Catching Up and Saying Goodbye to Nice

Monaco, Cannes, and the end of Nice
So much catching up to do! While I'm currently in Florence, Italy several cities and trips have taken place on the journey here that I have a couple of catch up posts to do.
It seems as though our month in Nice flew by without us really realizing how fast the time was going. After spending the weekend in Paris with Jules every day in Nice was filled with classes, beach trips, and visiting local cities nearby. The Chicago kids and I explored as much of what we could as possible, and yet even after a month in the city of Nice we didn't see much of what our own city had to offer. We definitely got our fill of the University, the beach, local night clubs, and shopping, but probably could have given a little more time to some of the museums and parks there were, but it seemed as though the beach was just a bit more appealing after our days in class.
Our third and final weekend in Nice was spent with day trips to both Monaco/Monte Carlo and to Cannes. Monaco was gorgeous, despite being WAY too hot for our liking. Brian, Alex, Andrea and I chose to take one of the hop on hop off tours so we didn't have to hike all the way up the giant hill to see the castle in Monaco. It was totally worth the cost and even though we got kicked off at the end of the tour, and had to walk through the scariest tunnel of all times with cars flying at us, we eventually found our way back to the train station in the Mountain and made our way back to Nice. The city itself is not as big as you would expect, and while the Monte Carlo was pretty from the outside and the cars are extremely impressive, the service at the cafes near it was just plain awful and unless you're dressed to the nines don't plan on getting to go inside the casino. I did find a diamond ring I'd like some day, but the biggest purchase of the day was a magnet for Mom.




The next day the girls and I headed out to Cannes to meet up with one of the French students who was having a bar-b-que at his parents house in Cannes. After the train ride from hell, where they ended moving us all up to a first coach cabin because the second coach was so hot people were literally about to pass out and leaving puddles of sweat in their seats, we eventually made it to the beautiful city of Cannes. While we thought we were late enough to have missed the city tour with Adrien (the French student) we ended up taking a tour around the city, climbing mountains, monuments, and sweating more than I have in my entire life. Our shirts looked as though we had just taken a shower and I eventually ended up using one of the public fountains plus Snuffy, as a shower just to try and cool off. After visiting the Monks castle, the Cannes film festival site, the Hotel Carleton, and the first sand beach we had seen in months, we were off to Adrien's parents house up in the hills of Cannes. The amazing chateau (yes literally a Chateau) has been passed through the generations of his family and is where he grew up. His parents being out of town, we had free range of the house and enjoyed the french version of a B-B-Q (the picture of me aerating the fire is what we ended up cooking on)complete with football (both American and French version)dance parties, and meeting a new friend named Climo (is that the right spelling Alex?)Because the last train back to Nice was at 10pm and NONE of us were capable of finding our way back to the train station at that point in time, we all ended up crashing at Adrien's house for the night, either on the floor, the "couch" or outside in the grass. We left bright and early the next morning complete with severe headaches, great memories, and more bug bites than any girl could possible need.




Our last week in Nice was spent with a final trip to 50 cent champagne night, studying for finals, taking finals, a short trip to Antibes with Brian, and a final goodbye party with everyone at the law school. Because of the terrible cold/cough that pretty much everyone had caught by that point, I spent my final night at the hotel with Andrea eating strawberry tarts, exchanging pictures, and watching a movie on her laptop.
Nice was absolutely amazing, and while we were all beyond ready to be done with France and some of its people, it was an amazing home for a month.