Day 12 – Wednesday – Nimes to Nice, Promenade des Anglais, Place Massena

We had a slightly less unreasonable train to catch this morning – 8:14a to Nice with a train change in Marseilles. The Gare de Nîmes was only maybe a 10 minute walk from our hotel, so getting there and boarding was uneventful. Sadly, I wasn’t able to book another high speed train. It would just be the regional TER trains for this journey, but once we hit Marseilles, views of the Mediterranean Sea routinely popped into view – probably I’m glad those went by a little more slowly.

Unfortunately on the TER trains, I wasn’t able to book specific seats for us. While Nimes to Marseilles was no problem, the train from Marseilles to Nice was much more crowded. At least the kids got to sit together. Sean and I eventually did too, as people disembarked for different destinations.

We arrived in Gare de Nice with little fuss around 12:30p. We couldn’t go collect our keys to the apartment till 2:00, so Ian and I hung out in a nearby park with all our backpacks while Sean and Maya went foraging for a small lunch. Sean was feeling a little sick by this point, but managed to power through it.

The park we waited at was favored by the dog-owners of Nice, and Ian and I were treated to a parade of dogs coming through the park, with a wide range of breeds represented. The dogs were cute, but I was personally delighted with the kamikaze-like diving of the beautiful pigeons. Sean and Maya made it back with sushi (Maya’s choice) and after eating, it was late enough that we could collect our keys. The property manager was extremely nice. She provided us with a tourist map and spent time explaining which spots she would visit and which restaurants she’d recommend.

Thankfully, the apartment was already ready (they had warned us it may not be available till 5). After this, we made the very short walk to our place at 11 bis Rue Grimaldi. We had a key fob to let us into the building, a real key to let us into the apartment, and another key to let us into the garbage room so we could dispose of our trash. We found building 11 and discovered that our key fob wouldn’t let us into the building. Sean was feeling pretty terrible by this point and the thought of walking back to ask about the fob was unappealing. A French person, noticing our distress, looked at the address and explained that 11 and 11 bis were two different buildings. Once we made it one door further to 11 bis, all was well. (I just looked it up. “Bis” literally means “again” and it’s apparently common for the French to use this when the street’s already numbered but a building is split into two separate spaces or a formerly vacant lot is occupied.)

The apartment was beautiful and easy to sprawl out in. Sean was sick to his stomach and needed to rest. Maya was getting over her cough, and I was starting to develop one. We had originally planned to start tooling around Nice that afternoon – it’s part of why we booked such an early train from Nimes. But adaptation is part of travel, and we clearly needed the rest.

After a time, once Sean felt a bit better, he and I wandered out to a nearby grocery store to stock up on supplies. “Supplies” included drinks, snacks, breakfasts, and a bottle of rose that I think maybe cost 3-5 euros. France is, of course, famous for its wine, but we had been so busy on this trip, that we honestly hadn’t partaken much at all. We *have* gotten old!

After this, we decided to walk to the water. Our apartment, which we dearly loved, was about a 10-minute walk to the Mediterranean Sea. I had briefly looked into staying in a hotel or apartment that overlooked the water. Of course they were very expensive, but more than that, I found it difficult to find a place that would accommodate a family of four without booking a second room. We had successfully made it through our France trip without having to book multiple rooms – possibly because we had booked early enough to find family rooms still available. In Nice, either those don’t exist along the beachfront, or I was too late in looking.

We had a weirdly delightful dinner at All Star Burgers. The person running the place was French, but spent part of his time in Arizona. The burgers were really good and well seasoned. Would sushi and burgers have been my top choices for first meals in Nice? No. But I genuinely enjoyed our burger place.

We stopped at a shop to buy ice creams for Maya and Ian. Then we hit a second shop to purchase to-go cocktails for the grown ups (a mojito and an Aperol spritz). And finally we strolled along the Promenade des Anglais for a while. I just looked it up – apparently the promenade was originally funded in the 1800s by the English aristocracy, who enjoyed wintering in Nice – hence the Promenade’s name.

More on names … Our move to Nice begins our time in the Côte d’Azur (literally “blue coast” in English). It edges the Provence region of France and is often referred to as the French Riviera. Our idea was that we’d end our trip at a slower pace and theoretically rest up from our hectic time in Paris, Disney, Mont St Michel, and Nimes.

Eventually we worked our way down to the seashore. The beaches all around Nice are very rocky, often comprised of large pebbles worn smooth by the waves. This left the water very, very clear. The sea is a gorgeous shade of blue (“azur” indeed!), and it’s nice to just sit and watch the various watercraft dotted hither and thither throughout the water. Also, the flight path to the Nice airport crosses the sea, and it’s fun to watch the often huge and very low-flying planes swoop in for a landing.

