France
June 5-9
Nice Is In Fact Nice
Siena to Nice, our most ambitious travel day is upon us. We need to go from the middle of Italy to The South of France. We formulated a plan taking 5 different trains stopping in Empoli, La Spezia, Genoa, Ventimiglia, and finally Nice. Things were going very smoothly for the first three trains, and then we got to Genoa. At Genova Piazza Principe station we were not able to get tickets to our train to Ventimiglia as the train was completely full. We then pivoted to a train that left only 9 minutes after our arrival to the station so we frantically bought the tickets and somehow found the track which of course was in an obscure part of the station. Narrowly making it, we rode to Savona and did our final leg on bus to Nice. The bus ride ended up being extremely good as there were great views of towns sandwiched in the valleys very similar to The Amalfi Coast. The total travel time was around 9 and a half hours. We arrived at our apartment in Nice and just needed to relax. We noted on our way in that Nice is absolutely beautiful but we were a little drained from the day. We went to go find some food and ended up at a pub that didn’t serve a ton of French cuisine but we were desperate (we got burgers). We were feeling better after eating so we walked to the beach and listened to music from a local concert happening. We then went back to our apartment drained from our day and fell asleep.
We woke up the next day wanting to go to Eze. We started the day by going to a bakery and getting coffee and pastries. We walked around central Nice for a while just to see the city a little bit and it was extremely pretty. The thing that was stunning is that ALL of the buildings looked pretty and kept up. Usually in cities there are a few buildings that look a little tired but every single building was pretty. We took the bus to Eze which took about a half hour. So many tourists where going, that bus was very full. We got off and searched for some food. Surprisingly, Eze is very small. Only a small town on the top of the mountain. We had a hard time finding something that was open for lunch that wasn’t a fortune to eat at. We eventually found a place and Ben got Moule frites, a French classic! While the food was great, the service did take a little while which was annoying since we wanted to move into our next activity. We eventually got to the perfume factory, Fragonard, after our meal which is very famous in Eze. We did a fast 20 minute tour which involved learning about chemical processes and what it takes to collect the materials for their perfumes. We left the factory and proceeded to take a quick stroll (an hour) down the mountain to the train station by the sea. We didn’t realize it would be a long journey down but going down was particularly tough as there were minimal stairs on the path. Lots of the path was just jagged rocks in the ground which was quite difficult to traverse when walking downhill. We then took THE most packed train of our lives back to Nice, it’s a double decker train with all of the seats filled and people standing shoulder to shoulder all the way through the train. This makes sense as the train stops at Monaco and all the beach stops as well as a stop in Italy and obviously Nice. We got back and Brenna attended a meeting while Ben just hung out.
We started the next day getting coffee and pan au chocolat which Brenna successfully ordered in French. We walked around Nice with a goal to see the old city which is tucked into one small part of the city. We got there and the architecture was completely different from the center of Nice. The streets became smaller and more pedestrian with a lot more cuter establishments. The main square in the old city was host to a large market. Lots of fresh produce vendors as well as other normal stands you would find in an outdoor market. We got some strawberries and raspberries and just walked around eating them exploring the small streets which was awesome. The fruit was very fresh and at great ripeness. We then climbed up to the Parc de la Colline du Chateau which overlooks the city and the port. We got excellent views looking back at the city and the Port Lympia. We got a couple of paninis for lunch in the park and eventually climbed down on the other side to see Port Lympia, we got to explore some other parts of the city and we eventually got on a bus to go see Saint Jean Cap Farrat. Cap Farat was super pretty and a nice quiet place to walk around and relax. We sat on a small hill to overlook the beach and we sat there for around 40 minutes just admiring the beauty of the place. The bus ride to and from was also pretty as you go quite high up and you can overlook the water with all of the yachts below. We got some street food for dinner and explored the nightlife a little bit to finish off the day.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: wow, wow, wow! This day I’m about to regail is one of our favorite days of the trip. This day was our day trip to Monaco! We got up a little late from our antics the night before and took the train over to Monaco. Upon arrival there are signs that point you in the direction of the Monte Carlo Casino, so we followed them. Since we got up late by the time we took the train there it was about lunch time so we stopped in at a Napoleon themed restaurant. We caught a glimpse of the casino and all its grand-ness as we walked to our lunch. We ordered the array of appetizers for two which we expected just to be a couple of small plates. Low and behold the server comes out with SEVEN plates with all different stuff on it. We ate the appetizers but we still had a main dish to eat after. The food was fantastic and we left the restaurant extremely full. We moved towards the casino and