Nice, Cannes and Monaco, oh my!

I have officially been in France for a week and a two days now.... but it has honestly felt more like a month and I still have to remind myself (often) that I am in France and not in upstate New York! My university here organized a trip to Nice, Cannes and Monaco for this weekend. We left Saturday morning at 8:30 and started the 2 hour bus ride to Nice. Of course we were all very tired from a long week, so we all attempted to sleep on the bus... which was difficult for anyone over 5'5". I was too excited to fall asleep and was happily taking pictures of the fields of Provence. I knew that we were also going to be able to see Mont Saint Victoire, which is a large mountain that is on the outskirts of Aix. The first picture is of Mont Saint Victoire from the roof of a theater in Aix... the second is from the bus!




We arrived in Nice and found ourselves in the warm sun of the French Riviera. We looked around and saw palm trees and cacti and we all were thinking the same thing- C'est magnifique! As the bus pulled away, I turned around and I immediately knew what I would do next. There was a large ferris wheel that was in Nice for Carnaval which begins on February 12th! We wandered in the direction of the ferris wheel and found ourselves surrounded by gardens with palm trees of different sizes, catci galore, and beautiful plants that were in full bloom. Ah, the French Riviera. We paid the 6 euros to get onto the ferris wheel (well worth it) and waited in anticipation. We slowly began to climb higher and we were all so excited to see Nice from higher up! But then we reached the top of the ferris wheel and we realized that this was the best way to see Nice: We were above the buildings and could see everything perfectly! It was incredible and once in a life time experience. We then walked around the city in hopes of stumbling upon the Mediterranean.... which we finally found! Since I am a lover of any ocean or body of water, I immediately took off my boots, rolled up my jeans and jumped right in the waves! It was, of course, very cold... but I still managed to enjoy myself! After playing by myself int eh waves, I convinced a few other girls to join me and we were frolicking happily when we saw a scuba diver in the waves! He waved to us, or so we thought. We soon found out that he was trying to warn us about a huge wave that was coming right for us... which we didn't see in time. I was soaked, but just from the knees down, so it wasn't that bad. The picture of my friends Zaira and Madeline and myself shows how cold the water was! Look at their faces hahaha! I apparently was trying to hide that emotion, or my feet were just numb already! Oh, I forgot to say that the beaches in Nice are made of rocks and pebbles... no sand. So after we went for a dip in the sea, our frozen feet were in pain as we hobbled across the rocks in search of warmth and food.



We walked into the area in front of Nice's Hotel de Ville (city hall) where Nice's famous flower market (as well as general market) was. We had been told by the IAU tour guides/ faculty that there was a specialty called Socca which is made from chick peas and is made like a crepe. We were excited to try this so we wandered in the direction of the smell of food being cooked. Finally, we found a stand with Socca and waited for about twenty minutes. But it was well worth the wait. The socca was amazing and I enjoyed every bite! We then went on a tour of the city with some staff of the IAU and had to be back on the bus around 4 to travel on to Monaco!

On the way to Monaco, we stopped at a parfumerie in Eze-le-Village. We took a tour of the facility and learned how they make their perfumes that are world-renowned. This parfumerie, Frangonard, is part of the main one in Grasse and is very famous. They allowed us to test their top selling perfumes, which of course smelled incredible and I wanted to buy them all. Unfortunately, I did not have a couple hundred euros to buy the parfum ( which is 40 percent oil I think... the eau de toilette contains 10 percent oils... so it is less expensive). I did give in and bought a eau de toilette called Blue Riviera which smells wonderful! The picture is of Eze-le-Village and the parfumerie is near here.

Finally, we arrived at our hostel, which was called Centre Méditerranéen in Cap d'Ail (right near Monaco). We changed, ate dinner at the hostel (which is has camps to learn French and is also a location for universities and schools to stay for excursions!) We also had a little party before where we were served aperitifs and then mounted the bus again for the short drive to Monaco! Those of us who were 21 were able to enter the Montecarlo casino for ten euroes... So because my friends and I are not 21, we sat at the Cafe de Paris which was right next to the casino. We people watched and observed the expensive cars that passed by, which was fun. We then returned to our hostel for a discotheque! We had fun, but we were all exhausted so after a few hours, we went to bed. We woke up to something that is rare in the French Riviera. Snow. It only snowed for a little bit, but the seeing snow on palm trees was just too bizarre!

The next morning we left for Cannes. I fell asleep on the bus right away so when we arrived in Cannes I was ready to walk around. But it was cold... and snowing... so we were not that enthusiastic about walking around. We walked up a large hill to see an old castle and a church. The views from the top of the hill were beautiful and we stayed up there a little while and hung out until we were hungry. We found a little cafe and had a quick ham and brie sandwich and then decided to find a warmer place with hot beverages to warm us up a little bit. We stumbled upon this cute little cafe that was across the road from all the large boats, so we had a great view as well as great hot chocolate! Then a miracle happened. The sun came out. It became warm within a matter of minutes! We decided that since it was sunny, a trip to the beaches was necessary and we headed toward the port to see the moored yachts and boats as well as the famed beaches of the Mediterranean! We photosynthesized a little bit while watching a little regatta of 420s!


Wow...that was a lot to write about! To sum my weekend up: It was amazing and I am definitely going back when there will be no chance of snow! Nice is definitely one of my top three favorite cities and I cannot wait to explore Monaco more!


Here is a webshots account with some more pictures! http://community.webshots.com/user/AmandaEShaw