On Friday, May 1st Brian and I traveled to Nice, France located in the French Riviera along the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed until Monday, May 4th to take advantage of another one of England's Bank Holiday weekends and not having to work the Monday. On our first morning after breakfast we set off on a stroll along the sea front. It felt so nice to be in warm weather and to see the beautiful coastline with bright turquoise colors.
We walked up the steps at Castle Hill..
And had this spectacular view over Nice...
At the top you could walk 360 degrees around and here was the view from one of the other directions...
So beautiful!
Once we returned back down all the steps we walked along the boardwalk where it was bustling with walkers, runners, bikers and roller bladders.
Such a nice day, everyone was out enjoying it!
Didn't take long and we found the big market we were told we should check out. So many fresh fruits and vegetables...
Lots of flowers and soap from the nearby Marseille, France. I was excited to buy 3 bars of the delicious smelling soap to bring home which have been produced from this region in France for over 600 years from vegetable oils.
The rest of the afternoon we spent exploring the narrow streets and enjoying the sunshine.
I loved how colorful all the buildings were.
We walked into the lobby of the Negresco Hotel which is along the front seaside boardwalk to take a look at the artsy decor.
Below is the main square in Nice...
That evening we had a nice dinner which of course included French wine!
The next morning after some fantastic french pastries from a local bakery for breakfast we hopped on the train to Monaco. It was only a 15 minute ride until we were in the 2nd smallest country in the world! (Only .78 square miles and just over 36,000 people)
Monaco is an incredibly wealthy country and I had always been excited to see where the rich and famous flock to! The whole area is filled with expensive yachts, cars and beautiful buildings nestled on the slopes overlooking the Mediterranean. How much nicer does it get?
The famous Monaco Grand Prix is held there and it was fun seeing the course set up since the very first electric race was being held the following weekend and the Grand Prix at the end of the month. In the picture below you can see part of the grandstands set up along the water.
As we walked the course which is really just regular roads it was fun to see fancy "regular" cars (Ferrari's, Porsche's and Lamborghini's) driving around and echoing throughout the city. This really helped us get a feel of what it would sound like during the actual race, which of course would be even louder!
My favorite place was the Port of Monaco and looking at the huge yachts...
Brian liked the dreaming too... "How can I get one of those?"
After leaving the port we continued along the race course, through tunnels and some steep hairpin turns...
We stopped at the Monte Carlo Casino where we tried going in but it was to early since it didn't open until 2:00 pm. After checking out the expensive cars valeted out front we continued on our way.
By this point it had really warmed up and was about 70 degrees which felt great!
Yachts, yachts and more yachts!
One even had out a basket looking for Stewardess CV's (resumes). I'd be fine with that being my next job!
More continuing along the raceway...
We walked up another large hill to where the Prince's Palace of Monaco overlooks great views of the port.
After eating lunch and enjoying the view we made our way back down to pit stops and the finish line!
Then it was time to head back and check out the casino although it turned out you had to pay to get in. Since we weren't actually planning to gamble we just wandered through the lobby which was pretty elaborate (couldn't take pictures inside).
By then we decided it was time to leave Monaco because our feet were real tired from all the walking (According to my Fitbit we walked 11 miles two days in a row on this trip). We hopped back on the train and got off only one stop outside of Nice at a great little village along the water called Villefranche Sur Mer.
We enjoyed some great people and dog watching and a few drinks before heading back to Nice.
The next morning we made one last stop at our French bakery for pastries...
And after a few hours we had lunch at a lovely outdoor cafe.
We had a great time relaxing in Nice and Monaco on this trip!
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