Last weekend five of us traveled to Nice for an extended weekend. Monday was a national holiday so we were off from school. The trip took about 7 hours and 30 minutes total with 30 minute stop in Marseilles. We booked our tickets a little late and, as a result, had no assigned seat on the train to Marseilles. We were floaters; we sat wherever there was an empty seat. I was lucky and did not have to move at all for the trip but most of the other PSU students had to move around at each stop.
We had bought snacks for the train ride because we knew it would be long but when we arrived in Marseilles, we bought sandwiches at the train station (we needed more than pretzels and granola bars.) We took 5 minutes to step outside the train station and take pictures of Marseilles and wonder if we should have stayed in Marseilles instead of continuing on to Nice.

Nice was beautiful. It has rocky beaches, clear blue water, plenty of sun. Our first night at the hostel we met a group of students from American University. One of the girls in the group happened to go to high school with one of the girls in our group so we all went out together. We wondered the Nice’s old city looking for a dance club. The only one we found that looked like fun ended up being a gay bar and we were denied entrance. Instead we went to an Irish pub for a drink and walked back to the hostel.

Saturday was spent in Monaco, I really did not pack well for that trip; it was extremely hot and all I had were capris and a tee-shirt. However, I saw some amazing boats and cars – including a Bugatti – while in Monaco as well as the Monte Carlo Casino. The houses were beautiful and I found peanut butter in their supermarket. (France does not have a lot of peanut butter. I cannot find it in Besancon.)

Saturday night we went out with two girls that we met at Free Champagne Night at the hostel. We asked the front desk were the best place to party was and they directed us to Wayne’s Bar which is an Irish bar that has live music. During their night hours, the bar employees push the tables against the walls and so people can stand and dance on them. The place becomes so packed with people no one can move without push someone. I tend to be claustrophobic and could not stay in the bar but everyone else had a great time.

Sunday, we spent the day on the beach. We stopped at a Monoprix first thing in the morning to buy some drinks, bread, and cheese, then walked to the beach. only a small section of the beach actually has sand on it, the rest is pebbles. We laid our towels out, put on sunscreen, and basked in the warmth. I have to saw, the Mediterranean Sea is much colder than I would have expected it to be. It was like swimming at Ocean City, NJ only cleaner and clearer.
For dinner, we wandered back down to the old section of Nice to get dinner. All of us wanted seafood for dinner. We splurged for dinner and went to a relatively expensive place, but the food was great, and the portions were huge so it was worth it.

After dinner, we went back to Wayne’s Bar for our last night in Nice. We all ordered drinks and hung out for a while before the crowd came again. I left when they began pushing the tables against the wall and packing people into the bar.

Monday we checked out of our hostel, stored our baggage and visited some of the tourist attractions. Nice has a man-made waterfall at the top of what seemed like a million stairs. It was beautiful – you could see the whole city from the top. after some of us walked to see some ancient ruins while others (me included) enjoyed some air conditioning in one of Nice’s malls. After we met up at the hostel, grabbed dinner, and collected our baggage for the long train ride back to Besancon.

Location: Nice, France