We walked back home through Place Massena, taking in the pretty square that was so different from the ones we’d wandered through all over Paris. The off-kilter checkerboard pattern of the walkway seemed (to me) to imply that Nice doesn’t take itself quite so seriously. A 23-foot tall marble Apollo stares at you nakedly from the Fontaine du Soleil (Fountain of the Sun), surrounded by bronze sculptures of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn. Apparently back in the day, some found Apollo’s nakedness offensive and he actually was moved to a stadium outside of town for a number of years.

There are also seven sculptures of people on high poles dotting the Place. These are (apparently) meant to represent the seven continents of the world. They were done by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, who also made Le Nomade in nearby Antibes (which we’ll see later in the trip).

As we wandered the area, we headed through lovely parks and squares, saw a wide variety of sculpture, and crossed over tramline tracks several times. We headed back and wound down fast, managing to finally get a solid night’s rest.

Day 13 – Thursday – Vieux Nice (Old Town) and Cours Saleya, Colline du Chateau, Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas de Nice, Fancy Dinner

We slow-rolled out of bed around 7, taking our time with showers, breakfast, and laundry. Our first stop would be Nice’s morning market, Marche aux Fleurs on Cours Saleya in Nice’s Old Town (Vieux Nice is how the neighborhood is labeled on maps).

It was hotter than normal during our visit (sorry, Nice), so it was a sweaty affair, but I picked up some sea salt flavored with herbs de Provence. Ian bought some poppy-flavored candy. Sean found fresh fruit juices that were cold and delightful, and I got to try socca. Socca is a chickpea flour flatbread baked in a fired oven in what looks like a large, flat cast iron pan. It is cut up to order and served simply with a good sprinkling of black pepper. It reminded me very much of the farinata we enjoyed in Italy many years ago.

After feeding some very pretty pigeons my socca crumbs, we headed out to ride the elevator (l’ascenseur) to the top of Castle Hill (Colline du Château). The wait for the elevator was loud with conversation, but blissfully air conditioned. We could have walked up the hill, of course, but it seemed like a foolish waste of energy. Instead, we waited just a few minutes, took the elevator up, spent a long lovely while wandering to different viewpoints, basking in the waterfall’s mists, and then walking the path down the hill instead. The cost for all this? Completely free, except for the drinks we bought.

While strolling around Castle Hill, near the top as I recall, we heard a loud BOOM and saw smoke. What on earth was that? No one else seemed alarmed, but I was very curious. I did a quick web search, not really expecting to find anything. I can’t remember exactly what terms I searched on, but it turns out they fire a CANNON IN NICE every day at noon. Ok, these days it’s actually some kind of firework that’s launched at midday, but it used to be a cannon.

The story goes that Thomas Coventry, a well-to-do Englishman, got tired of his wife socializing all day instead of making him lunch. In 1863, he covered costs to have a cannon fired off daily at noon so that she’d hear it and be alerted that it was time to go home and cook. It is said that after he left Nice, people had become so reliant on the midday cannon that things fell into disarray without it, and the city had to reinstate the practice. In 1886, they stopped using cannons, switching to a firework of some kind instead. This practice persists to this day, though I hear it’s not to be relied upon on April Fools’ Day.

I can’t say enough nice things about our visit to Castle Hill. I don’t know what I thought it would be exactly – just *less* I guess – but we spent a long while wandering there, lingering especially long at the various levels of the Cascade du Chateau, a man-made waterfall (man made in 1885, mind you), watching the seagulls putter in the water. I also enjoyed the mosaics that were absolutely everywhere, many in motifs inspired by the sea. We saw multiple mosaic-ed octopuses, for example.

After our visit to Castle Hill, we went to find the #ILoveNice sign. We looked all around where both Google Earth and Apple Maps believed it to be, but it appeared to have been replaced by an arguably more interesting work of art. It is a giant crocheted sculpture called ‘Urchins’ (2024), by CHOI + SHINE Architects.

Afterward, we wandered the narrow sloped streets for a while, taking in a street covered in colorful umbrellas. We wandered by Chez Thérésa, maker of fine socca. We tried to convince the kids that that’s where we should pick up lunch, but apparently dining on Nicoise cuisine (pan bagnat, pissaladiere) wasn’t what they had in mind. I think Sean was about at his limit with the kids’ pickiness at that point. We hadn’t really gotten our Parisian dining experience because they had been so particular, and we were doing our best to satisfy everyone. Now we weren’t getting our Mediterranean French fix either.

