a pizza place near the water that let us do carry out so we could eat on the beach. It was a great end to a very fun (and tiring) day, and we were both just for our showers by the time we made it back to the hotel. There is so much to do and see here, we just hope we can squeeze a lot in tomorrow! 

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