Nice, France, is on the Cote d’Azure, or Blue Coast. So named because of the bright blue Mediterranean Sea. This is part of the French Riviera, which I am pleased to say, was exactly the way I thought it would be: beachy, bougie, and beautiful. While in Nice, I took a quick half hour train over to Monaco, because why wouldn’t I?
Old Town Nice
My first stop after my hotel was the old town part of the city. I wanted to make it to the public elevator that takes people up a mountain so they don’t have to walk up it. Happily, I made it before it closed at 5:30. There’s a nice park on top of the mountain with lovely views of the city and coastline. Several paved trails and stairs go up and down the mountain and there are a lot of shady trees to hide from the sun. At one of the viewpoints, I overheard (eavesdropped) on an English speaking tour and learned that a large yellow house all by itself on top of the hill is Sir Elton John’s pad. Right next to it is a giant antennae that was put up several years after he moved in, much to his annoyance, ha! #EatTheRich
I was taking in the views at one lookout and was startled by a little old French man who had got the jump on me and was standing next to me. He was maybe 5’6” and pushing 80 and jumped right in to point out different things to me in broken English. Jean-Marie wanted me to see to the water feature on the hill and walked me there. He told me I was ‘tres sympathique’ (very nice) and kissed me on each cheek. I thought that was adorable, but imagine my surprise when I ran into him AGAIN!. He walked me to the bottom of the hill, where I got another two kisses. What a smooth operator.
After winding through the busy streets of old town, I decided to get some pizza for dinner. Back in the day, the people in this area got to vote on whether they wanted to be French or Italian. They went with France, but there is a lot of overlap with cultures. All this to say, the pizza was bomb.
Monaco
Did you know that for $7 and twenty five minutes on a train you can visit another country? You can! Monaco is a hop, skip, and jump from Nice. Monaco city isn’t big and slopes down to the mountains to the sea. The train station is halfway up, so I got to go down the hill in order to climb another one to get to the Prince’s Palace. There is a prince here instead of a king due to some legalese in the Middle Ages. Also, they do male primogeniture, so even though the present day princess was born two minutes before her twin, he is next in line to be the head prince, after the current Prince Albert dies. (🤮)
Prince’s Palace
You have to go through security to get to the palace square, and again to enter the palace. I guess that makes sense, since it is a capital and White House of a country. The wonderfully named Grimaldi family has been in charge of Monaco since the 1200s. Back then, the area belonged to the Genoans and the elder Grimaldi hatched a plan to dress up like a monk, sneak inside and take over. His plan worked, and they have been in charge of Monaco ever since. They don’t seem at all to think this was shady and you’ll see monk statues proudly standing in town.
The tour of the Prince’s Palace took me through several rooms that had really pretty frescoes on the ceiling. Sometime in the past, the frescoes were covered with other more fashionable decor (popcorn ceiling…jkjk)and they only discovered them recently. They are now working on restoring them and it looks great. The tour was 50 percent Monaco regents and 50% Grace Kelly. There were loads of pictures and memorabilia from when she married Prince Ranier in the 1950s. She clearly is still a really big deal in these parts.
Prince’s Hill
After the tour, I was just about in time to watch the changing of the guard. This entailed standing around with loads of tourists holding their phone up and around 20 20-year-old boys in white dress gear walking around, most of whom had rifles. I learned that I have zero interest in watching the changing of the guard at the Buckingham Palace in London. This one was plenty for me.
My next stop on the prince’s hill was the cathedral where Ranier and Grace got married and where they are now buried. The cathedral is beautiful and above the alter was a huge gold mosaic. It felt very Byzantine to me and was really dramatic. Mass had just ended and the incense was still in the air. To finish out my time in this area, I got a burger at the place that was voted ‘best burger in Monaco’ several years running. I have to say, it was pretty good! I have no idea what was on it—so much stuff— but it went down real easy.
Grand Prix
The Grand Prix just recently happened in Monaco. I don’t know if it is always like this or they haven’t put things away yet, but I could see the bleachers where the fans sat, the crew pit areas, and the stands where the winner is crowned, or whatever happens to winners in car races. I thought it was interesting that as I was walking down the road in the city, there are marking and paintings for the race, like numbered spots for the start and red and white checkers to tell people about a turn. The roads are not big nor straight, so it really must be something to see the cars do this course.
Monte Carlo Casino
No, I did not go into the Monte Carlo Casino. You have to be a baller to be able to do that and I, alas, am no baller. I did really enjoy walking around the outside though, because it is a beautiful building.
There is a little park between it and the sea that had all sorts of really cool plants and gold imprints of feet for soccer players who were really good and won an award for being so cool. I made sure to take a pic of Mia Hamm’s marker.
Luxury
Monaco oozed with luxury, from the huge yachts to the fancy cars to the designer brands stores. (Side note, next to the Louis Vuitton, Prada, Coach, etc. stores was one called ‘Fred.’ I’m sure Fred is a billionaire with the net worth of several small countries’ GDP, but his name does not roll off the tongue like his compatriots.) Between all that and all the girls dressed to the 9s posing dramatically on every corner, it was a bit much for me and I headed back to Nice.
More Nice
After returning to the real world, I decided to take a dip in the Mediterranean. I headed down to the Promenade Anglaise, which is a really long (several miles), wide strip between the sea and the city. The rocky shore surprised me. Instead of sand, there were large rounded rocks on this beach. It made it challenging to get into the water and not super comfortable to lay on, but I didn’t get sand everywhere, so I think this might be my beach of choice.
Chagall
Some of my favorite artists painted in this area, so there are a couple museums that I wanted to visit in Nice. Sadly, the Henri Matisse museum was closed to prepare for an exhibition, but I could and did go to the Marc Chagall museum. Interestingly, this museum didn’t have a wide variety of his work. The art focused on a biblical series and the drafts for the Paris Opera house ceiling. I particularly enjoyed the pieces of stained glass in one room and a large mosaic in another.
So Long, France
This is my last stop in France, but more importantly my last day of flying solo. I meet up with my family in Greece tomorrow and I’m so excited to speak English to people I know IRL!!!
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