This is a continuation from my previous post, The City of Love and Dreams, Paris. Our adventure continued to the South of France. Now, I never really understood the hype on the South of France, but until you are there, it makes sense. It’s sunny and gorgeous weather, the cities are exploding in bright colours and the waters sparkle those shades of turquoise blues. It truly is bliss. Retirement here we come!
Kristyn and I had left Paris by train. I wasn’t overly excited to take a train to be honest. My prefer method of travel is airfare- a plane or helicopter- it’s fast, it’s easy, it’s a no-brainer. We had arrived at the train station in the morning. It was a combination of an indoors/outdoors building. Lots of birds flying around, people rushing to the trains, no where to sit and it felt a little dirty. We were quite early for our train so we had to park it on the floor and sit with our luggage while we waited. The downside to the train station was finding a bathroom. I told Kristyn I would BRB and I remember walking in circles trying to find a stupid bathroom (or restroom, if you rather.) When I found one, after 15 minutes of walking, you had to pay to use it. Well, I didn’t have ANY cash on me. (Erin is probably shaking her head as she reads this, as she told me to take out cash and I said to her “nahhhhh!”) So, I ran back to Kristyn who gave me a handful of coins. Back I go, and for what I paid for didn’t seem like a deal! The bathrooms weren’t anything spectacular. Someone is literally waiting by the door to clean it as soon you are finished and then I think they still expect a tip. This was so foreign to me and I felt a bit overwhelmed. This made me appreciate all bathrooms in North America. You don’t need to pay to use one, they are bigger and spacious and you have your privacy. Public bathrooms are my nemesis. I can talk for days on it. Just keeping it real with your guys! Also- something I just never encountered before, so going forward travelling, I now understand.
A few hours later, our train arrived and we boarded. Kristyn told me she splurged and got us “first class” seats. I take her word for it as I have nothing really to compare too. The seats we were in were very spacious, we were by ourselves and we had wifi!!! This was huge, since our travel to Nice was going to be ~6 hours. My comments of the food- awful. I don’t know if it’s because we were late to the game or I just have high standards. And by high standards, I just wanted a good tasty sandwich! But, as we walked about the cars, we ended up at the train cafe (not sure if that’s what you call it)- they had a bit of a menu, but everything seemed to have been sold out. I ended up ordering some sort of lentil rice bowl- yuck- and the only drink they had left was a Fanta- a Fanta! Like, the purest form of sugar there is! Needless to say, the food isn’t anything to rave about. I almost prefer airplane food- and at this rate, I would do anything to be on a plane with their sub-par food (damn, Covid-19). I ended up sleeping majority of the train ride.
We arrived in Nice around 9:30pm. We found a cab and headed to our hotel. This hotel was super chic. It was the Hôtel La Villa Nice Victor Hugo. It was the cutest little boutique hotel with the perfect location to where we wanted to be. The beach!
That night, since it was late, we dressed and walked down to the Médecin. It was a hot spot of Nice. Lots of restaurants, boutiques, gelato stops, and lots of shopping. This was about 2-3 blocks from our hotel, we just followed the “Rue Maccarani” or Macaroni Noodle Road as we called it. We were pretty famished from not having much from the train experience. We ate at this little pizza/pasta joint called La Pizza Cresci Nice. The waiter was hilarious, our food was so rich and bold, the wine was flowing and life was good. It was so humid but wonderful. After we had finished eating, we had leftovers which we packed up and gave to the homeless. We then walked around the streets for a bit to see what there was and made our way back to the hotel to catch some zzz’s.
The next day was our full day in Nice. We pondered taking a train to Monaco but decided, we’d stay in Nice and roam about. That morning, we went down to the beach to bask in the waters. The beach wasn’t a beach with sand instead, it was full of soft grey stones. Just beautiful.
We then found a small rooftop terrace to have lunch. It was probably my favourite little spot, La Grand Café de France. We drank rosé and enjoyed pizza with authentic south of France olives. Soaking up the rays, drinking all the wine and being together was perfect. Later on, we toured the area, stopped for drinks, and did some lingerie shopping. I have to say this for SO much fun! Probably my favourite part of our day- I felt so Blair Waldoft and understand that France has the crème de la crème of the finest fabrics. So here we are, in a place where they mostly just speak French, and here I am trying my best to bring back my French from grade school. Asking for sizes and styles! Kristyn and I were in the dressing room which was so cutest- the wallpaper and the velvet curtains. It was SO humid in the store that trying on lingerie was quite the challenge. We had so many laughs trying to get our clothes back on while dripping in sweat. I highly recommend Rouge Gorge Lingerie. I mean can you really say you went to France without bringing back some sexy lingerie? (hello, Blair Waldorf)
We toured around and window shopped at Galeries LaFayette– Jimmy Choo shoes, YSL bags, beautiful silks, fragrances that mist the air and all the jewelry that sparkles in the bright lights. Floors upon floors of designer goods. We walked the Promenade des Anglais which is essentially the board walk. Sunny, hot, glistening turquoise waters, buildings full of stories and color, and people everywhere. I loved it all.
That evening, we dined at an outside bistro- I honestly can’t remember the name of this one or where this was. I just remember eating pasta, and having red wine. We enjoyed our last evening in Nice, cheers-ing our time in France.
The next day, this was our last day and our travel day, however we weren’t traveling out until around 8pm. So we had the whole day to explore again. We ended up taking a bicycle tour ride- so this is ALL Kristyn. I have to say- this was a lot of FUN! Super touristy in my eyes but it was interesting. You get to explore Nice, learn about the history and give your feet a rest. I highly recommend doing a bicycle tour as it opens your eyes to the history of Nice. For example, many of the buildings have painted on windows. After that little fact, we started looking for these faux windows on the old buildings!
Bicycle Tour
I wish I could say we did “more things” but with the little time we had in Nice, we couldn’t really plan a bunch. Instead, we just walked around lots, basked in the French Riviera by sitting at different cafés sipping iced coffees or wine. We indulged in afternoon desserts- in the shape of a flower- from Amorino Gelato. So aesthetically pleasing and perfect for a hot afternoon. I almost feel like I don’t have much to elaborate on as this place was more of an experience rather than a diary entry. No matter how hard I try to reflect on this trip to Nice, my words just can’t describe the time I had there. It almost seems boring when I am writing this but in all honestly, it was anything but!
Our last meal in Nice, we dined at La Taverne Massena– indulging in rich wines pastas- yet again. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love how the French dine! While we were dining, we noticed this cute little boutique across the street. What caught my eye was this sparkly pink dress. I told Kristyn that we should check that place out after dinner, to which she agreed! What I loved most about Nice, were the small boutiques. They carried their own original brands and it was like finding a treasure in an antique store. This store, Tendance 24, carried the prettiest cocktail dresses. Since Europe is so different with their buildings being buildings of old architecture, their change rooms had windows overlooking the streets. So beware not to change to close to the windows! We ended up purchasing (yes, our first real purchases or our trip) a few dresses. I found the most perfect sparkly rosé coloured cocktail dress that I planned to wear for my 30th birthday. We realized the time, and noticed that we needed to get back to the hotel and pack up to leave for London. We ended up running back to the hotel, and trying to figure out how to pack up our purchases when our suitcases were filled to the brim. I remember Kristyn sitting on my luggage while I was zipping it up as we waited for our taxi cab to take us to the airport. This is not unusual of us…. we over pack! Every damn trip.
Off to London, England… – hellllllo hot accents and all the beers! We had dreamt of this part of our trip since we were in University, so this next part of our trip was one for the books!
Brittany
xx
