France's Beach City

For miles and miles all we could see was cloud coverage.  Then, like a shelf in the ocean the clouds abruptly stopped and a mountainous terrain emerged thinking to myself, where we still in France.  After a quick turn of the airplane appeared the Mediterranean, the color like a blue raspberry slurpie from 7-11.  We had arrived at the French Riviera. 

The mountains behind the city of Nice. 

The blue water of the Riviera. 

As you land at the airport in Nice, it feels as if the ocean is going to swallow you whole.  Yet despite the slight uneasiness for some (Samantha), it provided picturesque views of the entire coastline.  Of course when you do land you see herds of private jets, one had the pained logo of the Washington Redskins. 

The view from above. 

The best mode of transportation from the airport to your hotel is most likely a bus.  (bus 98) It was a quick and cheap ride as once again the cabs would be on the more expensive side.  It is also rather enjoyable because the entire ride is on the main street of Nice, which is right along the coastline.

The view of the Nice coast line, at the very top left of the
shore is the airport. 

The main street running along Nice’s coast is about five or six miles long. The street side is filled with hotels, small cafes and bars while the ocean side has the promenade, a 20 foot wide boardwalk you would expect to see in California. The promenade is always active with people, either walking, running or rollerblading.  Even at midnight, the promenade was alive and felt more like fifth ave in NYC versus the main street of a beach town (really city).

The end of the coastline in the city of Nice. 

Then of course you have the beach.  The one aspect that I didn’t like about Nice was that the beach was very rocky.  It was not a beautiful sandy beach you would find in Nantucket otherwise if it had that, it would have been perfect.  Even with the rocks, the beach is packed.  We spent our days lounging around in a beach club, which cost 14 euros per person.

Trying to brave the rocks. 

The beach is not the only activity Nice provides.  Nice is not a quaint little beach town but a large city.  There is plenty to do and see both in the city and the surrounding areas.   Working on our sun tans was far from the only thing we did which I will touch on in my next few posts. 

Samantha and I working on our tans. 

As a side note, the Tour di France was in Nice the day before we
arrived.  They were taking down the decorations when we got there.