I stopped at a shop and bought probably not the world’s best pan bagnat, just so I could try it out. The kids bought some kind of fast food type wraps. Then Sean deposited the rest of us so he could go find a nice fresh sandwich (which was really good).

After lunch, we rested again. Our full-tilt first week (plus) simply demanded some down time. While resting, we decided we needed a nice, sit-down dinner at least once while in France. As it happened, there was a Michelin-starred restaurant right next to our rental apartment. We originally saw only a 9:30 reservation, which given the pace of that sort of dining would have meant a very late night. After an accidental screen refresh, an 8:15 popped up, and I snagged it.

We had enough time to walk over and check out the Russian orthodox cathedral, Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas de Nice, before dinner. It was past opening hours, but it was the excellent onion-domed architecture that I was really wanting to see anyway. Alas, the locked gates and formidable fence didn’t allow us to get too close. Still, even from our limited view, the colorful cathedral with its many domes was an interesting and even strange sight in Mediterranean Nice.

Dinner at Le Sejour was wonderful. I was worried that it would be stuffy and overly formal. That proved to be a needless concern. Service was personable and kind. I felt that our family was welcome rather than just tolerated. The kids managed to be (reasonably) well behaved through amuse-bouche, starter (entree), main course (plat), and dessert and attempted a wide variety of flavors and textures. And you wouldn’t believe the teeny, tiny kitchen all this wonderful food was emerging from. It was just what Sean and I needed.

Day 14 – Friday – Antibes, Absinthe, Eze

When I had thought through this trip, I didn’t want to go overboard on day trips from Nice. There are so, so many gorgeous places to visit all along the southern coast, never mind going inland, where the whole of Provence is available to food-loving humans. I had two small experiences in mind, and I had intended to spread them over two days. Alas, our need to relax and regroup a little the two previous days forced my hand a little.

We would cram my two day trips into a single day. We’d take the bus to Eze to see the pretty medieval town, excellent botanical gardens, and epic Mediterranean view. Then we’d take the train from Eze to Antibes to let the kids play on a sandy beach for a while there. Then we’d take the train back to Nice and wind down.

After considering how hot it had been and how the beaches were all in full sun, we elected to swap the order and go to the beach first thing in the morning instead.

We managed to get ourselves onto the 8:47 train which rolled into Antibes a little after 9. After a stroll through the port area to check out Le Nomade, the sculpture by Jaume Plensa, whose work we’d seen in Place Massena a couple days prior, we headed to Plage de la Gravette to spread out our travel towels and take a dip in the cool, clear Mediterranean Sea.

The ramparts and Antibes old town provide an excellent backdrop to Plage de la Gravette. The beach was sandy-ish. But it would still have been wise to bring our water shoes, given how rocky it was once you were in the water. Maya managed to find some really pretty, albeit tiny, seashells and some bits of sea glass. Ian put up with it, but the water was pretty brisk, and he had to take some time to lay on the beach and warm back up periodically. Even at 9:30-10 in the morning, the sun was already kind of scorching, so it didn’t take long to bring your temperature back up.

When Ian got too cold (or too bored) and Maya got frustrated with the increasing number of people, we got dressed and headed into town to wander through the Antibes open air market, Marché Provençal, on our way to the Absinthe Bar. It is listed as both Absinthe Bar and Absinthe Museum, and either way, you have to enter through an unassuming shop. Then, if you can’t figure out what to do, you have to ask one of the nice ladies working in the shop if the Absinthe Bar is open and how do we get there. And *then* if you’re parents of the year, you ask if there are mocktails for the kids (there are)!

The Absinthe Bar is apparently not a hopping place midday on a Friday in June. We walked down the stairs into the bar and found that we had the whole place to ourselves. In fact, once the lady helping us got us all set up with our drinks, she left too, asking us to pay upstairs on the way out. It was down in a cellar type cave, so it was cool and dark and since there were no people, quiet.

Our lady set the kids up with their mocktails, and then she set Sean and I up with pours of absinthe, complete with spoons and sugar cubes. She showed us how to place them under the fountain and let the water slowly drip through the sugar cube on the spoon into the absinthe below. As the cool sugar-water hits the liquor, it turns from clear to cloudy (louche) and becomes delightfully light and drinkable … unless you’re Sean and don’t enjoy the licorice-like flavor of anise. He told me later he was glad for the experience, but he continues to not like absinthe.

