Sept 28 – Oct 2: Nice, France

Four Days in Nice, France, by Jeff

Hard to leave Budapest, but here we go to Nice on WizzAir. We told Mick that we saved a lot of money flying WizzAir, but that we’d need to pitch in for gas.  Turns out we didn’t and we arrived safe and almost on time to what is now our favorite Airbnb so far.

Our apartment, on the sixth floor at the top of the building, was really comfortable. It had a penthouse-like wraparound deck and Mick loved having his own bedroom far away from Mom and Dad.  The location was 15-20 minutes from Nice’s center, but to Mick’s pleasure, very close to the beach.  The beach in Nice is not sand, but small smooth rocks that mimic what comes out of Mick’s rock tumbler at home, but unpolished.  The water in the Mediterranean is warm, clear and much higher in salinity than we are used to – making it very buoyant.

Nice is nice, as they say, but overall our feeling was that it was just OK. The promenade (yes, where the terrorist attack just happened) along the Nice waterfront was great and perfect for morning runs and the old town, even though extremely popular with tourists, still has a great old time feel to it.

We took a day trip to Cannes and Antibes by train and another to Monte Carlo by bus. Antibes, even though very touristy, with lots of mega yachts, still has a certain charm.

Cannes and Monaco, however, are now so over-the-top with Vegas-type wealth, that to me they’ve pretty much lost any charm they once had.  The postcard views on the bus ride from Nice to Monte Carlo were fantastic, but again, Monte Carlo itself was sort of a disappointment – even for Mick who did see some pretty cool cars there.

Again, what really made Nice for us was our wonderful apartment where, with several home-cooked meals and some movies on Netflix, we felt very at home.

Can’t wait to get to Florence…