The things we love..: French Riviera

02.01.2012 – Monday, day 14

Well it was a great evening bringing in the new year at the Eiffel Tower. We celebrated with a few drinks before heading out for a meal at a café only one stop away from the base of the tower. We were told to BYO bottle of Champagne and plastic glasses to watch the countdown which was a great idea. We got up nice and close and before we knew it the Eiffel Tower came a live with glittering lights. No fireworks which was disappointing, but beautiful none the less. We sat and watched for a while as people were everywhere and all frantically trying to get home.. some too drunk to realise where they were, and some girls trying to manage stiletto heels in the thick mud! Ha. We somehow managed to find our way home after walking to several different tube stations, one which was packed like sardines, and the other was in lockdown because there were far too many people. I could imagine being pushed down the stairs there and someone easily falling onto the tracks so I guess there was logic to their madness but it sure sent the locals crazy! There were fights everywhere!

None the less we had a good time, and started the first day of 2012 in first class on a train to Marseille. We had a platform change there and then it was like cattle class from Marseille to Nice! No allocated seats, no way to tell between first and second class, no seats left, not even anywhere for us to put our bags so we ended up standing in between two carriages until the first stop about an hour into the journey. Would have been ok if some people had stored their bags and their feet on the floor instead of taking up multiple chairs; and when we finally managed to get a seat it wasn’t for long.. some guy ended up getting sick and couldn’t make it to the bathroom on time so he proceeded to vomit 3 seats away from us on the floor… Yep… Welcome to Nice! NICE! Lol.

Anyway, we moved on from that, got to our destination after 9:30pm and pretty much went straight to sleep. Woke up early to see the sites of Nice on another bus tour which took all of about 90 minutes! It rained the whole time so we didn’t get off the bus, and decided since there was not much else to do we would book a private tour to Monaco.

On the tour we visited the old town of Moncao and saw the Cathedral and the Princes Palace where I had my photo taken with royalty. We walked through the gardens which were amazing and bumped into some very cheeky and very large Seagulls. They must feed them entire loafs of bread because they are absolutely HUGE.

Then it was onto Monte Carlo where we visited the casino’s and drove along the Grand Prix track. Very posh and some very expensive cars parked out the front of these places. On the way back to Nice we visited the medieval town of Eite which is quaint and a little bit spooky! We went to a perfume factory and were shown how they make perfume (since the south of France is famous for it’s perfume), soaps and other lovely smelling products. Of course I took a couple of bottles away with me, they were absolutely amazing!

We had dinner in the central square of Nice and walked around the Christmas Village, and now we are home packing getting ready for our early morning train to Italy! VERY excited! We should arrive in Rome around 5pm after departing Nice at 7:55am so it will be a long day travelling but well worth it.

Au revoir France.. Ciao Italia!