After this, we caught the train back to Nice and freshened up at the apartment. Since the kids had been so chill at the bar, we took them for burgers again for lunch. Then we took the tramline to Vauban station. From there we took Bus number 82 all the way to Eze Village. I remember this taking quite a while, and those bus drivers have some serious skill to navigate such large vehicles through those narrow cliffside streets.

We didn’t get into Eze till after 5, and I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough time, but Eze is actually quite small, and we were mostly there to see the Jardin Exotique at the top of the village. Clouds had rolled in, so the sun was covered, which made for a much more enjoyable experience. The cacti and succulents and herbs and flowers coating the grounds were varied and gorgeous. The statues sprinkled throughout lent an air of grace and peace. The waterfalls provided a dampening noise. A bank of misters and a row of chaises provided relief from the heat and the uphill climbs.

We had a really good view of the 80-meter-high Pont d’Eze, also known as the Eze Viaduct or, more colorfully, the Devil’s Bridge. Evidently, the devil agreed to build the bridge so long as he could claim the soul of the first person to cross it.

When our visit was done, we took La Chemin de Nietzsche (Nietzsche’s Path) down to the train station in Eze sur Mer. Apparently Nietzsche spent some time in the warm climate of Eze in an effort to improve his declining health. It must have worked, because it is said that he walked the path daily, uphill and down, and you’d have to be fairly fit to do that.

Even just walking downhill as we did, it was a somewhat demanding hike. This isn’t a paved trail, but a real hiking path. You have to watch your footing to keep from rolling an ankle or slipping. This is difficult to do too because the scenery that unfolds as you descend, turning corners and entering clearings, is gorgeous. That said, the grown-ups were a sweaty mess by the time we got to the bottom, bought our tickets from the machine at the station, and boarded our train. The train ride back was much, much shorter than our bus journey earlier had been.

In walking back from the train station to our apartment, we passed by a promising looking Italian restaurant. Alas, given our sweaty state, we opted for quick pizzas that we could bring back to the apartment instead. We did, however, make a reservation at the nice place for the next night.

Day 15 – Saturday – Cours Saleya, Librairie, Nice Beach

I woke up on this particular morning not feeling super duper – lots and lots of congestion, not a lot of energy. For trips like this, I tend to take notes so I can remember and recount our adventures later. I have not a single word in my book about this day.

My original plan for our last day had been to walk the famous Coastal Path from Nice to Villefranche-sur-Mer (~4 km), visit Villefranche-sur-Mer a little, then take a quick train back to Nice. Between the heat, my illness, and everyone’s general tiredness, we decided that wasn’t the best choice for today. Instead we took it fairly easy.

We had wanted to see if there was interesting art to be had from the craftspeople at or near the market in Old Town, so that’s where we started our day. After wandering for a while, we found an artist who did beautiful little watercolors of various places along the Cote d’Azur. We found a couple that we liked and purchased them. The artist, who spoke mostly French, implored us to be careful in the heat, pointing out that we needed un chapeau (a hat).

Then we found Chez Theresa’s socca stand and loaded up. It turns out all four Woodses enjoy socca. There was a bit of a wait in line, but that was ok, because then we got to watch a Chez Theresa restaurant employee roll up in a pedal-cart to restock the socca whenever it ran low. I had been wondering how they managed to stay supplied.

I think we decided to head back to our apartment after this and augment our socca with other leftovers and snacks we needed to clear out before leaving town the next day. Then, probably because of me, we relaxed for a while. The air conditioning was thankfully very good in our rental place, and it felt nice to cool off and rest a while.

Sean and I went out on our own then, stopping by the store to ensure we had enough food for breakfast the next morning. Then, at my request, we stopped by a librairie (bookstore) so I could peruse the French cookbook selection. On the way back, we stopped at a fancy patisserie that Ian had been eyeballing and picked up Dubai chocolate for him (it was his obsession this vacation), some random black brick looking dessert for Maya, and a pretty raspberry pastry for Sean. By all accounts they all enjoyed their treats.

We thought that we should try to take the kids to the beach one more time while we were on the coast. This time, we’d keep it simple and just let them play on the pebbly beach there in Nice. We loaded up our gear and headed down there, me hoping to find some place to park it and rest while the rest of them played. The beach was insanely crowded, but the kids still managed to find their way to the water and play for a while. After about an hour, we headed back to the apartment to clean up for dinner and start to collect up our belongings for the trip back to America.

We had been wanting to sit outside at a restaurant the whole time we were in France, but in deference to Maya’s smoke aversion, we always chose indoor seating. On this evening, when we got to Miamici, the Italian place we had noticed the day prior, in the nice shade with a relatively cool breeze, we sat outside. The grown-ups ordered cocktails, the kids ordered mocktails, and a live singer began belting out tunes.

