As NICE as it gets :)

Highlights:

Dramatic arrest scene outside the bus station (kinda)

Nutella/banana crepe. Enough said.

Yacht party… oh wait..

Nice Carnival parade that I’ll most likely have nightmares from until I’m 30

I’m always that girl wearing flip-flops across the drill field when there’s still snow residue on the ground so naturally I found myself in the French Riviera mid-February. :)

We got to Nice Friday and immediately went out in search of the beach. We explored and I got a nutella and banana crepe that I was holding out on until France (muchhhh more authentic). AMAZING. I don’t think I spoke during/20 minutes after consumption.

We went out to Wayne’s Bar at night. The tram there costs one euro and when you get on you’re supposed to slip your ticket through a stupid little machine to “validate” it. Since one euro is SUCH an investment…. we attempted to hold onto our tickets and not validate them so we could reuse them. Things didn't go quite according to plan and we were rushed off the bus by police and forced to pay 30 euros for having invalid tickets. I tried playing the dumb American card and even shed some REAL tears but got zero sympathy (not so “Nice”)… Sooooo 30 euros for a 5 minute bus ride and the right to say we were DRAMATICALLY arrested on the streets of Nice, France?

Fancy-shmancy ticket validater

Saturday we visited Monaco and Cap D’ail. Monaco - the second smallest country in the world and home to the most yachts, unreasonably nice cars and excessively rich people. Don’t worry I blended in in my VT hoody and running shoes. We partied on a few yachts (...took pics from every angle) played poker at the Monte Carlo Casino (...took jumping pic outside) and bought a few Valentino gowns (...walked past the designer stores).

Next stop was Cap D’ail a little, secluded, awesome beach  right outside of Nice. You could sit for hours doing absolutely nothing and be happy as a clam. J

Saturday night there was a huge “Carnival of Nice” parade through the city. Creepy is a complete understatement… Imagine your scariest reoccurring childhood nightmare + the Zoolander brainwash scene.

After the parade we found a gelato place called Fennochio with the most flavors EVER. Beer, tomato basil, lavender, rose, sesame, olive (list goes on). I played it safe-ish with salted caramel – same comatose state as the crepe feast. Yum.

Sunday was “Francely” as “nice” as it gets. J We ran along the beach and up to the Chateau Castle Hill some fortress-y thing with a perfect view of the city. We sat on the beach and soaked up the FEBRUARY*** sunrays. I tried to lay in a lounge chair that cost 20 euro… and we walked through an awesome open air market. Fresh fruit, soaps, flowers, veggies and DON’T WORRY I managed to find basil, olive and tomato spread samples. 

Do things from the market really taste better or is it the “I got it at the market!” appeal???

We ran back to catch our train and had a bizarre encounter with a strange, old woman. She stood glaring at us at the train station, followed us on the train, paced back and forth past our seat for 5 minutes and then whispered “it’s a shame your bags are here ladies I’d like to speak English to you.” Straight out of a horror film. I swear I heard the eerie, high-pitched violin playing in the background. I was 99% sure we had been voo-doo-ized but so far all is well!

Something learned: Public transit is no joke. Rules are rules y’all.