Day trip from Nice

From Paris we took a train to Nice. Total trip was about 6 hours and it took us through the scenic countryside of France. Z with his wonderful planning determined it best we take a double decker train for this leg of the trip and secured us seats on the upper level. This gave us unobstructed views. We arrived in Nice early evening and decided it would be fun to stretch our legs a little after sitting on the train for so long. We walked from our apartment to old town Nice which is about a 15 minute walk. We grabbed a quick dinner at a donair/kebab place which unfortunately none of us really enjoyed (lesson here is don't necessarily settle for the first place y see even if you're really hungry), but after walking around a little, we found a gelato store and well who can resist the temptation of gelato? Even in France the gelato is very good....darn close to that Italian gelato!!

The following day we drove out to Cannes because I really wanted to see it. We were there just over a week after the Cannes Film Festival ended. While it might have been neat to see the film festival and all the fuss over the movie stars, I think it would have been to crazy busy!! It was nice and relaxed with not too busy with too many tourists. We walked along Plages de la Croisette which is the waterfront boulevard. We saw many of the extravagant hotels along the waterfront. One being the Carlton which we went into just to look around a little. Cannes has a street named Rue du Canada, so being Canadian tourists meant we had to take a bunch of photos with the street sign. How Canadian, eh?

We had a fabulous beach front lunch at a place called Plage du Gray d'Albion. This restaurant is attached to a hotel of the same name. We each ordered the menu du jour which for me consisted of a lovely chicken dish and fresh fruit salad for dessert. Z had the fish and fresh fruit tart and his mom also had the chicken and originally no dessert, but then got tempted by the fruit tart and ordered one after I promised to eat half. Our waiter was quite comical and made the experience that much better an our restaurants where the waiters have been a little.....how should I say this....snobbish. You can also rent beach chairs in front of the restaurant if you're wanting to do some sunbathing or swimming in the Mediterranean. We did see a couple fishermen outside the restaurant, perhaps catching the fish of the day? We wanted to explore the town after lunch, so didn't stick around for too long, but I did get a chance to dip my feet into the Mediterranean quickly. I ran out quite quickly because it was cold.

The Palais des Festivals et des Congres where the film festival is held was neat to see. The theatre itself isn't all that interesting to look at. I was actually a little disappointed because I thought it would be nicer. They must "dress" it up during the festival because it always looks nicer on TV. The theatre is right beside the marina where you can see a bunch of really expensive boats and yachts. We didn't see anyone famous while here, but the Esplanade du Palais has cut out figurines of different action figures where you can become that action figure. That was the closest to seeing a movie star. There is a visitor's centre in the area and just outside of it you can find imprints of various stars' hands.

From the marina we walked to an area called Suquet. This is a really nice little neighbourhood....somewhat hilly, but the streets are lined with shops and restaurants. You can walked up to the Notre Dame de L'Esperance and get some fabulous views of the town. We couldn't get inside the church because there was a wedding going on, so we walked back down the windy streets to a pedestrian street called Rue d'Antibes. Here you can find most anything from local merchants to name brand, high-end stores. You can drop a lot of money here if you wish.




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