Tuesday, January 21, 2014

4 Times I Vacationed in Nice

My favorite city in the world is Paris, but my second-favorite city is Nice. During my two years of living and working in France, I had the opportunity to visit Nice four times. 

One of my favorite pictures from all my travels.
My first time discovering the gorgeous southern city was during the Toussaint in 2009, while I was working as an au pair in Le Vésinet. My boss and her kids visited her family in Ireland while I traveled with three of my fellow French majors from undergrad. The four of us had all studied in Versailles together in 2007, so it was pretty cool to travel together once again.

Near the end of my job as an au pair, my three au pair besties and I spent a weekend in Nice. Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend, but we still managed to relax. It was great getting away from our kids and host families for the weekend, with the chance to cook for ourselves, catch up on reading, and work on our tans.

When I taught English in Niort, I traveled during all the school breaks. For the February break, I traveled by myself for the first time, which was awesome. Nice was pretty gray during my visit, but it was still warmer than Niort at the time. The highlight of my trip was a day spent in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. I really hope to go back one day with Beau and buy some original art!

The view from Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
At the very end of my two years working in France, my best friend Mark came to visit me for a week and a half. Our travels included a return to Nice where we enjoyed the hot sunshine and topless sunbathing. I miss many qualities of France, but I especially miss the freedom to sunbathe topless.

One day, I hope to share my travel adventures with my amazing boyfriend, who has never been to France.

I'm guest-posting over at Jessica Lynn Writes today about what I want to do before Beau and I have kids. Travel is definitely part of that list! Check it out and let me know what else I should do before I attempt procreative sex.

Linking up with Bonnie at A Compass Rose

8 comments:

  1. wow. that looks like so much much fun!!! And topless sunbathing to me sounds scandalous :P (thats probably my upbringing speaking....) Anyway, I want to visit also! For some reason I never knew you studied french. You should do a blog post in french! :P

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    1. Sunbathing topless is only scandalous if you think of breasts as always sexual. French culture doesn't have the same obsession with breasts that Americans do. It's just not a big deal for women to sunbathe topless. Their media shows a lot more nudity too. Ratings are harsher for violence. Americans are the opposite. We worry more about sex than we do violence.

      I double-majored in History and in French, and I concentrated in Women's and Gender Studies. My French background helped me get my jobs abroad!

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  2. I'm visiting from Jessica's blog - and I'm going to read up on all of your french adventures! We are a military family and currently living in France. We have just been in our apartment for almost two months so we are finally planning our first trip over our kids' next holiday. We are heading to Paris for probably a week! I'm excited to start visiting places, we have more plans for the year and next year will be spent on "what do we have to do before we move" again. LOL

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    1. I love new readers! France is an incredible country, with so much to see. Paris is obviously a must, but since y'all will be there for awhile, definitely check out some less touristy areas. Other favorite cities included Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Le Touquet, and Bordeaux.

      Also, while it's the HEIGHT of touristy, and even most guides will tell you to skip it, Disneyland Paris is AWESOME. Especially for a family! Most of the really good stuff in Paris can only be handled by kids in small doses, aka all the amazing museums. A day in Disneyland Paris is a great way to break up all the culture.

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  3. I love Nice, too:-) My little sister's (sorta) boyfriend has always spent summers there with his family, and I have gone with her a couple of times to see him. I brought one of the girls there last summer, too.

    Full disclosure, I have done very little more than just sit on beaches, but I am usually totally cool with that. And I've always kept my top on, generally because I have been with my sister and her "in-laws". Although, frankly, my chest is unlikely to register on anyone's radar:-)

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    1. Spending the day on the beaches of Nice is a great way to enjoy the scenery. Since most of my trips were during the off-season, the weather didn't really cooperate to spend all my time working on my tan.

      No one's chest is a "big" deal on French beaches! At least half the women were topless, and no one cared. But if you're stuck with Americans, I can understand the reluctance.

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  4. Oh, I LOVED Nice! I was there for three weeks, taking French classes and basically loving life. I loved the old city, but felt a bit tricked when the beach turned out to be all rocks. Haha! I was there for Fête de la Musique as well, which was un-be-freaking-liv-a-ble. The streets were packed and there were bands everywhere! Probably one of the most insane things I'd ever participated in. ;)

    It's such a wonderful hub as well. Monte-Carlo and Antibes were two phenomenal day trips and there was practically no travel time, at all. Not like here in Canada, where you can drive forever and you're still in the same province. Ha!

    Thanks for sharing your memories! They brought me back!

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    1. The Fête de la Musique is awesome! My friends and I enjoyed all the street musicians in Paris.

      In my first trip to Nice, my friends and I went to Monaco for a day! It was crazy-expensive, so we mostly just walked around. My last trip to Nice was when my best friend and I went to Antibes, to enjoy a sandy beach instead of a rocky one. That's all we did, though. I have no idea what the rest of the city looks like!

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