were stunned by it fanciness on the outside. We walked in and looked around a little bit which was super cool as this is obviously a legendary establishment. We walked around the palace getting a good view of Monaco city below. The infrastructure of the city is extremely interesting as there are underground passageways and public elevators you can take to get around which also lead back to the central train station. We took the elevator down to the main city area and walked around the port with all of the yachts. We stopped at the official Formula one store and Ben got a shirt for the Monaco Grand Prix which held its 80th event this year. We walked up the hill on the West side to the old city where the Prince’s Palace is. We walked around the old city with cute shops and small streets similar to the old city of Nice where we were the day before. We somehow ended up in the aquarium in Monaco (Ben really wanted to go) which was super cool as there was some great tanks with cool stuff. One of our favorites was the Jellyfish tank which is solely Jellyfish floating around in a cylindrical tank. We left in the interest of checking out the Prince’s Palace. We walked through it with an audio guide which provided some historical information. We saw some cool stuff there but Ben still thought the aquarium was cooler. We left the palace and walked back down the port area. We walked around a bit and got a drink at a small restaurant by the formula one shop. We left and got dinner at a nice place right in the center area. We ordered a bottle of wine from the Bordeaux region. We got some great food, Ben got a veal-chop and Brenna got a steak. We of course got some dessert such as crème brulee and chocolat fondant and it was delicious. We made our way back to the train station to head back to Nice but we realized Ben left the shirt he got at the restaurant. We went back for it knowing that we would missing the train but there was one more in an hours time. We decided to go back towards the casino to overlook the city at night but we ran into an interesting surprise show! There was a large stage setup in front of the casino and there were performers! Tap performers were going at it with a great routine and light show. We watched in awe just standing there for 30 minutes. We eventually had to take the train back: unfortunately. We went back to our place and packed up our stuff to travel to the next stop. Off to Saint Tropez!
July 9-12
Stunning Saint Tropez!
The path from Nice to Saint Tropez is a little tough. Saint Tropez is away from the major train line that runs through the south of France. Our solution was to take the train to the closest station which was Saint Raphael and then take the ferry from there. The plan worked out very well. The train and the ferry had great views of the miles of beaches along the south coast and we got to see beautiful waters and boats along the way. The people in Saint Raphael even had a parade for us for our arrival! We arrived and met our new host who exclusively spoke french. He actually had a friend call and help with the communication when we were checking in. We meandered into town and started to notice the luxury all around us. Saint Tropez is a cute little beach town but it has streets with luxury brands and even several clothing brands have there own restaurants there! The Louis Vuitton and Dior restaurants were interesting. We saw several yachts and cool looking restaurants along the main square that face the waterfront. We got some hummus and some greek wraps from a street food vendor which was extremely good. The guy who ordered in front of us evidently had this food the day before as he said “Once I had the first one (the souvlaki), all I could think about was the next one!” extremely loudly. We went back to the apartment after the meal as it was the height of the day in terms of heat. We relaxed for a little bit and went out later to walk around at night. The town was quite lively and a really enjoyable experience. We saw some people partying on a yacht and we sat and watched the water for a bit before heading in for the night.
The next day Ben grabbed a banana we bought and pretended to do the classic James Bond thing in the mirror. Anyways we designated this stop “Brenna Stop” since the place we were in was a nice beach town with lots of shopping opportunities. So we went back into town and did a bit of shopping and made a dinner reservation in one of the many cute small streets that this town has. After purchasing a new swimsuit and some ice cream we were ready to go to the beach! We were determined to go to Pampelonne which is the beach that all of the famous people go to. We took the bus there and there were a few beach clubs that looked somewhat swanky and there were tons of yachts in the water. The beach itself was very nice, lots of the other beaches we had been on were very rocky more than actual sand so this was nice. We bought an umbrella from a man on the beach and sat down. Ben enjoyed eating a quarter watermelon with a random beer he had purchased the day before. We went in the water a couple times and it was very refreshing. We then went over to the beach club next door and walked into their on-beach-restaurant which was a small seating area under a small roof. We ordered some drinks and small food. We then headed back to our umbrella and decided to head out. Since we actually bought this umbrella we didn’t know what to do with it. We brought it back to the beach vendor and he ended up giving us a beach hat for the umbrella (from then on Ben’s travel hat). We took the bus back and got ready for dinner. Our food was fantastic and just a really great experience. We just hung out at our place after our long day and put some washing in the washing machine.
