Yeah, yeah. Of course Nice was nice!

A couple of weeks ago, I found out somewhat last-minute that the following week, most of my classes would be cancelled. As in, 9 of my 12 hours. Basically, most of the kids were taking the BAC blanc, the mock version of the big final exam. Sooo I took my own mock exam, only it wasn't mock, it was real life, y'all. And the exam went a little something like this:

1) Your students have exams this week. Most of your classes are cancelled.* Trains to Nice are €30.

Do you:

A) go to Nice
B) not go to Nice

I passed the test with flying colors.

strollin' down Avenue Jean Médecin, trying to find my hostel

Notre Dame de Nice

Apollo - la Fontaine du Soleil

Opéra de Nice

The flower market along the Cours Saleya is quite famous, and rightly so!

...and it's not just flowers!

Oh hey there, Mediterranean. Good to see you again.

The beach in Nice is made of rocks... it's kind of painful.

Here's a video of me getting a little more than I bargained for from the Mediterranean (i.e., me making a fool of myself).

Vieux (Old) Nice

The street signs are in both French and Niçard (Niçois in French), which is a subdialect of Provençal, which itself is a dialect of Occitan (which I talked about in the Toulouse post).

The doors were built this way, with "air conditioners" above them, because Nice gets really hot in the summer. 

Place Rossetti, Italian in both name and appearance. As Nice has gone back and forth between Italy and France, it has clear Italian influences. It's been French since 1860, though it was occupied by Italy during WWII. 

Texan Skewers/Kabobs... apparently the #1 (and ONLY) suggestion 

the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels)

up on Colline du Château (Castle Hill)

view from above

plus me

lovely views

At this point, I picked up my new friend Annie back at the hostel before heading out for a pizza picnic at the plage. I had intended to go on a little solo adventure, but when I put it up on Facebook, Annie, who's a primary school assistant in Nîmes, asked to join me. One of the points of a solo journey is to make friends so of course, pourquoi pas?! We hung out in Nice, Monaco, and Cannes, and ended up having a great time!

Quai des États-Unis... holler!

Place Garibaldi (more Italian-ness)

...I bless the raiiiiiins down in Aaaaaaafrica!

Also... Texas City.

"We try to speak English..." At least they're honest!

gorgonzola gnocchi... miam miam!

the famous Fenocchio gelateria

so. many. flavors. See Cactus?!

... including avocado, black olive, and tomato basil! This night, I stuck to my classic strawberry & chocolat. Delicioso.

Place Masséna - Can you see the brightly colored figures on top of the poles? It's a piece of art called Conversation à Nice by Jaume Plensa, a Catalan artist. There are seven figures representing the seven continents.

A few months ago, Lottie found this restaurant and said she thought of me, because it says "La vie est belle, Merci d'en profiter," and I use the French word profiter pretty much all the time now. "Life is beautiful, thanks for making the best of it." Lovely, really.

Fenocchio stop #2

moi (left): cactus, cantaloupe, and fig - Annie (left): lavender, jasmine, and guava - It was sooo hard to choose the flavors!

port of Nice

See that awesome cave?!

Remember the ol' España umbrella?! Yeah, well it's my only umbrella and I refuse to buy another one just to be in Europe for a short bit. So get used to it. ESPAÑAAAA!

ruins of the Château de Nice... also, tarps

Musée Masséna

Hôtel Negresco

"Sorry I can't get into your church, Anna Karenina." -my exact words when we walked up to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral to find it CLOSED for the only two hours during which we could go.

I really enjoyed Nice! I stayed in a great hostel with a ton of people and met some interesting characters (ask me about my adventures with Welsh people sometime), met my new friend Annie (there will be pictures of us in the Monaco post, I swear), and got to see a new city. Nice is the largest city on the Riviera (Côte d'Azur in French), and I really like the city's beachy, Italian, big-modern-city-mixed-with-historical-city feel. I also loved the colors, the flowers, and the gelato. :) I'd love to go back in the summer for a real Nice experience!

*I only missed one class, and I straight up asked if I could miss it so that I could go visit the Riviera. No lies, no excuses. She (the teacher) was fine with it.