Holiday in Nice

We had an early start on the first day of our holiday with two train journeys that day to get us to Paris.  By late morning we were in London and it was a short stroll across to St Pancras for the Eurostar.  The trip through the tunnel was very low key.  In fact it was a couple of minutes before I realised we were actually in it and above us was the English Channel!

Once in Paris we checked into the hotel and with no unpacking to do as we were only staying one night we headed straight out to take advantage of the late night opening at the Louvre.  We didn't have very much time there so we settled on a look at a couple of famous exhibits, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo - of the two we decided we much preferred the latter.

Thursday and another train trip - a much longer one this time made a little longer by it being late but six hours after leaving Paris we were in Nice.  We were really pleased with the hotel which had a fantastic view of the sea from the bedroom terraces.

Friday we spent in Nice first in the flower market  at the Cours Saleya and then having bought some food in the market for lunch we headed up to the Colline du Chateau, the local park, so high up there was actually a lift as an alternative to the stairs and which had fabulous views across the sea and the town.

We ate that night and almost every night after in the market place which once all the stalls had gone was filled with outdoor restaurants.  The food everywhere was delicious.

Saturday we took the train to Cannes.  It was a bit of a disappointment.  There was a lovely beach and some spectacular yachts but it wasn't as nice as Nice.

On Sunday we decided to have a lazy day as it was so hot.  There was a celebration for the town's saint which was very colourful.  After that we had lazy afternoon in the hotel relaxing with a bottle of wine on the terrace.

On Monday we went to Monte Carlo which was very picturesque and also very mountainous!  We watched the changing of the guard - too many people to get good pictures - toured the Palace and visited the Casino.   That evening we ate in the hotel and then packed for the journey back to Paris.

The train back was late - forty minutes - so we were very glad to get off and be back in the same hotel we had used on our first night there.  To stretch our legs we took a walk along by the river.

On Wednesday we took a river cruise in the morning.  We were going to go up the Eiffel Tower but with only one lift workgint the queues were too long so we found a nice place for a leisurely lunch, collected our bags and headed to the station for the Eurostar back to London.  Later that evening we were back home, shivering in the cold after all the hot sunshine.  We had had a wonderful time!

Some more pictures of the holiday are here.

tags: france  eurostar  paris  louvre  mona lisa  venus de milo  nice  cours saleya  colline du chateau  cannes  monte carlo  eiffel tower  pbase  

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