Cote D’Azur

Euro Summer Re-cap

It’s taken a while for me to post the second half of my mini Euro Summer which was another one of my favourite destinations Cote d’Azur, Nice to be specific. Honestly in a perfect world every one of my summers would be spent here. Nice is legit the perfect place, the people are friendly, the weather is great, the water’s so blue *in Beyonce’s voice* and you can hop on a train and be in an equally beautiful town or village. I would recommend it over and over again to anyone who will listen.

My first time in Nice was a solo trip and this time around I went with my bestie, so its safe to say it works great as a solo travel destination as well as a girls trip destination.

The sun sets were at 21h30 or so and I tried to capture the beauty.

Nights at the beach were lovely.

I revisited Ezè village and Monaco.

I made it to Cannes this time around and the train ride was longer and hotter (you have been warned). Train ride aside Cannes is absolutely gorgeous and their beach has sand instead of pebble beaches in Nice. ( I do not care for the pebbles personally).

Checked out their walk of fame and walked up and down Les Marches du Palais(the red carpet stairs)

Even in my blogs I’m a maximalist here are a bunch of pics that I’m posting just for kicks.😉

I returned to Farago on the roof for Sunday brunch and the views were as lovely as I remembered (pictured above).

Next time I’ll make it to St Tropez and Menton.

Where I stayed in Nice

I’ve been backing up my files and photos since I had an incident with my computer last year (spilled tea on my computer it couldn’t be repaired so I lost everything on my machine). I came across a lot of photos that are just sitting on my phone, unshared and unprinted so I figured might as well share them here. So here is a post with pics of the hotels I stayed in last year.

I stayed in 2 hotels in Nice last year as I had extended my stay, another spanner in the works I guess. “Spanner in the works” was the theme for my 2023.

The first half of my holiday I stayed at the Nice Excelsior which was located perfectly in Vieux Nice (Old Nice) so I was within walking distance from everything the beach,Place Massena & a 2 minute walk from the train station. I hit the jackpot with location of this hotel. Location location location. The hotel itself was cute with quirky decor and the staff were super friendly.

The backyard was also cute.

I extended my time in Nice so I needed to find another place to stay enter the Okko hotel which was not as central but it was a newer hotel and was right by the tram station so getting around was easy.

The Okko hotel has a more corporate feel with a huge common area that they refer to as “the club”. It’s really just a lounging/eating / bar area

Birthday Solo Trip pt2

The cool thing about visiting the South of France is there are so many little towns within driving or train distance you can have cute little day excursions all over the French Riviera. Nice is nice and central so for the most part you can hop on a train to a small town like Éze village to major attractions like Monanco. I mention these 2 places because they are the ones I visited because they were the shortest trips (I get motion sickeness).

My first day trip was to Ezé Village because it was a quick train ride (not more than 15minutes from Nice). Ezé is a beautiful medieval town perched on a hilltop, it was recommended for the pretty views of the Mediterranean Sea and the historic buildings. A quick tip from me though if you’re going to visit Ezé from Nice take the bus or drive, I learned that the hard way. I took the train and it was quick and all but the train station is all the way at the bottom of the doggone cliff/hill, then you have to take the shuttle to the top and those don’t come frequently. We waited at that bus stop for over an hour by the time it arrived there were so many of us we were like sardines in a tin can. Same thing coming back down and the road was small and windy my goodness. Btw being in overpopulated train-cars and shuttles was a big theme this trip.

My 2nd day trip was to Monaco and is one that requires a re-do and a lot more prep work, I disrespected this place with my go with flow attitude here, my bad. This trip was basically a walk through the city. The only way to describe Monaco is beautifully opulent.

The train was packed the whole way to Monaco, I was standing the whole time and I thought that was bad. The return trip was like a movie. There was a one and a half hour train delay so the platform was filled to the brim, there was damn near a stampede once a train finally arrived. I could’ve died ya’ll. No lie the people on the other platforms were taking pictures and videos. It was a little bit scary. So yeah after that I was like I’m going to stay put in Nice, no more trains for me for a bit.

Here’s something for the fashion girlies

Birthday Solo Trip pt1

This year my birthday was celebrated solo in the South of France, and I think I may have found one of my favourite holiday destinations. I visited the gorgeous Nice and it felt like walking into a postcard. It was unreal, so picturesque.

No exaggeration, as we were landing you could see the bluest water ever from the aeroplane and I had a window seat. What a beautiful landing.

I don’t really do any planning activity-wise when it comes to holidays I’m more of a go with the flow type of traveler. In my defense there really isn’t any activity planning required when you’re in a beach destination right. Besides lazing around is what being on holiday is about.

My first full day was spent at one of the beach clubs along the Promenade Des Anglais. I opted for the beach club as they supplied beach beds, umbrellas and food because those pebble beaches are uncomfortable to sit or lie on all day (I’m a sand beach type of gal). I mean you obviously pay to get in but its worth it for the comfort and convenience.

A lot of walking was done on this trip, my step counter must’ve thought it had been stolen by a very active person. Listen I walked up to the top of of Castel Hill to check out the panoramic view of Nice. The walk all the way to the top was not planned the elevator was closed when I got there (it closes at 17h00 and I got there after 18h00)

I did book an activity off of AirBnB experiences though, it was a photoshoot for my birthday. Antoine the photographer was very patient with me bless his heart, because I’m hella awkward when someone else is taking my picture (I’m absolutely fine with selfies as you can tell). But yeah the shoot was also like a walking tour of Nice so it was fun. Here are some of the shots he took 😉

Nice is so beautiful and the people were really nice too, I mean the cab driver from the airport to the hotel was a leo for crying out loud, it don’t get no better.