The next morning was a bit troubling. We tried to open the washing machine with no success. We ran extra centrifuge cycles which did not help and when we tried to run the drain cycle the machine would give us an error and nothing helped in trying to open the machine after any of these runs. After trying several tactics to release the locking mechanism and becoming experts on the Siemens Wash and Dry 1260 we still could not open it and decided to contact our non-english speaking host and tell him we had an issue. He came on over and tried to open it with no success and he made some calls (all in french). After about 20 minutes another man comes in with a hammer and screwdriver and after many noises and 20 minutes in the bathroom he was able to get the washer open. Our host Jean-Claude then informed us that the washer was in fact out of order (oops sorry). Anyways we weren’t going to let this this interesting setback impact our day. We went into town and got some quick lunch from a street vendor and went to check out the Citadelle of Saint Tropez which has been converted into a Maritime museum. There was lots of cool artwork in the old structure along with lots of history and models of ships. We got some great views of Saint Tropez and the surrounding area and even saw a peacock on our way out! We went back to our place and had some light dinner on a baguette that we had gotten (we got like three baguettes at this stop by the way) with some drinks. We decided to dress up a bit and go out to a nice hotel bar we had researched that had a great second story view of the yachts in the harbor at night. We sat and enjoyed some drinks with some snack food from the bar. We really had a great night and a great time in this stop. A very nice relaxing destination in preparation for all of our walking to accomplish in Marseille and Paris!
July 12-15
Bastille Day in Marseille!
On our venture to Marseille we took the ferry back to Saint Raphael and then continued on the train line to Marseille. We got pretty close to actually missing the train but we narrowly made it on. The train ride was beautiful as the other train rides have been. We got to Marseille Saint Charles and took the metro to the Vieux Port station since we were staying by the port. We completed the self check in process and rested up from our travels a bit. The elevator was one of the most depressing elevators we’ve seen and smelled though. The thing stank like sewage and there were interesting carvings in al of the walls. Despite this, our apartment was nice and had a cool view of the Basilique de la Garde. We walked around the main port area and the city center which was very nice. We saw some posters and preparation for the upcoming 14 Juillet celebration which was exciting. We ended up eating some italian food at a restaurant that had some very pretty flowers. We called it an early night and hung out, planning our next couple of days.
The next day we took the train to Aix en Provence which is a super cute town about 40 minutes by train outside Marseille. We walked around their giant outdoor market and Brenna got some new sunglasses that she desperately needed. We enjoyed walking around the town for a bit and then we got lunch at a place with good seafood. Brenna got Moule Frites which was very nice. We then went over to the Hotel de Caumont which is a small palace with an art exhibit and a small garden. The art exhibit was about Max Ernst who lead a very interesting life with like 6 love interests or so. He made somewhat abstract art that was interesting. We took a look at the gardens which had a cool fountain and took the bus back to Marseille. Ben lead us to the Longchamp Palace which had a cool park and was home to a Natural History museum which we took a look in. Lots of the stuffed animals seemed very realistic and honestly somewhat scary from how realistic they were. We stumbled by a beautiful church and sunset on the port on our way back to our apartment and cooked up some dinner.
Happy Bastille Day! The next day was our favorite day in Marseille. We ate the best breakfast of our whole trip there at a place next to the Opera house (pancakes were amazing). We then took the bus right by our apartment to the Basilique de la Garde. It sits on a hill overlooking all of the city so the views are incredible. We walked through the catacombs of the church and then up into the church itself. The place was huge but some of the decorations like the paintings and the ships hanging down from the ceilings were a bit different from churches we had seen before. We toured the museum below the church and found that the pilgrimage to the church elevated from the rest of the city was a whole religious activity that used to occur. We learned about the churches grand history and headed back down the hill by bus. We then took the metro to the other side of the port and saw parts of the old town which had local shops and even an alley with local art with some guys just selling out of their back porch (Ben had to get something). The old town also had cool graffiti which Ben really enjoyed. We rolled around to the Cathedrale de la Major. The church was huge and there were more areas to explore than other churches we had seen, especially in the way back of the church. We walked back around the port and saw the start of the military parade which we had no clue what they were saying but it seemed cool. We saw some military folks go past in the parade and then we got some dinner by the port. After dinner we walked to a park all the way down the East side of the pier. Lots of people gathered there to watch the fireworks show. The show lasted 30 minutes with music and was very impressive shooting up fireworks from different sides of the pier and everything. The city was so lively after the show. We walked back extremely tired from our day and decided to get back and pack for Paris. Fabulous way to end off this stop.
July 15-19
Perambulation in Paris
Our journey to Paris started with the classic TGV train from Marseille. We booked these tickets extremely last minute so we sat in a 4 person booth sitting diagonally from each other (Ben ended up sitting next to a very smelly guy). We finally arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris and took 3 different subway lines to our apartment which was just behind the Trocadero. We met our host who was extremely nice and our place was great! The elevator was a bit small but we could somehow fit all of our stuff and ourselves in it going up the first time. Our sixth floor apartment had a view of the top of the Eiffel tower which was super cool. We relaxed for a bit as it was pretty tiring to get there since Paris is so big. We then went out and walked toward the Eiffel tower getting some nice photos and walking around the neighborhood. We weren’t hungry so we skipped dinner and went straight to dessert somewhere close by excited to explore more in the coming days.
