Le Cote D’Azur!!!

Viva La France!! I have been dreaming of visiting the French Riviera in the South of France for years and couldn’t contain my excitement as we traveled along the ocean to our hotel in Nice. The sticky heat, the bright lights, the palm trees, I was in HEAVEN! We chose to stay in Nice because it was central between Cannes and Monaco, both places we wanted to see. We arrived late that night and decided to check out the Nice night life. Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the beach so we conveniently strolled down through Old Town Nice with a quick 11pm stop for 2 slices of sidewalk pizza for 3 Euro. This came in handy when the first bar playing live Beetles music charged 9 Euro for a Red Bull vodka! At least they had sugar free… The next bar was directly across from the beach and we quickly made friends with an awesome mid 30’s Welsh couple. They immediately offered us tastes of their death defying Sambuca (black licorice clear alcohol served with coffee beans) followed by the local beer, long island’s, another round of Sambuca (thank you for taking that Shawn!) and the night continued on from there.

If I had a billion dollars, I would move to Monaco

The next day we struggled out of bed for a long relaxing day under beach umbrellas in Cannes. (It was going to be our French version of Sunday Funday) Unfortunately after going to about 10 places, we realized we needed a reservation for these notorious beach chairs. HEARTBROKEN, I decided I could make it through living if we made reservations for the next day. From there we hopped back on the train and took it about 45 mins (past Nice) to the principality of Monaco. Monaco-Ville, as they call it, is the second smallest country in the world (Vatican City being smaller) and is also the world’s smallest monarchy! With this said, it is amazing to see the distinct beauty and exorbitant wealth this principality is comprised of. Monte Carlo is also home to the Monaco Grand Prix which happens every year and attracts the rich and famous along with their multi-million dollar yachts, Ferraris, Bentleys, and Lamgorghini’s! We walked through the beautiful park above the Casino down to the beach and spent some time basking in the beautiful French sun.

After all this walking and sun worshipping we headed back to our hotel in Nice. We had plans to return to Monte Carlo that evening to experience the energy of the affluent municipality by night. We got dolled up and Shawn put on his fancy shoes so we would be admitted to le grand Casino de Monte-Carlo. It was exciting just walking around outside the Casino and seeing all the high end cars driving by and revving their engines. Since it was 20 Euro just to get in and minimum bets were 1 million euros (jk!) we headed to the free entrance casino which shockingly had 6 euro wine AND free munchies. The bar we sat at was very contemporary and swanky and we really enjoyed feeling like one of the regular visitors or locals amidst this posh casino in this glamorous bar. Later we walked back along the hill away from the Casino and found another bar similar to this one overlooking the harbor and the enormous yachts. The twinkling lights were so entrancing and the ocean breeze and warm air felt like heaven all over again. Had to slam the wine as our train was 10 minutes away! Ahh! One day we’ll be back and we’ll be riding in limos not running in heels up to the train!

Vous ete ici

The next day we awoke early as we wanted to explore the medieval town of Eze Village which we had seen on the Samantha Brown show, Passport to Europe. This village is situated on the hillside above Eze Sur Mer and has the most incredible and breathtaking views of Le Cote D’azur. It took about 20 minutes to bus up the hill before we arrived at the base of the small town. Since it was early the air was crisp and fresh and we made our way through the medieval streets of Eze. We headed towards Château Eza, the romantic 5 star luxury boutique hotel, where we stopped for chocolat chaud’s (hot chocolates) and admired the gorgeous view. From there we made our way back down through the small streets stopping at a few of the local artisan’s stores along with the village church before trying to find the famous Fragonard, “Le grand parfumeur de Grasse.” We opted to go to a smaller perfumery where we picked up some green and white soaps which read “Eze – Grasse” on them for Mom’s bathroom, as she really wished she was able to see Eze Village when she was in France in 2007. Eze Village is known as the hidden gem in Le Cote D’Azur and after seeing it first hand I couldn’t agree more. The village was SO picturesque and just oozed with romance, luxury, and charm. I wouldn’t miss it on your next trip to France!

After this we made our way back over to Cannes for our beach chair reservation. We had a few drinks and enjoyed the sunshine along with the French. Various of them were topless, some were over tanned, wrinkly, and saggy, and some were absolutely gorgeous, (what you would hope for when visiting the South of France!). Later that evening we picked a Teppanyaki restaurant for dinner called “Le Samurai” and decided to treat ourselves to a tasty dinner overlooking the ocean. This restaurant was unique because you walked on top of a fish tank when you entered the front door! We loved the atmosphere and enjoyed eating something different than we had been for the past few weeks.

Although we were leaving my dream destination spot early the next morning I was excited to see what Paris had to offer.