The weather reports for the weekend were not good, but we ended up getting our fair share of sunshine. We flew out of London at 4am on Saturday morning (yes, the crazy things Aussies do to travel for those cheap flights!) and landed in Nice at around breakfast. We checked into our hotel, Lafayette (a great find for its price, location and room size) and hit the town for an early birthday lunch among the Old Town markets.
An afternoon of shopping followed and we ended up in the Old Town again for a seafood dinner. We stuffed ourselves, but still found place for gelato on the way home. We vetoed a night out after our early morning rise and headed to bed early in preparation for a full day of touring on Sunday.
Sunday was a stunning day- Blue skies and sunny. We booked a day tour to visit Monaco, Cannes, Antibes and two old villages, Eze and Saint Paul. Our first stop was a perfume factory at Eze. We toured the soap-making factory and made some sweet-smelling purchases.
The heart of Eze is a cobbled village perched high above Nice. It had quaint boutiques and a maze of pathways through the town.
Next stop was Monaco. We spent about an hour at the Palace, watching the changing of the guard, strolling through the narrow streets and shops and checking out the views over Monaco and out to the Mediterranean.
Down in the town, we drove along the Formula 1 track, speeding past the belchers and the signposted track.
Lunch was nearing and we stopped for baguettes and gelato at Saint Paul, an old town on the hilltop, overlooking the French countryside.
We walked off lunch, weaving our way through the many shops and cobble streets.
Clouds were starting to form and rain began falling as we drove down the hillside, heading to the sunnier Cannes.
The Cannes Film Festival was on, so we didn’t get to go down to the promenade in the car, but we looked from above down to the white tents, red carpet and huge yachts.
Half an hour away was our last stop, the quite and old Antibes. Here, we decided to break from our whirlwind tour, and stop at a café for drinks and crepes (yum!). We took a peak at the yachts before the group collected together for the drive back into Nice.
For dinner, an Italian restaurant in town was recommended to us by some locals. It served up such huge plates of food and was far the best meal we had in Nice (it is never a lie that locals always best!).
Our final day in Nice was a breakfast of melt-in-the-mouth croissants and a final shop around the city. Late afternoon drew near and we headed back to the airport to return to London with great memories (and a few purchases) to remind us of a birthday weekend on the Cote d'Azur- Happy Birthday Wendy!
