The Travel Buggers: Nice, France

We enjoyed our 12 day, 4 city tour of Italy, but we were excited to move on to Nice, France. Kimalee is a beach bum, so she was especially excited to see the beautiful ocean water of the Cote D'Azur. When we got to Nice, we walked a few blocks from the train station to our small, modern hotel, The Hotel Berlioz. Most of the time we've been staying fairly close the train station to avoid carrying our heavy bags for miles as we did in Venice. Once we checked in, we didn't waste any time before heading down the city's main shopping street to the beach. Along the way, Lorenzo stopped at the Virgin Records Megastore and purchased an exclusive "Drake" mixtape that is not available in the United States. The beaches in Nice are different from most other beaches we've visited because instead of sand, the beaches are covered in thousands of smooth stones of all different colors. The stones are kind of difficult to walk on, but are great for not getting sand in your shoes. Although it was only about 65 degrees outside and a bit cloudy, the beach was just as beautiful as we remembered from our visit two years ago. The water was cool, clear, and ice blue. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Nice Etoile (the first actual shopping mall we'd seen in weeks!) and Monoprix, a supermarket/department store kind of like a Super Walmart. We stocked up on water, juice, and snacks before picking up some takeout sushi from OSushi at the mall. We then made our way back to our hotel and called a night while watching some good old fashioned American television via the free internet connection in our room. We started the next day by visiting the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. We saw some very creative and interesting art and some Andy Warhol pieces. In our opinion, the best part of the museum (other than the fact that admission is free) was the rooftop terrace which offered fantastic views of the city. We ate lunch at La Zucca Magica, a vegetarian restaurant not far from the museum. La Zucca Magica has a set 5 course menu, so we had no idea what we would be eating until each course came out. Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised by each creative meatless course. Completely stuffed and barely able to walk, we slowly strolled along the coastline from the marina toward the Promenade des Anglais - a palm tree lined street that runs parallel to the beach. Across from the beach, we noticed a park on the top of a hill (Castle Hill). We decided to climb the long stairs to the top and were rewarded with an amazing view of the ocean, marina, and city. We easily climbed back down Castle Hill and sat on the beach in the sun enjoying the warmth. The waves were crashing, the sun was shining, and we remembered why we love Nice so much. Next, we walked through old town Nice and stopped at Fenocchio's to sample some odd flavors of gelato. Fenocchio's has over 80 gelato flavors, including tomato and basil, chewing gum, and olive, but we decided to try rose, lavender, and violet. It was like eating ice cream while smelling flowers at the same time. Later that evening, we took a quick break at our hotel before heading out for dinner and to purchase our train tickets for the next day's journey. Goodbye for now to the south of France.