One of the waitstaff explained to us that they were having live music that evening to celebrate Fete de la Musique. I had read a few articles earlier in the day that because Fete de la Musique fell on a Saturday this year, people in Paris were expecting things to get pretty wild. For us, the atmosphere was more subdued. The singing lady at one point invited her son up to sing with her, and the pair both had lovely singing voices. It was a bit loud maybe, but otherwise pleasant enough. I will say that sitting at an outdoor table at a trattoria in Nice listening to a singer belting out “Georgia on my Mind” is a little surreal.

I had a lovely gnocchi and shrimp dish that I gave over to Maya when she discovered that she wasn’t going to be able to eat her black squid ink pasta with clams that she ordered (we traded). Ian ordered pizza that he ate almost none of. We couldn’t really chat too much because of the singing, but we had a delicious and relaxing meal nonetheless.

After all that, we breathed in the sea air, let out a wistful sigh, and headed back to our apartment to start packing and tidying up.

Day 16 – Sunday – Goodbye France

Our flight didn’t leave Nice till 1:00 and the airport was only a short tram-ride away, so we ate, finished packing, and finished cleaning up the apartment without having to hurry. Check out time was 10, and we left shortly before then to catch our tram. Bonus, as we were walking into the airport from the tram stop, we saw an #ILoveNice sign! We snuck in a quick photo right there at the airport like the ridiculous tourists that we are.

We didn’t expect the Nice airport to be all that busy and felt we’d have plenty of time to get through security and get to our flight. But, for reasons we didn’t understand, when we checked into our flight online, it didn’t give us boarding passes for everyone. We figured we’d sort it out at the airport, but finding the right line to get in to have that remedied was a little tricky. It cost us some time, but not insurmountably so.

I don’t remember the security line being all that long. It was a little confusing which things they did or didn’t want out of your bags because their demands didn’t seem to match the signage, but honestly, I feel like that’s true of airports in the US also.

Then we saw the line to get into our terminal. It was massive. We walked and walked and walked to get to the end of it. It did move along reasonably quickly, but still, it took a long while to get through. We finally made it through and were hanging around at our gate, noticing already a disorganized wedge of humanity forming around our gate. I can’t speak for Sean, was I was feeling pre-weary about the line we’d have to fight our way through when our group was called. We had to fight though, because we needed to make use of that all important overhead bin space.

Then our names were called. This on top of the boarding pass kerfuffle was almost too much to bear. We tried to make our way to the desk so they could tell us why we were called. All the Very Important People with their upgraded statuses seemed to be put out that we went up there, but we had to find out what was going on.

Turns out we were randomly selected for extra screening. Thankfully the man who collected us for this extra screening was extremely nice. He explained that our kids would come with us and wait just outside the security border, always in sight of us. We opened our carefully packed bags, removed our shoes, answered a few questions and then were done. It was honestly fairly painless. I was just lamenting having to fight for our place in line again, when he ushered us through and onto the airplane. Apparently, since we were chosen for extra screening, as a courtesy, they let us onto the airplane right away. No fighting with people, plenty of bin space, finally, something easy at this airport.

The flight to Philadelphia was uneventful. While I wanted to sleep, I couldn’t, so I worked my way through several movies in between many, many kid demands. We rode on a 787 (just as we had on the way there), and I had noticed the window dimming overnight on the trip to France, but we really noticed it on this day during our entirely daytime trip. One of the features of a 787 is electronically dimmable windows. There’s apparently a layer of gel between two window panes. A chemical reaction causes the gel to darken when an electric current is applied to the gel. The higher the current, the darker the gel. Crazy!

We had no real issues going through customs in Philly. There was a point where they barked that they wanted us to come through one person at a time (which would have split us between agents), but they chilled out a little once they realized we were a family and didn’t want to be separated. Our flight to Austin even had the audacity to arrive a little early. Even at that, we arrived fairly late in the evening, and to bodies still on France time, it felt seven hours later. It would be a rough work day the next day.

By all accounts, we had an amazing trip. There were travel obstacles and workers’ strikes and a mild language barrier, which sometimes confounded our efforts. Our kids’ preferences and complaints often made things more frustrating than they had to be. I cannot say we always handled these things with perfect grace, but we did manage to roll with the punches. And we saw incredible, beautiful things. When it happened, it was fun to see one of the kids be genuinely interested or astonished at the places we visited. We tried to learn some of the history that gave those things context. An interesting thing about a country as old as France is that you often had to see things in several different contexts – castle, fortress, prison, museum – depending on which century you were considering.