Nice is Pretty Nice

This weekend I took a trip to the French Riviera where I met up with my favorite weirdo, Chelsea, after 8 months of being apart. In our 13-year friendship this is the longest time that we haven't seen each other. Bizarre! Needless to say, we had such a fun weekend exploring Nice and venturing to Monaco.

Friday we stayed in Nice and explored everything that this amazing city has to offer. My host family was skeptical as to why I was going to Nice. They said that there isn't really anything to do there and that the population is really old. I don't know what they were talking about because Chel and I found so much to do and had an awesome time wandering around the city. First of all, the Mediterranean. The water was such a bright blue and even when it was cloudy it was beautiful. Nice is famous for its "Promenade des Anglais," a really long boardwalk-type path along the rocky coast. The beach in Nice isn't sand but little rocks and pebbles. While it's not exactly comfortable to sit on, it's definitely a sight to see and explore. Nice has so many different vantage points for taking in the incredible views of the city and the surrounding regions and we tried to hit them all. Our exploring was obviously broken up by numerous food and snack breaks and the food options in Nice were endless. The part of the city known as "Vieux Nice" or old Nice, is filled with tiny, winding streets and vibrant, colorful buildings where restaurants and cafés (and ice cream shops) are to be found all over the place. Let's just say we ate well this weekend.

Nice is just down the coast from Monaco, the second smallest country in the world, so on Saturday we decided to take a day trip to see what it was all about. Monaco should just be synonymous with money. At least in the Monte Carlo area where we got to see the world famous casino, every designer store you could possibly imagine, and cars. My god the cars. Parked on the street, driving down the famous Monaco grand prix track, or just waiting at a stop light, the worlds priciest cars were everywhere and it was definitely a sight to see. Monaco is a beautiful country built right into the mountainside along the Mediterranean. After admiring the Casino and the Monte Carlo region in general, we made our way down to the port, scoped out our future yachts, then climbed up the hill and explored old Monaco where the Grimaldi family palace is located. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco since 1297. So cool. Up on the hill, the views of Monaco were absolutely breathtaking. After visiting the Oceanography museum, which is literally built on a cliff, we headed back to Nice to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful weather.

The famous casino

Grand prix grand stands

Zee palace

Chel left early on Sunday morning, so I wandered around for a while on my own, did some shopping, and plane watched for a majority of the day before my 5pm flight. The Nice airport is really close to the city of Nice and sort of sticks out into the Mediterranean so I was sliiiightly obsessed with watching all of the planes go in and out all weekend. Cause I'm a super cool human.

This was probably the best weekend trip of the year and I was so bummed when it had to come to an end. Especially because it was rainy and gross when I got back to Toulouse.

Home one month from tomorrow.