Nice is not Nice, but wet!!

Day 7 - 15 Sep 09:

Today we could choose to go to either Nice or Cannes or stay at the campsite. The majority of people went to Nice. We walked with a VERY hungover Chachi to the train station where he pointed us in the right direction and went back to bed. (We found out later that his tab at the bar was 150 Euro!!)

The train took about 30 minutes to get into Nice and we proceeded to walk down the main street, Avenue Jean Medicin, towards the Beach. We all had our swimsuits on in hopes of laying on the beach today. The sky was overcast and we were hoping the sun would show itself at some point. Amanda, Bec and I walked through the old part of Nice and found a farmers market. I bought some of the reddest strawberries I had ever seen!! They were very good too.

We were heading off to ‘Le Chateau’ to see a birds-eye-view of Nice. On our way we
decided that we had to stop and get Amanda a crepe because it was our last day in France and crepes are oh so French. We ate our very French crepe at a very French café and decided that we needed to put our feet in the very French French Riviera. The beaches in Nice are not of the sand variety, instead they are of the pebble variety. The rocks on the beach are very smoothed out from the salt water. Bec and I put our feet in the water and despite the cloudiness of the day, it was not too cold.

The 90 meter climb to the top of ‘Le Chateau’ was hard with a sick Bec in tow. She was such a trooper, not whinging at all!! The top was very beautiful, but would have been better with the sun out. We could still see the very distinct blue of the Mediterranean Sea as well as all the way up the coast of Nice to the airport.

At the top of ‘Le Chateau’ we made a plan, McDonalds, supermarket, then train home. Simple enough, right?

Now all of us do not normally eat McDonalds at home and you may ask, “Why are you going to McDonalds if you are in France, of all places?” Well to answer your question it is because they serve beer at McDonalds in France. Yes it is the afternoon but we are kind of hungry and decide that we need to soak up the tourist moment and get a beer at McDonalds. We order and go to sit down, crack open our beers and take the obligatory tourist photos. We then discover that the beer is not good AT ALL!! It is pretty much the equivalent of Key Light back home. We enjoy a few sips of our beer and our meal and head to the supermarket.

It is our last day in France and we decide that we need to have one last meal of Baguette and Cheese. We get our baguette and Laughing Cow cheese and head for the train…no dramas here….

On the way to the train station it starts to sprinkle. We get to the train station and realize that we have no clue where we are going and ask a station employee. They point us in the right direction and we proceed to the platform and get on the train. Expecting the train to go immediately, we get a bit irritated that it is still sitting there 10 minutes later. We sit on the train for an hour, and all 4 of us, Bec, Amanda, Alana and I take a nap. When we woke up and we were still in the Nice Station, we were worried that we were not on the right train and that we had missed ours. Bec gets up to confirm that we are on the right train and we are so no drama there…but now…why isn’t the train moving!?!?!?!

We eventually did get back to our stop, ‘Biot’ and now it is pouring buckets!! We catch up with Kim, Morgan, Carrin and Bradley getting off the train as well and begin the walk back to the campground. During the walk, it is raining enough and rain makes puddles and I got splashed by a bus driving through a puddle, good thing we are almost back to the campsite.

I went straight to the shower when I got back, it was a good, hot shower; the first real HOT shower I’ve had in 4 days. Amanda and I played cards until dinner. At dinner we
met Louie and Louise from Louisiana. They are Romi’s love handles. Romi is South African and has been living in America for 3 months and now she has Louie and Louise. She came up with these names, so don’t think that we did!!

Went to the bar after dinner and hung out there for a while, kinda a quiet night. Off to bed.