Spring Break: French Riviera

First destination of Spring Break: The French Riviera

Saturday:
Vic and I woke up at 4:30 am to make the first RER train to the airport. We had to walk to Denfert-Rocherau because the Metro wasn't running yet. We barely made the RER, an ominous sign. Everything was running smoothly, we were hitting all the necessary stops, and I was not nervous at all about having to check my bags. Until, that is, the train suddenly stopped at a stop in the suburbs. The P.A. told us that the line was being worked on and we all had to get off and take a bus. That's it. No warning before saying "This line stops at X". So 300 people scurried from the train to the bus stop at the train station, where of course, there were no buses. None. 300 people, 5:30 in the morning, middle of nowhere, no taxis, stranded. There was nothing to do but wait and say, "Well, that's France!" Finally a bus came. All 300 people ran to get on it. It was a mob! I could have jumped on but Vic was behind me and it was a mad-house so we decided to wait. Another bus came but it wasn't going to the airport and refused to take us there. Then an empty bus came and we jumped on and demanded he take us to the airport. He was going to do it to, until a man in a backpack came on to the bus and said "I'm on the phone with the director of the RER. He said a train is coming now to take us to the airport!" So we were a little skeptical of this man with the backpack, but finally obliged and got off the bus and a train came 2 seconds later. We ran to get on and it took us to the airport! Just a little detour.

I had to check bags so I got in line...a very long line. An Air France employee asked me if I had already gotten my boarding pass and I said yes. He said, "come with me, we're starting a new line" so I got to check my bags first at a different counter. I definitely would have missed my flight otherwise. I passed out for the entire plane ride from Paris to Nice. We arrived in Nice, took a bus into town, checked into our hotel, and passed out for a few hours. We had only gotten 2.5 hours of sleep the night before and had a stressful morning. When we woke up, we had lunch and made our way to the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice. The museum was incredible, a collection of his biblical paintings and stained glass windows. I really loved his colors and hidden messages throughout. I bought a book from the museum about all the paintings in the exhibit. Chagall spent a lot of time in Nice and donated many paintings to the museum. We explored the city after that, walking around Vieux Nice, getting some great gelato, just taking in the glory of the French Riviera. Place Masséna, the center of the tourist area, was beautiful. Colorful buildings, huge streets, fun performers (and some weird ones, like a guy dancing like Michael Jackson to no music). That night we had moules frites (mussels and fries) in Vieux Nice and went to bed on the early side because we were so exhausted.

Sunday:
In the morning, Vic and I visited the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The building itself was really cool, with a garden on the roof that overlooked the Mediterranean. We saw some American pop art, some crazy lines on canvases (sometimes I love Contemporary Art, sometimes I just don't get it), some really cool mirrors and neon lights, etc. I liked the museum a lot. From there, we went to the train station and took the train to Eze, a small village in the Maritime Alps. Built up in the 12th century, it's main fortresses and streets are still preserved today. The train got us to the main station by the coast at 2:05. The bus from the train station to Eze Village left at 1:55. It makes no sense. So we had to call a taxi to drive us 20 minutes up to Eze Village. We shared the cab with a Russian-American who was really odd. I asked her if she was in France on vacation. She answered, "Something like that". She said she'd also been to Eze many times, which is sort of odd because it's a tiny village. Oh well, I didn't ask questions. We had amazing pizza at a restaurant hanging over a cliff and then explored the town. We wandered through tiny streets, up hills, and into really cool stone buildings. This town was built into the mountain side. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around before we took the bus back down and arrived just in time for our train back to Nice. After a short nap, we met my friend Chelsey (who I saw in London) and her friends for dinner in Vieux Nice. It was Easter so the town was really empty but we had a great time. There weren't really any bars open so we went to bed after dinner.

Monday:
Left our hotel around 10:30, took the train to Cannes. We wandered up and down the beach in Cannes for a while and found a nice beach to set up at. All the nice beaches there are private so we had to pay for a chair and towels. It was really nice. The weather was perfect, about 75 and sunny! We spent a few hours laying on the beach, reading and napping. Cannes was glamorous, nice shops everywhere and gorgeous hotels. I'm sure they were all very expensive. We walked away from the beach for lunch, figuring it would be cheaper. It wasn't cheap but I'm sure it was better than it could have been. From Cannes we got back on the train and went to Antibes (closer to Nice). Antibes was gorgeous. We walked along the shore through the old ramparts. They had a beautiful area for markets and shops and harbor with amazing boats. We stopped and had a drink on the beach and just kept exploring the area. Around 5, we headed back to Nice. Vic and I went for a run on the promenade in Nice, with perfect weather. Breezy, warm, still light out, it was a great end to a great day. That night we had dinner, again in old Nice, outside. It got pretty chilly and we went to a bar afterwards. We met some other American girls who were there on vacation and hung out with them for a while. Then we stopped at a casino on our way back to our hotel, played a little bit of roulette, didn't win anything, and went to bed.

The next day, I jumped on a train to Florence and Vic went back to the States. Nice and the French Riviera was so relaxing and beautiful. It was a different pace of life than Paris. Nice was pretty touristy but I really loved Antibes. Everybody was relaxing on the beach, enjoying life. There were so many Italians in the French Riviera! I guess it was Easter weekend so a lot of people were traveling. A great start to a great spring break. I had a really fun time with Vic, we could speak French to each other and to locals. The woman at the tourists office thought we were German (any time people don't automatically know you're American, it's a compliment to your French skills, haha). Nice and surrounding areas were beautiful and relaxing.