Here are a few of the best decisions that we made during this trip.
#1 - Visiting the Cours Saleya every day. The Cours Saleya is a beautiful outdoor flower and food market that is located just a few steps from the Promenade de Anglais. It not only houses many gorgeous fruit and vegetable vendors, but also many stands of pastries, olives, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, and socca (a local specialty that is made from chickpeas). Each day we picked up a different assortment of food for our lunches: a baguette, goat cheese, dried dates, oranges, sun-dried tomatoes, savory pastries or a few portions of socca. We would bag these away until lunch-time, when we would stop and have a feast wherever we were. On different days, these lunch-spots included the beach, the view outside of Monaco's Cathedral, and inside the Nomade statue in Antibes.
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| The view early-morning from our apartment window. The air was so fresh, I would just stick my head out the window and breathe and breathe and breathe! |
#2 - Renting an Airbnb apartment in Old Town. With 4 people in our travel group, we decided to look at Airbnb options instead of staying in a hostel, and the price per person ended up being cheaper than the cheapest hostel (a whopping $13.41/person per night, and that includes our late check-in fee!). Our apartment was amazing. We had a view of the sea from our window; we were steps away from the Cours Saleya, the Place Massena, Jean Medecin (where there are lots of shops and restaurants), the Opera House, and the Palais de Justice; we had comfortable sleeping space for 4 people; we had a coffee pot and a fully-working kitchen; and so much more. We were even able to invite 4 other friends over for dinner and cooked our entire meal in our little studio kitchen! Having such a comfortable and central apartment for this stay really enhanced our experience on this trip. If you want to book an Airbnb apartment on your next adventure, click here for $20 travel credit.
#3 - Taking the bus to visit Monaco. We paid 3 euro each round-trip to take the 100 bus to Monaco, which was a beautiful, scenic 30 minute ride from the Nice port. We hiked up to the palace right in time for the changing of the guards at 11:55am (our timing was perfect). Then we walked all around the gorgeous view, paid homage to Grace Kelly at her grave in the Cathedral, hiked all over the hilly neighborhoods, and finished our afternoon at the Monaco Starbucks (talk about classy). I <3 micro-countries!
#4 - Spending lots of time on the beach. I literally wanted to bottle the air in Nice and take it with me. It was so salty and clear and refreshing! Before taking our flight back, we spent several hours on the beach with our bags, just reading books and napping in the sunshine. I got a good start on my book of choice: Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery. This time was absolutely refreshing.
#5 - Eating all the pastries in France. On our first morning, we discovered a patisserie/boulangerie across the street from our apartment, and the treat of those who woke up first was going across to this bakery and picking out a few different things for our breakfast. Every day was different (although brioche au chocolat made it on our daily menu from day one). We loved the quiche, the brioche, croissants, beignets, and more things that I can't even pronounce. Each pastry would get cut into 4 parts, and we would get a lovely plate with bites of many different things, from savory to sweet. What a treat!
The South of France was even more than I could have ever imagined. Magical, warm, fairy-tale-ish. It was a wonderful place to be in winter, when the crowds were thinner and the weather delightful. One of my favorite trips so far! Even more perfect - the friends I got to spend it with. So many beautiful and colorful memories.