The next day we started with breakfast at Cafe Du Mexique where we got Croque Madame which was excellent. We then took the metro to the Champs Elysees area and went into the Petit Palace which had some nice art and great architecture. We kept walking East towards the Louvre and interestingly found a carnival. Ben isn’t too fond of going on rides but we ended up going on a log ride which was pretty fun and we only got a little splashed. We continued to the East to the Louvre where we met our tour guide. We had organized a small tour that just took us inside using the group entrance (which is faster than just going individually) and got lead right to the Mona Lisa. We learned that the Louvre has half a million pieces of art making it the largest fine art museum in the world. Our guide noted it would take extremely long to view every single piece in the museum. He lead us to the Mona Lisa and we stood in line for approximately 15 minutes to get to the front in order to take a couple of selfies in front of the famous painting. We saw many other works of art that were extremely interesting and even ate at the café on the upper level outside! The Louvre was great and we saw so much and we definitely would have stayed longer if the establishment wasn’t closing. We needed a rest after the Louvre so we went back to the apartment and then later went to a place for dinner but nothing too wacky and wild.
The next day we took the metro over to Odéon which is an area in Paris with a famous theatre near the Luxemburg Palace. We looked at both the theatre and the palace from the outside. Both of them had beautiful architecture and the Palace had huge luscious gardens. In the Luxemburg palace gardens they had lots of small model sailboats sailing in the fountain which was quite cool. We then walked over to the Pantheon which we observed from the outside as we did not have tickets to go in. It was quite similar to the other Pantheon we saw back in Rome. We sat and hung out looking at the Pantheon and the church beside it. We then walked north toward the Notre Dame. The reparations of the church were in full effect when we got there. Lots of scaffolding and temporary walls along the perimeter of the Notre Dame covered up the beautiful church. We got lunch on the south side of the Siene with a great view of the Notre Dame. Ben got beef borguignon and Brenna got a beef tartare which was fabulous. Afterwards we took a closer look at the walls surrounding the construction site and read about the history and reconstruction of many of the different pieces of the church. We moved along to the west and ended up at the concierge which we explored. It was an old dungeon with lots of history and also held Marie Antoinette. The concierge is also home to the Sainte Chapelle which was wayy prettier than expected. The stained glass was amazing in that church. We then of course needed to get macaroons from Pierre Herme Paris so we crossed the Ponte Neuf to the other side of the Siene to achieve that. We got 8 different flavors and they were all excellent. We then took the metro up the Champ Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe. We walked up where all the big shops are and saw some cool stores and of course the Arc. We got some photos with the arc and then took the metro back to our place to change real quick before our dinner cruise! We started from the park in the Siene that holds the statue of liberty. Upon boarding, the crew poured us some wine and took our selection from the prefixed menu options. The dinner was good but the views on top of the boat were better. As we passed the Eiffer tower on the way back we got a ton of photos together and the night was fantastic with perfect weather. There plenty to see on the journey and we were in a great location when the sunset happened. Definitely something we would do again in a heartbeat. We got off the boat and wandered around to a nearby bar for a drink. Ben tried a white Russian for the first time which was interesting and we overheard the funniest conversation between two French, two German, and two English people sitting at the table just next to us. We meandered back to our place and ended this fantastic day.
Our last full day in Paris started with going up the Eiffel Tower! We meandered over to the tower which is only about a mile away and skipped right past the line since we had bought tickets online in advance (would recommend). We took the elevator up to the second floor and got some photos of the view waiting for the separate set of elevators to the third and final floor. At the top, we looked around on all four sides and identified landmarks that we had explored throughout the city. The view was so cool. We took the elevator back down after around thirty minutes at the top and went down to the second floor, then the first. We looked around both which had different tourist shops and cafes and the first floor is home to the restaurant in the tower. We descended down to the ground and immediately left to find food. We ended up somewhere close by and both got salads. We then went north on the metro toward the Montmartre area we walked around as it is the only area that we hadn’t seen. We ended up walking around all the way back to the Arc de Triumphe. After that, we returned to our place and had some wine and did a full sunset photoshoot with the Eiffel Tower. We went to a fantastic place for dinner where we got escargot one more time and a cheese platter along with some nice steak. This concludes our time in France which was 10/10 fantastic. We wished we could have stayed longer in any of our stops along the way but of course time marches on. On to our next stop: The Netherlands!
