We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at the chateau and got an early start driving toward the French Riviera.
On our way, we stopped off in Avignon. I won't give a history lesson on this city, since I don't recall much of what Sarah told us. I do know that Avignon was where several former Popes resided. The city has walls bordering it, and once you get inside the wind stops and it's just a pretty little place.
We didn't have a long time to explore, so we walked around a bit and then stopped for lunch in a cafe. I ordered a four cheese crepe, which was absolutely delicious and came with a nice salad to get in a little healthy eating.
My four cheese crepe - delicious!
The four of us in Avignon enjoying lunch
After lunch it was back to the coach to drive for several more hours. We stopped off at the Fragonard perfumery to learn about making perfume. It was neat, but had a very strong perfume smell and I didn't really like any of the individual products. It was too bad, because I probably would have bought one if I had liked any of them.
Shortly after that, we arrived at our campsite in the town of Antibes, which is close to Nice and Cannes in the French Riviera. The campsite was nice, though the cabins were small and had paper thin walls (which later made for a hilarious story from Phil and Daryl...). We had a shared bathroom with Tiarni and Michelle, which was actually nice because we got to know them a little bit.
That night we had a French dinner that included a champagne punch and frog legs. I had a really hard time trying the frog legs - they tasted OK, but the idea that they were frog legs just turned my stomach. I had one bite but couldn't finish. They tasted kind of like chicken, but I would have rather had chicken!
Later the group hung out at the campsite's pub and played pool (I was terrible!) and then ended up going to a club called la Siesta. It was a long walk to the club and we lost a few people along the way, but the club was beautiful and thankfully ladies got in for free and even got a free first drink!
Unfortunately, the club was pretty empty and it was not as much fun as I would have thought. We did end up tearing up the dance floor on our own, but we were some of the only people dancing. I'm glad we didn't have to pay to get in because that would have been a disappointment (and the guys did pay, so I felt kind of bad there). The upside was that I was with some people I hadn't spent as much time with yet, so it was a good opportunity to get to know them and have fun together. We left around 3am so it was a late night.
The only picture I've seen of us at the club - me, Brittney, and Jhoey!
Day 2:
After a few hours of sleep, we were up again to head into Nice for the day. Sarah met us and walked us to the train station so she could help us buy tickets. The train ticketing system wasn't working very well, so not everyone actually got on the train at the same time. Thankfully, I managed to jump on right as the doors were closing and catch Danielle, Kris, Phil, Brittney, and Hercules. A few people - Daryl included - did not make it onto that train and we were separated for the day.
Nice was a very pretty town. We really lucked out and got gorgeous weather that day - I think we had the best weather of the entire trip. It's kind of amazing that it worked out that way, since this was the one day we were hanging out at a beach and the weather really mattered! It was sunny and probably in the 80's so it was a perfect beach day.
The first thing we did in Nice was walk down the promenade area - which was basically a main street with many stores and shops.
After walking through the city, we ended up at the beach. The Mediterranean sea is just gorgeous! The sunlight on the blue water was dazzling. I've seen the ocean from several different locations but I don't recall seeing a sea so blue.
Wading into the Mediterranean Sea
Brittney and Phil relaxing on the beach
Nice is so pretty!
Danielle and Kris both brought their swimsuits, so they took a swim in the sea while the rest of us relaxed on the shore. The beach was all rocks so it was not very comfortable, but I was very happy to just sit by the water and soak up some sun and salty air.
The crazy thing about the Mediterranean was that it was SO salty. I only waded in to about my knees, but when I got out and dried off in the sun I found salt caked onto my legs. I've never had that happen anywhere else!
After a while, we decided to move on. We took a walk back into the town and strolled through some of the markets. Hercules was with us, which proved to be challenging because he's really hard to understand and really didn't want to move at the same pace as the rest of us. Thankfully, we ended up splitting up with him.
One of the biggest "must see stops" in Nice was le Chateau, otherwise known as Castel Hill. It was basically some ruins of an older chateau and a big hill to climb with spectacular views of Nice. Danielle, Phil, Kris, and I made the climb to the top and the views definitely made the hike worth it. We had some instances of "extreme tourism" along the way, got some great photos, and generally just really enjoyed being outside on a beautiful day.
