After spending four days in Paris, we took the high speed train to Nice. The trip took about 6 hours and was a great experience! Watching the French countryside fly by outside the window is an easy way to see the country if you do not plan on renting a car. We saw fields of lavender and, of course, vineyards as we traveled south through Provence. Nice is a major holiday spot for many people in Europe because of the turquoise blue Mediterranean water, pebble beaches and laid back life-style. The water was stunning! During our time in Nice, we took a 30 minute train ride to Monaco, where we spent an afternoon. It was the perfect day trip.

Where We Stayed

We spent two nights at Hôtel Mercure Nice Marché aux Fleurs, a smaller hotel on the beach, near the Old Town part of the city. Our room had an incredible balcony view of the Medeterrian Sea. The hotel staff were very welcoming and helpful - they even printed out a couple documents for us that we needed for our continued travels. However, the hotel room itself was incredibly small. Thankfully, Kyle and I are somewhat light packers, so there was just enough space for our luggage on the floor. The views were 100% worth the lack of space!

Where We Ate

Lunch

• Le Nautic - we ate lunch here during our afternoon in Monaco! It is located directly in the middle of the Swimming Pool Chicane. I had a pizza and it was excellent, no surprise as Monaco is located so close to Italy.

Dinner

• Le Plongeoir - this restaurant is hovering above the sea on an island and has absolutely incredible views. This is the only restaurant we had reservations for before leaving the US and I am so glad we were able to experience it. The food was almost as good as the views and the wine list was chef's kiss. We ordered a bottle of Premier Cru Chablis to pair with our sea bass entrees. Next time we are here, I want to stop at their bar downstairs!
• Casa Leya - located in downtown Nice, we had a great Italian meal with unexpected entertainment from local street performers! We also ordered a great chianti here!

What We Did

Since our time in Nice was short, we decided to spend much of it on the patio and at the beach in front of our hotel. We also spent time just simply walking around this beautiful city!

• Av. Jean Médecin - a famous street for shopping. We walked through here to catch the train and did not stop at any shops, but there were many cute boutiques!
• Walking around Port Lympia - there are many nice yachts to daydream about and the walk along the sea is breathtaking.
• Day trip to Monaco - we walked along the city streets, stopping at a few of the famous points on the Formula 1 Grand Prix track and at the iconic casinos.
• Sitting on the beach at night and drinking champagne - the markets sell relatively cheap bottles of champagne. It paired perfectly with the rocky beaches, salty air and a full moon!

I wish we had a couple more days along the French Riviera because there is so much to do! We will be back in the future and plan to stay in a smaller city with easy access to a train line.

After getting our rental car from the Nice airport, we were off to the heart of French wine country. We drove through the Rhône Valley, stopping at Château La Nerthe in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and M. Chapoutier in Hermitage before checking into our hotel in Lyon (will link blog posts after publishing).