There are few things that
are okay to casually text your mom when you’re 4,000 miles away; “Hey mom, I’m
staying on a boat, might not have wi-fi for a bit… love you” is apparently not
one of them.
We were beyond exhausted
when we arrived in Nice, but that was soon remedied by some delicious salmon
pasta and breath-taking views of the French Riviera. The original plan was to
spend our trip at a hostel owned by L’s friends, but last minute circumstances
allowed us the opportunity to spend a couple nights on their boat as well. The
boat was docked at the port of Nice, and after eating and settling in, our
friend offered to take us out for a ride. We headed east toward Villefranche,
and spent the afternoon drinking wine and enjoying the sunshine.
That evening, we headed into
Vielle Ville (Old Town) and had dinner at Le Safari (great pizza) before checking out the nightlife. Our friend A was our guide, and brought us to Wayne’s Bar, which was coincidentally on my brief Nice to-do list. Next to it, I had written “dancing on tables”. I
guess I had gathered that from a Google review, thinking it meant that it was
just a fun, crazy bar… but there are actually long tables that people stand and
dance on. Wayne’s was packed with people of all ages, and we were able
to catch the end of the live band’s performance. We then headed to Pompeï for
another drink and some live music before calling in a night. I guess I was expecting Nice to be a sleepy town (especially coming from Barcelona), but Old Town was still lively as we were leaving.
The next day, we walked into
Old Town again, and upon our friend’s recommendation, decided to take a beach
trip to Cap-d’Ail. We caught a bus near the port (bus 100 to Monaco), which
traveled along the coast and offered awesome views of the sea and nearby towns.
After a slight mishap (and an opportunity to use my French), we navigated our
way toward the road that leads down to Plage Mala, which is a rocky beach
surrounded by cliffs.
It’s quite a hike to get down to the beach, (and back up),
so I’d highly recommend stocking up on snacks and drinks to maximize
beach-time. There are two nice beach clubs that were filled by the time we got
there, but were so happy to be in the water that it didn’t even matter. You can rent paddle boats and other water equipment, or swim out towards the caves. Plage Mala was beautiful, and provided a nice change of pace from Barcelona's busy beaches.
No comments