Nice: beyond nice!

Ready for the next installment of my Euro files??
"YEAH!!!" (that's what you're all supposed to say while jumping up and down excitedly)

I left off when we arrived in Menton and went out to dinner for my birthday. Menton was really our "home base" and we took day trips from there. I'm tempted to stick to chronological order, but I think Menton deserves a longer post of it's own so I'm going to skip a day here and go back to Nice. After spending the first day in Menton settling in, it was time to go meet one of my bff's, or as we dubbed it- "bfff" for best friends in france because we are really clever like that. She came to spend a week with us and her flight was landing in Nice so we took the opportunity to take a day trip to Nice to meet her and tour this popular French Riviera destination.

She met us at the train station around 1 and had not eaten yet so we took her to a Brioche Doree nearby. This chain is all over Europe and it's really good (isn't all European food!) It's mostly just sandwiches or quiches, lovely baguettes and desserts, and they have really good meal deals that include coffee. Bread + caffeine = love.

Our first stop was the waterfront to admire how shockingly blue the water is. This is due to the beaches being mostly rocks all along the Mediterranean. I really like this, it means no sand clinging to you and all of your stuff, and it also means adding several pounds of pretty rocks to your backpack for the trip home for your rock collection. At the end of the waterfront you reach the cliff where the old village is located.






We climbed (in the elevator for 1 euro) to the top for more views such as this one of the port. At the top there's a nice park with a playground, the usual hotel, restaurant, touristy things. There was also an archeological site that people were excavating so we got to watch. This was cool because I have several good friends that are geologists who would have loved to see that. On the hike down there's also a man-made waterfall, so we took some quick pictures but we were ready for more important things.




GELATO!!!!!! This is the greatest place ever and I wish I could spend several weeks in Nice so that I could try every single flavor. This place is in all the guidebooks so you're sure to find it. It's called Fenocchio and is well knows for not only tasting amazing, but also tasting amazing in 98 different flavors. My choices this trip included a dark chocolate sorbet and fig sorbet- super combo!
After that we were ready to catch the train back to Menton, but not before taking a quick look into H&M because Houston is not fashionable enough to have one here.



That's all for Nice for now. There are definitely many more tourist spots and museums that I'd recommend seeing if it's your first time, but we were just there half a day so we took it easy.

Til next time!

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Hello lovely friends!
I'm feeling a better after letting all of that off my chest. This week has been pretty boring but there has been some work and I make sure to keep busy, even if it means making things up for myself to do. Several weeks ago I cleaned out/ reorganized my apartment so I'm finishing that up this week and have added new paintings and gotten some essentials I've been putting off. All this in time for a little dinner party I'll be hosting tomorrow for some of my favorite people. I have a lot of teachers in the family who all went back to work this week and are stressed out, and I like to help out in the best way I know how: vegan Mac and "cheese"!! I'm so excited!
I have also set a goal for myself to do yoga every day because I notice such a huge difference in how I feel when I practice regularly. I decided this after a class on Saturday because even getting in 20 minutes of stretching a day makes me feel amazing. So I know this will be good for me and it gives me something to work toward. I think I'll start with ....30 days? I think that seems reasonable.

Now- back to France!
From Barcelona we made our way through the French Riviera. We took a 3 hour train to Perpignon where we spent a few hours walking around. We were able to leave our bags at the station, and though this costs some Euros, it's worth not lugging it around. Perpignon is a small town but has a nice commercial center with all the major shops, tons of bakeries, creperies, and gelato places. One thing to keep in mind when traveling in both Spain and France, however, is that everything closes between 2 and 5 pm for their lunch and resting time. Those French do know how to live well!






These bike stations are all over Europe now from what I've seen. They're all over the city so that you can pick one up when you need to go somewhere and drop it off at another location. And they only pay something ridiculous like 20 Euros a year. How awesome and eco-friendly!

Mid-afternoon, we took another train to Montpellier. We spent one night here so the first thing we did was take the train to our hotel. The train is this cute above ground system painted with all kinds of funky designs. Then we headed out to explore. There are some nice pedestrian areas with restaurants, a large park by the river, lots of monuments and one of those old stone dams on the river. And the best part was that we happened to get there on the first day of their summer festival! They had a huge open market, street vendors, free giveaways and performers!















Those were little kids at the top! My guess would be the youngest were about 5 or 6.














Here's the big bridge.


The next morning we took a train to Nimes and planned to spend a few hours there but couldn't find anywhere to drop off our luggage. But we made the best of it and quickly ran to the Colosseum and took pictures before hopping on the next train.















We arrived in Avignon soon after. It's a little bit larger of a city, and absolutely beautiful. All of the old architecture is still intact, I love how Europeans preserve their history. I think that's so important, and here in the US we tend to like bigger and newer. Shiny metal replaces brick and cobblestone.

Our first stop was the Pope's Palace. Inside is the Papal History Museum, which is what the name implies, the ENTIRE history. The place is huge and you can see everything from the lavish banquet rooms, to the kitchen and servants quarters. There's also an audio tour included that goes into detail about every last corner of the palace and every single pope. Give yourself at least 2 hours (more if you plan to listen to every audio chapter). I don't want to offend anyone, but the excesses of the old Catholic church are astounding. The history is really interesting.




The famous Pont d'Avignon! Did anyone else sing that song when they were little? I sang it in Spanish but of course the original is French. The tune brought back fond memories. There is also an audio tour for the bridge that explains how it was knocked over so many times that they didn't bother to rebuild it all the way across anymore. From there we climbed up above the Pope's Palace to some gardens for some really nice views and a very much needed cup of coffee!


We spent the night in Avignon and the next day happened to be my Birthday! It's not so exciting anymore because I feel old. Oh well, we still had my birthday morning celebration there before heading to Menton that evening for a birthday pizza dinner :)
We spent the rest of our vacation based in Menton, but more on that next time.

This concludes another jumbo post. I at least hope the pictures held your attention throughout. Hope you enjoyed them!

Delayed posts!

Sorry for not really posting updates! You all know how crazy vacations can be. Not to mention we're so busy moving around and trying to do as much as possible, so the last thing I'm making time for is being on the computer. Bad for the readers, but it's a nice break from technology for me. 

Since I last posted, we did a bit more touring of Barcelona, left for Perpignon, France where we spent a few hours before going to Montpellier. We spent the night there, left in the morning and tried to go through Nimes, which didn't work out so we continued on to Avignon. We spent the night there too. I celebrated my birthday morning in Avignon, then after lunch we got on a 4 hour train ride to Nice, stopover in Nice to wait for the short train to Menton. And this is where we are now! I had a nice birthday dinner here in Menton and since then we've been really enjoying some beach time and exploring just like last year. 

Menton is unbelievable gorgeous! Liza, one of my besties :) arrived in Nice day before yesterday so we went to meet her there and spent the afternoon exploring Nice, getting the best gelato ever and generally having a lot of fun. Today we're headed to the markets of Ventimiglia, across the border in Italy for the morning, then getting some of the best gnocchis available for lunch before coming back for some more beach time. 

I know this is a super rushed overview and I promise to write long travel guide style posts about everything I've done in the near future, but it will probably not be until after I get back to Houston, or if I happen to have some time at night in the apartment. There's just way too much to say and as much as I appreciate the few people that have started reading this blog, you will have to be satisfied with these shorter updates on my whereabouts while I squeeze in as much beach time and France touring as possible this next week and a half. 

A tout a l'heure mes amis!  (excuse the horrendous french)