a Nice!

Bonjour! The picture above is me standing on the rocky beach of Nice. Last Saturday my friend Jennifer and I took a 30min. train to Nice. Our original plan was to go to les Alpes. We even woke up early, skipped brunch and booked it to Nice, only to find out that the train that leaves to les Alpes leaves at 7:15am. I believe it was about 11am. Oops. So...we found ourselves in this, somewhat large in comparison to Cannes, city and decided to make the most of it. We got a map and started to meander.
We came across this little cafe along the ocean. It was actually the really first sunny day on Le Cote d'Azur so we thought we'd come back and get a verre du vin or Sangria. However, it was closed by the time our little excursion came to an end, so we had to go elsewhere for a snack. A lot of the restaurants on the beach actually look like this in Cannes as well. I went to one after the gym to lounge, and it was pretty much directly on the beach.
We started walking down the main street. (not shown here...) They are setting up for Carnival which begins tomorrow, I believe, and lasts until next weekend....something along those lines. I plan to take a trip over there next weekend. It's supposed to be a lot of fun...something to do! There are tons of festivals that go on during the spring. Right now is the International Festival of Games...backgammon, chess, charades (yes....professional charades....). Lots of music festivals and the Citron one in Menton.
We ended up wandering in front of the opera house. We went in, and not only is it absolutely beautiful, they have operas going on all the time. Next weekend I am going to see one. Not sure which one exactly, but will keep you informed.
After that we wandered down into this tiny little street where it looked like the locals spend their saturdays doing shopping. It was VERY cute. We eventually, after stopping for lunch, made our way to the ocean. That is where we discovered the promenade. We found Lou Casteau, which is an old, old, castle built into the walls. You had to climb way, way up, lots of stairs to get to the top. We braved it and it was worth it! Absolutely beautiful. While we were up there, we found a little lighthouse we wanted to go visit, so we decided to climb back down and go towards that direction. You could not go out to the lighthouse, but we could walk towards it. Jennifer wanted to go to the flower market, so we managed to catch the last part of that as well. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend our time in Nice. After 12 hours of wandering around Nice, we came back exhausted. My next post will be just pictures from their!
The top of the hike! Nice and les Alpes in the background.