La Côte d'Azur

As a fabulous ending to my assistantship here, my contract ended in 2 weeks of vacation.  In order to take advantage of this time off, my friend Alice and I planned a trip to La Côte d’Azur.  In English we’d say the French Riviera but I like the story of how the name “La Côte d’Azur” came about as it was a man from Dijon that created it!  Dijon is located in the Côte d’Or (Golden Coast) department and was given this name due to the beautiful colors of the countryside and vineyards in the fall.  Well Stéphen Liégard, a writer and poet from Dijon, invented the term “Côte d’Azur” to replace “Riviera” (which us Anglophones still use).  Azur is a term meaning blue and the idea to use “Côte” stems from his roots in Côte d’Or!  (I am so very pleased to continue to find just how much Dijon and the Burgundy region have played such interesting roles in France and French history!!)

So, our trip started with an early train at 7:21am to Lyon with a connection to Aix-En-Provence.  However, our train got into Lyon late so we had to wait a little over an hour for a train from Lyon to Marseille and then Marseille to our destination: Nice.

We killed the hour of waiting in a café by the train station and ordered fresh squeezed orange juice. It was amazing! Making "lemonade out of lemons" or what? Haha:

Yumm!

I was also happy to be re-routed to Marseille so I could kind of claim I was in the city where the French national anthem came from. (The anthem is named La Marseillaise because the song was first sung in the streets of Marseille.)

Okay so being at the train station doesn't really count but whatever!

The train ride from Marseille to Nice was unbelievable—the train tracks are right along the coast and the view of the sea is fantastic!  Needless to say Alice and I were beyond excited to arrive in sunny Nice after 3 straight weeks of rain and gray in Dijon.  As we arrived in Nice and stepped off the train we were hit instantly with the temperature change and, as if that weren’t enough there were even palm trees in the station to greet us:

Nice-Ville train station

We chose Nice as our “home base” for the trip because it was in the middle of the other places we wanted to visit, it's a large city with a lot to offer, and because we had a recommendation from a friend for a hostel there.

As far as hostels go this is one of the better ones! Not expensive, so many amenities included, and a fabulous location near Old Nice, the city center, and the beaches.

Nice

The first thing we did after getting settled at the hostel was check out the pebble beaches! I have never seen the sea so blue:

But, there is much more to Nice than just its famous beaches.  Old Nice for example is home to many cafés, restaurants, government buildings, and more.  We had many lovely meals here, including:

Omlette niçoise

Salade niçoise

The famous flower market is also in Old Nice.  The market was fantastic- so many radiant colors in an already vibrant city it was sensory overload:

Lavender- specialty of Provence!

Aside from the flowers there were also fresh soaps being sold which are also a specialty of Provence:

While in Nice I was continuously blown away by the blue color of the sea along the pebble beaches.  We spent much of our time soaking in the sun and listening to the waves pound the shore.  We probably should have packed sunscreen as we both got burned! Ooops! A strong, cold wind called the Mistral was in full force which sometimes made us forget how strong the sun actually was!

Oh so blue!

Another great aspect of Nice is the Colline du Château, or Castle Hill.  An ancient castle used to sit at the top of the hill but now this spot also provides lovely views of the city:

Monaco

We decided to go to Monaco for a day trip and check out the land of our favorite drink.  (After all Alice is the one who introduced me to “the Monaco”).

We first  climbed up the to the Prince’s palace and saw the changing of the gaurds:

Palace

Blurry pic of the changing of the guards

And then to our surprise, Prince Albert drove by and waved:

Prince Albert's car!

He may be no Prince William but still cool to see a royal in real life!

Monaco is unbelievably perfect looking- the streets are so clean and every plant/garden is manicured.  Words don’t do it justice so have a look:

We wandered away from the palace and saw that many were hard at work setting up for the world famous Grand Prix!

Main stands

Fencing along the roads. I'll have to watch this year!!

We saw Notre Dame de Monaco where Princess Grace is buried:

And of course we had to see the Monte-Carlo:

We ended our time in Monaco in a posh bar overlooking the harbor where we of course, drank Monacos!

Antibes & Cannes

We decided to take another day trip, this time to Antibes and Cannes.  We saw a cool fort in Antibes from the train on the way to Nice so we wanted to check it out.  The fort’s name is the Forte Carré (Squared Fort) and we were given a tour throughout it.  Jacques, our tour guide, was really great and we learnt a lot!  An interesting fact about the fort is that Napoleon was once a prisoner there!  Not only was the fort a wealth of historical information, it provided beautiful views of the sea, mountains, and Antibes’ port:

The fort

Antibes' port from the fort

Part of the fort and the sea

View of the Alps from the fort
(or as Jacques said: "Sea, sun, and snow" haha)

After the fort tour we headed to Cannes to check out the site of the world famous film festival.  Before exploring too much we stopped for lunch where I had the best Croque Madame I’ve tasted since my first one in 2009:

Then we went to the film festival site:

And hung out on the sandy beaches:

The water was chilly!! (And yes, those are sandal tan lines on my feet)

While we had limited time in Antibes and Cannes they were both lovely in different ways but I prefer Nice out of the three.

For our last day in Nice we spent a lot of time at the beach.  We went to the market and created our own light lunch: fresh baguette, strawberries from the region, olives provençal, and goat cheese:

So. Good. 

What was so lovely about this, aside from the scenery, was that is was a true vacation.  We were well rested, relaxed, and simply there to enjoy this beautiful part of the world.  I left part of my heart in the Côte d’Azur and I know there's no doubt that I’ll be back there some day!

Word of the Post: le paradis -- heaven