La Belle Vie à la Plage

View of Old Nice and beach from above

Bonjour mes amis! It's been a little while since I've written here. This past weekend Clarissa, Rachel, and I went to Nice in Southern France, which is right along the French Riviera, or in French, Côte d'Azur. We left Thursday night on an overnight train to Genova, in Italy, and ended up on three different trains by the time we actually got there. We got into Nice at least 11am, and walked around until we found our hotel, Hôtel Helvètique. It was on one of the main roads in Nice, Rue de l'Hôtel des Postes. The woman at the desk was very sweet, and we decided to explore until our room was ready. We went directly to Vieux Nice, the older district of town. We saw the flower market where they sell fresh flowers, fruits, vegetables, and spices daily. Everything looked so fresh. We stopped at a cafe for lunch, and I had fresh jus d'orange and a croque madame. It was my first French cafe experience, and I loved it.

Croque Madame
 

Cascade

Being in France for two days made me realize that I really would love to go back. I feel like I belong there more, and its more what I expected Europe to be. It's much cleaner, and as much as I love the history here in Rome, I've always been closely tied with more traditional Western Europe like England, France, or Germany. Oh, the things we learn while abroad. It also doesn't feel like the entire country is in political turmoil like in Italy. Maybe it was just because we were in beach town, but it still felt more stable to me.
After our cafe experience, we decided to walk up to the Château which was originally built in 1517 in the hills of Nice. Most of the original structure was gone, but it yielded amazing views of Nice and of the ocean. The water in the ocean is truly blue, almost aqua. It was absolutely breath-taking. We also saw Cascade, which is a waterfall above the Château. It was also very beautiful, and we could also see a rainbow because the sun was so bright. We meandered around the Château for a few hours. We saw Nice's port as well as some of the only remaining parts of the Château. The Château had mosaics all over the floor and on some of the remaining walls. They were very well preserved, and many told stories of what Nice and France were like back then. Many had to do with water and ships, as Nice is along the water and was once a major port.

Ratatouille with blush wine and fresh bread

We eventually walked back to the hotel and finally checked in in the early afternoon. I realized that speaking and understanding French wasn't as hard as I thought as I thought it would be, even though its been years since I've taken it. I was able to order food and speak with some of the people at the hotel mostly in French. Clarissa was much better at it, but I held my own. Once we got to the room, we accidentally napped for about three hours. I guess all of the traveling by train and a stressful week in studio got the better of us. The room was basic, but very nice. We eventually did go out to dinner, and I made sure to order as many French specialties as possible, if sitting at an outdoor cafe wasn't enough. I ended up getting ratatouille, petits farcis niçois, and mousse chocolat for dinner. The petits farcis niçois is a speciality of Nice, and it was basically beef and veal paté on various vegetables. It was quite good. The ratatouille was essentially a vegetable stew, but I just had to try it. Its one of those French dishes you always hear about (the Disney movie not helping with this) but have most likely never tried.

On Saturday, we had a full agenda. We spent the morning and early afternoon shopping (its France, of course), but not before grabbing a delicious French breakfast. We ended up at Brioche Dorée, which is a popular chain in France. I got a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant). We shopped at one of the main malls in Nice. We ended up with some nice French clothes, including a beret for me. We also bought some souvenirs from Vieux Nice. I bought a salt grinder that was crafted and painted in Nice, while also buying a mug and some lavendar soap. Nice is known for lightning bugs (I don't know why, but ceramic ones were all over their merchandise) and lavendar.

Beau Rivage

Later in the day, we finally made our way to the beach. It was a pebble beach, and most of them were dark gray in color. There were a lot of random colored ones too, which made me wonder what kind of rock/mineral it was and where the colored pebbles came from. Clarissa and I went in the water first, and it was kinda cold, but it ended up being pretty refreshing. It was still pretty warm during the day, so the water felt nice. The water was so blue and clear too. I'm used to the Jersey shore where the water is brown and murky. We also watched the sunset over the water. It was really pretty, and it was amazing watching how the sun sparkled on all of the pebbles and on the water. I will have such high expectations when visiting beaches now. I guess only being able to see the Jersey shore does have its advantages.

Trilogie de Crème Brûlée

After the beach, we walked down the Promenade des Anglais. It essentially ended up being a tourist street with a lot of overpriced cafes and casinos, but it was still interesting to see. I found it interesting that the casinos basically look exactly like they do in Atlantic City. Europeans always classier than us? I don't think so. We walked around and looked at some of the gardens that were near the road. We walked around Vieux Nice and found a cafe called Côte Sud. Our goal for the night was to find crème brûlée for dessert. We were successful, and I had moules farcies (stuffed mussels) for dinner. I figured since we were on the Mediterranean coast that their seafood had to be pretty good. It was delicious, though I have no idea what the mussels were actually stuffed with. Knowing the French, it might be better that I don't know. The crème brûlée we ordered was actually a set of three different flavors - one regular, one chocolate, and one we weren't sure. All were so good. It was totally worth every euro cent.

Our train left around 9am the next morning, so we didn't really see much of Nice that day. We were on the train for most of the day. I did experience a high speed train for the first time. The shortened travel time was nice, but the fast speed tends to give one a headache, especially when going through tunnels. The scenery on the way home was nice too, we had views of the Mediterranean and the Alps. The next night and day after we got back to Rome were mainly filled with studio, finishing up the last drawings of the Arturbain competition, and phase one of our studio project.

Yesterday, Cait, Clarissa and I celebrated our freedom from homework by going to the zoo in Rome, technically called Fondazione Bioparco di Roma, or a giardino zoologico. Much cooler sounding than just "zoo." It was a really nice zoo, especially for its size. They had a lot of animals you'd expect - giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, elephants. We went to see the seals, and it was their feeding time. I've rarely seen animals with so much character. One seal sat contently while the zookeeper gave him a checkup, and he waited patiently for his fish. However, the other seal strongly reminded me of a poorly trained puppy. He kept trying to sneak fish from the bucket, and would sit with huge puppy dog eyes hoping for fish. He also wouldn't sit still and was flopping everywhere to avoid his checkup. It was hilarious, and so adorable. It made the entire trip to the zoo worth it. We were also able to go through the reptile house and the aviary before the zoo closed. It was a successful outing after cartography. We also stumbled upon a huge dog park that was also within the Villa Borghese gardens. It was refreshing seeing so many people with their dogs... kinda makes me wish I had one here.

The rest of this week has been pretty chill, and today we discovered our Hill Towns field trip (which we knew nothing about to begin with) was cancelled/never existed, so we all scrambled to make travel plans. Clarissa, Cait, Justin, Naeemah, Rose and I all booked tickets to Prague, and all have an apartment to stay in for the weekend. It should be a good time, other than the fact that I can't speak Czech. I hear its beautiful there, but I guess I'll find out. My camera is currently malfunctioning, and it takes weird fuzzy pictures. I've ordered a new one from Wales (its ten times cooler just because its from the U.K., just saying) that is coming to me through the Royal Mail. It's currently in Milan according to the Royal Mail website, so hopefully I'll get it in the mail soon. This has made me realize how the pound to dollar conversion is even worse than the euro (and really, actually a lot worse), and how terrible Italy's postal system is. Shipping here takes so long, when in the U.S. a package from California could arrive in Pennsylvania in two days. Its already been five, and its still in northern Italy. Its a lot better than I expected, but still. I suppose the best things come to those who wait.

That's all for now. A presto!

I'll leave you with a picture of Nice. :)