Hello and welcome back to the fifth of seven vacances de printemps recap posts! MTC and I went on a grand tour du sud – stops ten, eleven, and twelve on the journey were Nice, Sanremo (IT), and Menton! Just like the first three posts, this one will be a long one, so grab your coffee, get comfortable, and enjoy!
Dimanche 15 avril 2018
MTC and I didn’t have any grand plans for Sunday night in Nice; after our arrival, we got settled and tried to find a good place to eat dinner. Once we finally found a restaurant within walking distance that was open, we were on our way!
We ate our pizzas, walked home, watched the first part of “Hercules”, and we (I should say ‘I’ because let’s be real, I’m always the first one falling asleep when we watch Netflix) fell asleep.
Lundi 16 avril 2018
We left our Airbnb around 10h30 and set out to enjoy the city! I had found a pastis shop online that was right by our apartment. However, I failed to realize that because it was Monday and we were in France, it was, of course, going to be closed. Although slightly discouraged, we headed to the tourism office for a map and continued our exploration. Our first stop was la vieille ville and the #ILoveNice sign.
We spent the morning walking through the parks, visiting churches, and exploring.
It took me approximately .24 seconds to fall in love with Nice. The sunshine, the colors, the parks, the beach…unbeatable.
Around noon, we headed up the big hill (which I’m sure has a name, but I don’t remember it) and enjoyed the beautiful panoramic view of Nice. If you visit Nice, you absolutely need to do this: the view is unreal!
We headed back down the hill a short while later and visited a couple more churches.
Our next priority was lunch! We stopped at “La Claire Fontaine” and I had a salade niçoise – sea bass with rice and ratatouille – ice cream.
Just after lunch, we visited one last church, explored a flea market, and headed to the promenade des Anglais for a nice long walk next to the beach.
In the late afternoon, we headed back to the Airbnb and watched the rest of “Hercules”. I prepared our lunches for the following day and we prepared (bomb.com) tomato and mozzarella salads for dinner.
To conclude our first day in Nice, we watched “Coco” (I know I’m late to the game, but oh my gosh it was SO SO SO good!!) and went to sleep.
Mardi 17 avril 2018
Our Tuesday in Nice was focused on two different “day trips”. Our first stop was Sanremo, Italy!
We made it to Sanremo around 11am and just wandered around and explored.
While I’m sure the city is lovely during the summer, we only ended up staying in the city for an hour and a half because the weather was gross and almost every monument was closed and under construction.
I’m happy I can say, “I’ve been to Italy!”, but I’m really hoping to go back to experience different cities and the Italian culture.
Our second stop of the day was Menton, France. Menton was the exact opposite of Sanremo: beautifully warm and sunny, colorful, and just overall lovely. Just like Nice, Menton is unbelievably picturesque – it was like something out of a dream!
We found a bench looking out to the sea and decided it was the perfect spot to take a quick lunch break. Given that we didn’t get our gelato in Italy, I looked up “the best ice cream shop in Menton” and we headed on our way to “GM Glacerie”. The people on Google and Yelp know what they are talking about because the ice cream was out of this world! I got dark chocolate and pistachio and it was heavenly 🙂
After our ice cream, we headed down to the ocean and stuck our feet in the (very cold) Mediterranean Sea.
We walked along the beach for a bit and headed back to the centre ville. We had visited a limoncello boutique on our way to get ice cream, so we headed back to the boutique so MTC could buy a bottle for himself (plus, you can’t go wrong with free samples!).
We were walking back to the car so we could head back to Nice, but I made MTC stop for a bit longer to enjoy the sunshine and the view.
Eventually, we made our way back up the car and drove back to Nice. We made a quick stop at the supermarket and returned to our Airbnb to get dinner ready (where I accidentally broke one of our host’s bottles of wine – oops!). I had decided that I really wanted to eat a picnic dinner on the beach and watch the sunset, so we headed back to the beach at about 19h00 to do just that.
It was so worth it.
Back at the apartment, we had a small limoncello, watched Big Bang Theory, and it was lights out.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Check back tomorrow for the next vacation recap post!
Until next time,
Michaela
Looks like the weather turned for the better in Nice! Lovely skies and great views…it’s been years since I’ve been, and I would love to go back! Italy is just as gorgeous and hopefully, you can return to see more of it some day. 🙂
LikeLike