There was a really neat cemetery about halfway up the climb
At the top of the hill, Danielle and I got ice cream and the four of us sat down and relaxed a bit. We meandered back down and around town, and ended up running into most of the rest of the people on our tour back at the beach. Danielle and Kris took another swim, and then we all headed back to the train.
The train was complicated. We had a language barrier and some issues figuring out what time the train we needed was coming. In the end, we asked some nice French ladies and they gave us the wrong information (but felt bad about it, so we couldn't really get mad). We ended up on a train in the right direction, but it was an express and didn't stop at our stop and instead went straight through to Antibes, which was a few miles past. By this time, we were running really short on time to get back to the campground, shower, and be ready for dinner and an evening in Monaco. It was so frustrating!
Thankfully, when we got off the train in Antibes there was a cab large enough to fit all of us. We jumped into it and it took us quickly back to the campsite, and for about 5 euros each. So - despite being a little stressful we managed to get back only a little later than we would have had we gotten on the right train.
The girls took frantic showers in an attempt to get ready quickly - it figures that the 4 girls who were together at that point were sharing a bathroom! The guys, of course, changed their clothing and then got drunk. Sometimes I wish I was a guy (though I wasn't into getting drunk that night anyway). They have it so easy!
A short time later, we had dinner and loaded up on the coach to head to Monaco for the evening. I'm not even sure how to explain this, but I was crying from laughing so hard when Kris, after drinking a bit too much in his cabin, casually waved to all of us on the bus waiting for him and sipped his beer like he didn't have a care in the world. I'm mostly noting that for my own memory, because it was one of those moments where you had to be there to catch how funny it really was.
I think we cleaned up pretty good for getting ready so fast!
The drive to Monaco - the second smallest country in the world, second only to Vatican City - was probably an hour or so. We had a couple of stops along the way, first at a beautiful lookout point where Sarah and Bart gave us all a glass of champagne.
We are some seriously sexy bitches.
Next we stopped and walked a bit to see the Prince of Monaco's palace and look out over the city. Monaco seemed like a neat place. We didn't have time to see much of it but from what we saw, it was beautiful. It is a very wealthy and selective city - you actually have to apply and be approved to live there. Sir Elton John and Madonna both tried to become residents, and were denied! I guess if they aren't allowed there, Monaco probably wouldn't want me either.
View of Monaco
The Prince of Monaco's palace
Our next stop was the Monte Carlo casino. We actually went inside the casino for an hour or so, but you could not take pictures so I don't have any to share. It was beautiful inside, but much smaller than I would have expected for such a world famous casino. I have a feeling it just seemed small - many of the rooms required a very expensive buy-in to even enter the room. Since I didn't have thousands of euros to gamble, I did not get to see those rooms.
Everyone on the tour group had kicked in 2 euros so we had some money to gamble on behalf of the group. Phil ended up playing blackjack with the group's money. He did pretty well for a while - I think, at least, I'm not that familiar with blackjack! But he ended up losing, which was about what I would have expected when we all pitched in. That's why I don't gamble - it's pretty rare that you make any money from it!
Danielle and I each got a glass of wine and we walked around a bit. It was a neat place to see, but the amount of money spent (or rather, lost) there was kind of disgusting. Definitely not my style. I cannot fathom having the money to spend on that type of gambling, and more accurately I can't imagine having that kind of money and choosing to blow it on gambling rather than something more meaningful. If you don't want your money, use it to help others.
There were some pretty fancy cars in front of the casino, which was kind of neat.
The Monte Carlo casino
The Monte Carlo casino has some fancy cars parked out front
We left the casino and drove back to the campground. It was pretty late by that point, so I didn't do anything after that - just went to bed. A full day in the sun and a night in Monaco made me pretty tired!
Conclusion:
The French Riviera was a wonderful stop. I think I would return, but only if I was looking for a beautiful place to have a relaxing vacation. It seemed more like a resort area than somewhere to go for sightseeing - for some reason, it reminded me of being in Mexico in one of the touristy areas. The sea was amazingly blue, the town was cute and had a lot to offer, and it was fun to explore for the day. I did feel like I saw everything I wanted to, which was rare on this vacation!
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