Nice, France & Monaco
With summer coming to a close, we wanted to have one last long weekend of sun and sea. Having visited Nice in 2015, it seemed a fitting place to host us, as we could focus on relaxing over sightseeing. That said, one regret from our visit a few years ago was not taking a day trip to Monaco. So with our Nice Airbnb check-in not until the late afternoon on our first day, we transferred directly from the airport to Monaco (using the 110 Express bus) to spend a few hours in the city-state.
Monaco
We didn’t have high expectations for Monaco, and we didn’t think our visit was going to be anything more than a novelty, but we were pleasantly surprised, in particular by its old town. The bus dropped us off the at the Monte Carlo Casino, and after gawking at it from the outside, we walked southwest to the port where we grabbed a light and tasty lunch from Woo (cream cheese, goat cheese, and tomato bagels).
We had planned on visiting the Exotic Garden, but with limited time after a later-than-expected start (thanks to bad traffic) we decided to skip it. Instead we went directly to the old town (via Rampe de la Major), emerging at Place du Palais, crowned by the pristine Prince's Palace.
After serendipitously catching the changing of the guard, we wandered along the southern edge of the old town, past scenes of a wedding at the beautiful Saint Nicholas Cathedral and then to the serene Saint-Martin Gardens for a quick visit. As we circled the miniscule old town, we appreciated its tidiness and lack of crowds (at least away from the square), and there were picturesque views seemingly around every corner!
We closed our visit out with a seaside walk out of Monaco to Cap d’Ail where we called an Uber to bring us to Nice. While Monaco isn’t necessarily a top tourist draw, it’s a great addition to a wider-ranging French Riviera itinerary and offers country-counters an opportunity to cross the world’s second-smallest country off on their lists!
Nice, France
The Nice post from our first visit covers a lot, so we will only note things in this post that we didn’t do last time. Our home this time around was this stylish Airbnb on Rue du Marché.
We came to Nice primarily for beach time, so we set up camp at beach club Opéra Plage for most of our only full day. Between dips in the sea and naps in the sun, we ate lunch (caprese salad) and made friends with a very sociable Corgi (we named him Benoît). Sadly, our last swim of the day was also our last swim of the summer.
On our final day, we checked out of our Airbnb and climbed Castle Hill via Montée Menica Rondelly, then walked down to the port. Check out the view across the bevy of colorful boats back toward Castle Hall from the other side of the port!
Each day started with breakfast goodies from Boulangerie Jeannot; we grabbed lunch on our last day at Restaurant L'Ecurie (margherita pizza); and dinner was had at Les Garçons (bacon cheeseburger, spinach tagliatelle) and La Cucina (truffle pasta, crème brûlée, tiramisu).
Our visit to Nice served its purpose—not only did we catch some much-appreciated beach time, but we also got to right our wrong from years ago by visiting Monaco! We’re sad to see summer go, but fortunately we have our ceramic mug from La Petite Fabrique to help us remember the warmth of the sun this winter. Until next time, au revoir!
