Mediterranean Heaven

Not a single day goes by without some sort of glitch or surprise...honestly. I've
started to wake up in the morning and wonder: hmmm, what kind of surprise will meet
up with us today? This is not a bad thing; it keeps me on my toes. And, things that
were once a big deal are laughable now...on our trip, and in life in general. This
is one of the neat things about traveling somewhere different.

Sunday, October 30th...we left Bordeaux at 10 pm the previous evening and spent the
night on the train to Nice, expecting to arrive at 8 am the next morning. I feel bad
for Jeni because she came down with a monstrous cold in Bordeaux and, by the time we
hit Nice, she started to sound like a raspy old man. Of course, we were on a night
train when daylight savings began. In hindsight, at least we were ON a train and not
waiting for one. Just a minor scare that morning when we awoke and thought we slept
through our stop. After scrambling to get dressed, looking like homeless slobs, we
rushed out of our carriage, only to discover we have an hour to go before our
arrival in Nice...

We were immediately excited when we exited the train station. Palm trees! Blue sky!
Warmth! American breakfast advertised at a nearby cafe! After we stopped for our
breakfast of bacon, eggs, bread and two lattes, we headed straight for the
beach...the Mediterranean coast baby!! It was blissful. It was hard to believe that
less than two weeks before this moment, we were in Switzerland, hiking down Mt.
Pilatus, in the snow...and now we were plunked down on the beaches of the French
Riviera. So far, "second half" was looking mighty fine!

The two days we spent in Nice consisted of us watching the blue waves roll in. We
had decided that all we wanted to do was set up shop at the beach, only a 15 minute
walk from our hostel, and enjoy the plus 20 degree weather we were so badly craving.
I was so thankful for this time...I needed a break and it felt great to finally have
some warmth.

This is what Paris did to me. Conked right out on the beach in Nice.

The old town of Nice is really beautiful...filled with local shops and small
eateries. J-Sak and I found a delicious homemade ice cream  place (of course) with
tons of flavors, including unique ones like lavender, avocado, tomato & basil and
rose petal. I chose white chocolate and lavender...so good! This ice cream place is
called Fenocchio, located in the old town of Nice, in one of the main squares...in
case any of you happen to drop by there sometime! 

Ice cream..MmMMmmmmM!

What else can I say about Nice? We didn't do any touring around or sight seeing, and
we didn't really meet any other travelers while we were there either...we were too
busy catching some rays along the coast and gearing up for our most anticipated
country of the whole trip. You guessed it! The Boot is beckoning us and, after two
delightful days on the Mediterranean, we hopped a train to Florence, Italy!

J-Sak and I walking the strip along the Mediterranean

Lookin' good!

Au revoir, France! You were an experience...I'll just say that!