We drove from Avignon right down to the south coast of France, where we met our friend Sarah in Nice (pronounced niece).  Sarah is a Kiwi who has been travelling en route to the UK – when we found out we were going to be in the same continent at the same time, we made plans to meet up! We wound up staying in Nice for a week, mostly because the super cheap hostel we found had a one week minimum stay. (This is the first time we have encountered this – some places have a 2 day minimum though.)  Nice was fun – it’s right on the beach, although it wasn’t warm enough to swim or anything like that.  On our first day we joined a free walking tour run by our hostel, which was a great introduction to the town.

 

 

 

 

We walked through the flower market, wound around the streets of the old town, then took an elevator up a hill and had a picnic after admiring the beautiful views over Nice and of the Swiss Alps.

 

 

 

 

We spent some time relaxing, and on another day visited MOMAC, the free museum of modern art.  It had lots of pieces that were interesting, if not something you would actually want in your house.  It also had a cool rooftop terrace with views of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent time exploring the old town, finding the best ice cream in town and wandering on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

We also did several fun day trips from here.  Our first daytrip was to the nearby village of Eze.  After a bus ride that left all three of us close to vomiting, we got off at this hilly town and climbed up to see the church and old town.  We had lunch in the cactus garden which had the ruins of the former castle there, then hiked down the hill to Eze-sur-Mer where we caught a bus back to Nice. Eze was so cute and worth the bus ride (not to mention the mob of people that ran to the bus as soon as it pulled up in Nice – and you can only buy tickets onboard, so this was a sloooow process!)

 

 

 

 

Another day trip was to Cannes, famous for its film festival and being the place where the super rich bring their super yachts.  Partly it was the cloudy, cold day but Cannes just wasn’t that inspiring.  We wandered through the old town, saw the church on top of the hill, the theatre and the beach as well as the super yachts – but it was nowhere near as pretty as Nice or as quaint as Eze.