Nice, etc...

Nice is....NICE! This blog finds me in Nice August 4-8th, and while I was kind of apprehensive driving in, (the city is massive and the streets torn up due to a tram project, I ended up having such a wonderful time! This was due in part to the great weather, views and topless beaches (yippee!) but mostly because I met some of the nicest people of my whole entire trip!

Nice is a massive city on the Cote d'Azur, and while it is not a tiny little village like the rest of the neighborhood, it is a great starting point to all close cities, like Monaco, St. Tropez and Cannes. I was able to go to all three by train, as the station was right by my hotel. For about $6 Euro, you can go to any coastal town on the train and the trains run about every 1/2 hour. I have already written about this, in the next blog, but suffice to say, this a an amazing region and if you have the money for a yaught you will fit right in. Oh, you also have to be the color of a redwood tree.

The beaches in Nice are also rocky, which I liked. No sand in your bum, and a bit of a massage as you sun yourself, although this is where I lost my bathing suit top so I have been winging it with tank tops, macrame' halters and anything to cover me up until I hit the beach.

The first night we all checked into the hotel and went to the beach for a midnight picnic. Our Dutch tour guide, Jules, proceeded to serenade us with his guitar and we all drank cheap wine and ate cheese. (Yes this is a theme in France.) We stumbled back around 2 a.m. and it was good because I was due to go on a cruise around St. Tropez the next day.

The cruise was pretty cheesy, it ended up to be more of a booze cruise than a real cruise, and it was run by an Irish guy with a bad sense of humor...it rained like crazy and we just sat there, looking at these mansions, drinking warm beer. It was $17 euro and I wouldn't do it again.

I also met a ton of really cool Aussie couples, including Belinda and Brad from Melbourne, David and Nadia from Perth who will be popping in and out of stories, and a Spanish guy who I just called "map guy" because he was so anal about his maps that it just became annoying. He was our roomate and came for the Stones show but ended up guiding us around with his damn maps. He came in handy but couldn't sit still long enough to enjoy where his damn maps were taking him! I did, however, realize there are 2 kinds of travelers. There are the map people who are great to have around but you want to leave them eventually, and there are the non map people (that is me) who can read a map, but find it more enjoyable to follow the wind. Sure, if you want to see every single sight, the map is good. If you want to chill, find little treasures and people watch, the map is lame.

The last day I went to Cannes with map guy and a lovely couple I met in a pub at the last minute as I was walking home from the Old Town after a couple of beers. Maja and Stefan are from the very North of Sweden where they...yes, are reindeer herders! They had never been out of their country, and they were absolutely adorable! Complete toe-heads, of course, indigenous Swedes who were the salt of the earth. They have invited me up to their village to help herd and slaughter their reindeer, and if I can I will. I bet that would be quite a hoot! Of course, it would be 80 below and I would have to wear a reindeer suit, but completely worth it!
We went to Cannes together, and while Cannes is lovely it is again for the rich and famous and since I am neither, I suppose the one day event was plenty.

All in all, I loved Nice and would go back in an instant, this time I would also go to Marselles, but I will explain that one later.