Nice & Monaco.

Erica & I travelled out to Nice this weekend. Sitting around and trying to make ourselves go see things in Paris was getting somewhat boring. I know, it's Paris and it's supposed to be exciting, but we really weren't feeling it. I wasn't much fun to be around. So on a whim, we decided to buy train tickets to Nice because a childhood friend of Erica's is living there for school this year and she said we could stay with them. That's what we did. 

We took an overnight train on Friday, arriving in Nice on Saturday morning. From there, Erica & I and the three girls we stayed with took a bus to Monaco. The bus cost 1 euro, which was crazy and awesome. Monaco is, unfortunately, overrated. If you're planning on going there, we suggest: don't. Visit Nice instead.

But let's be fair. The view from up high is beautiful and it has some cool buildings. However, aside from the fact that it is an incredibly wealthy place, there didn't seem to be much to see. We went to the Oceanography Museum and we loved the aquarium there. We enjoyed the view of the ocean and the hills/mountains from up by the palace. However, there wasn't much else to see. There was a yacht show going on, and we watched people walk around, checking the yachts out, but we didn't want to even know how much it cost just to go look at them. After walking around a little, grabbing something to eat & drink, we headed back to Nice in the evening. 

Welcome to Monaco:

Sunday morning three of us went to an evangelical church in Nice. The people there were incredibly kind and welcoming. The pastor there is a missionary and we spoke with his wife after. She lived in Hamilton for a couple months at one point in time, so there was definitely excitement because both Erica & her friend are from the Hamilton area, and Erica & I attend Redeemer in Ancaster/Hamilton. So that was neat. The rest of the day we spent on the beach, which is beautiful. I haven't seen the ocean other than the West & East coasts of Canada (which are also gorgeous), and so seeing all this incredibly blue water was fantastic. "The Azur Coast" is the nickname for the whole area, and it's quite fitting.


Monday, Erica & I bought some sandals. I know, not so exciting, eh? Except for the fact that they are Birkenstocks & we got them for 40 euros. We were pretty excited. We returned to the apartment so we could wear the sandals instead of our running shoes and I called Mom & Dad. It was great to be able to talk to them for a bit. (Sorry for waking you up...) Then we went back to the beach and it was an even more beautiful day than Sunday. The waves were pretty large each day, so when we went in we had to be careful of the undertow, but it was quite lovely all the same. Erica got to call her parents & some friends after the beach. We had some gelato at night, and then went out with the other girls and a friend of theirs.


Welcome to a bit of Nice:

Planes were always flying over the water, which was weird.

The Nice airport is to the right of the beach, so they all circled

(low) over the water.

Beautiful stone beach and pristine, blue, salty water.

There were some frustrating moments to the trip, but all in all, it was beautiful and great to get away from Paris for a bit. We talked about Paris being grey and somewhat depressing (mostly because no one smiles much), and we returned today to a very cloudy, grey sky and I laughed to myself. Paris. Grey. Figures. 

It's not that bad, though. We are more familiar with our area than before, and that's nice. We have also discovered the beautiful cost of a bottle of wine here. Bottled water costs more. I look forward to discovering the park that is supposedly close to us, so I can find some living green things in this city!

Blessings on your final days of September!

~Lynette