After spending three days in beautiful Marrakech, April and I headed to Nice, France for the last leg of our trip.

First thing we did: headed to the beach, of course. It was absolutely gorgeous and about 84 degrees in September.
 
But guess what? The beach in Nice is rocky. And by “rocks”, I mean huge round stones that were probably used to kill people in the bible. Walking on these things was torture. So we stayed in our beach chairs. We met this cool chick from Chicago who tastes wine for a living. You read that right. Tastes wine. And gets paid for it.
 She was kind enough to take our picture.

 

By the way, we had to pay to use these beach chairs and the service and attitudes were really bad. Maybe it’s always like this, maybe the manager had a bad day. Who knows? I was just happy to be alive.

The next day, we caught the tram around town. [Short story: Since I don’t know French, I used the kiosk and accidentally bought about $130 worth of tram tickets. I’m writing this post one full year later and I guess I’ll never get my money back after incessant emails. And yes, I reported it and turned in the tram tickets before leaving Nice, which was an ordeal in itself. Ever visited Metro headquarters in Washington, DC? Do you even know where it is? Try it in a foreign country.]

Anyway, we met up with our Chicago friend to see the flea market and get lunch. She and April saw puppies, literal puppies in a window, and were mesmerized.

My henna tattoo from Marrakech from the previous day was still going strong.

The market had all kinds of goods like fresh cotton, flowers, specialty jams, and of course, pastries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the best part: The French Riviera not only includes Nice, but also Cannes, the town of Eze, and Monaco. So we were able to take a 4-hour tour and see all of them in one afternoon.

The hillside village of Eze.

 

We visited the Fragonard perfume factory and learned how perfume is made, and learned the difference between “a la toilette” and “a la parfum”. Do you know?

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Monaco. You can see nearly the entire country in the photos below. It’s small but gorgeous. The whole country is 499 acres. And guess what Monaco is preparing for? Yacht week, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

Monte Carlo Casino

Where the Grand Prix is run, right on the streets of Monaco. The entire country shuts down for the race, and locals leave during this time, to avoid the crowds.
 

Next, we headed to Cannes. I’ve always wanted to go to the Cannes Film Festival, but sadly, I’ve never received an invitation (the only way to attend). So this is it for me. The main strip (below) was full of high end shops, museums, and 5-star hotels. It was very, very, very fancy.

Oh and guess what? Despite being about 30 minutes from Nice, Cannes has sandy beaches! What whuuuuuut

 

 

On our last day in Nice, we ventured out for breakfast. I got a Grand Marnier crepe. This isn’t quite what I expected, but I went with it.

 

Nice–I would certainly return too. The entire French Riviera: there’s so much to see and do, and lots and lots and lots of shopping (not pictured). 🙂  Until next time,

Insana

 

by Insana Collins
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