Cannes et Nice Weekend

Voyage en train

I met Helen at the Part-Dieu train station in Lyon for our train departing at 9h07 (how specific!). The TGV high speed train made stops in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Cannes, Antibes, and finally Nice (with maybe a few more in between… bit those were the major ones!). The journey took 4.5 hours and for the most part, it was quite the beautiful ride. Before arriving in Marseille, the landscape began to get hillier, huge snowcapped mountains appearing in the distance. The closer we got to Marseille, the more we passed red rocky cliffs with deep valleys, deep green covered scenery, and finally- la mer! Between Marseille-Cannes-Antibes-Nice, the train rides right along the gorgeous blue French Riviera coastline.

We rode the train all the way into the Nice-Ville station, a beautiful 19^th century Gare, complete with a forged steel rooftop and stone sculptures. Helen and I had the good fortune to experience the Nice-Cannes Riviera coastal train ride 4 times when it was all said and done because after dropping off our backpacks at the hotel, we hopped back on a train headed back towards Cannes.

On our way back from Cannes, we met Hannah and Caroline at the station in Nice. They were just getting in from Lyon because they had to work earlier in the day. Thankfully for moi, I don’t work Fridays and was able to head on down south with Helen a little earlierJ

Zee Hotel

Although the Hotel Negresco would have been a cool place to stay (rooms ranging from 245-2500 euros a night… $340ish-$3500ish- yikes!), we opted for the more convenient, bang for your buck: Hotel Trocadero just a hop, skip, n-a-jump away from the train station. Our room was a “quad” with 4 separate twin beds- so perfect for the 4 of us girls. The bathroom was basic, but clean, and for one night it only cost 88 euros- which split between 4 people, 22 euros is not too shabby!

Cannes Sights

If you’re thinking- Cannes, as in the Cannes Film Festival? You’re right! It hasn’t always been the home to the rich and famous though- it used to be a meager fishing port town. A rich Englishman was on a boat with his sick daughter once upon a time and they had to stop over in Cannes for help. After spending some time there, said rich Englishman decided it was beautiful enough in Cannes to build a winter vacation home…. Over the years, his friends followed, bringing with them money… German and American tourists also came to enjoy the newly luxurious resort town and eventually the film festival followed. It began in 1939 after the French government was outraged over the interference at an Italian film festival by fascist Italy and Germany. The first full film festival took place in 1946, after WWII. It is now a non-public film festival, and therefore why it is a popular place for movie stars to be seen.

In all reality, the streets of Cannes and the window displays reminded me of luxurious Monaco with more tourists and less of a feeling of exclusivity. I wasn’t terribly impressed by the area where the film festival is held… but that could be because there were tents and trucks all over the place taking down some sort of big shin-dig from the week… so I’m not sure we saw all that there was to see. We were able to walk along an area of the sidewalk dedicated to famous movie star handprints. We seemed to be the only ones much fussed about them; other locals were out sitting on top of them, reading books or having picnics.

Other than that- we didn’t do much touring in Cannes. We were excited to be on a sandy beach in the bright sunshine… and before we knew it, we were ready to head back to the train station to meet up with Hannah and Caroline.

Nice Sights

We walked down to the seaside the first evening. It is quite strikingly different from, and better, in my opinion, than Cannes. It is a much bigger city, in fact it is the 5^th largest in France. There are beautiful fountains lit up in Place Massena, home to one of the world’s biggest Carnival celebrations. Along the sea, you find the famous Promenade des Anglais. Nice is known as one of Europe’s oldest human settlements (as in pre-historic settlements displaying the first uses of fire), was a major Greek city (Nicaea), switched hands between Italian and Provençal communes, and finally became a part of France in 1861. The English started coming to Nice to build their winter vacation homes as well, which explains the name “Promenade des Anglais” or the promenade of the English.

Along the promenade you have the pebbled sea on one side (no sand here!), a two way street lined with palm trees, and luxurious hotels and casinos on the other side of the street. It was definitely something to see at night all lit up. Plus, the Hotel Negresco is situated along the promenade and might possibly be my favorite thing to see in Nice!

The next day, the girls and I left the hotel in search of Vieux Nice. We walked back down to Place Massena, lined with beautiful reddish-orange colored arched buildings. We took pictures of the many fountains and parks… and eventually made our way through the tight corridors of the old town. We saw the beautiful Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate in a quaint square filled with gelato shops and restaurant terraces. From there, we walked up to an overlook… climbing several flights of stairs (had to work off our morning pastries!) and were able to see amazing views of the coast.

On our way back down, we planned out our route to hit up the famous flower market, walk along the pebbled sea, and have a nice lunch at one of the seaside restaurants. The market in Nice is something to experience and was not just a flower market when we were there on a Saturday. The colorful fruits and delicious smelling goodies were helping us work up quite an appetite. Hannah and I had an early pre-lunch dessert (lemon cannolis- yumz) while we continued walking through to the flower market- which had every flower one could ever think of! Talk about a Nice smelling place (no pun intended hehe!).

After our lunch and walk along the pebbles, we ventured back into old Nice for gelato, more pictures, and started our journey back to the hotel to pick up our bags… By the end of the day we were all saying… why didn’t we work in Nice!!!

La bouffe (food)

This wouldn’t be a proper post if I didn’t include what I ate. Besides the lemon cannoli and gelato- Helen and I grabbed baguette sandwiches to go on our way to Cannes and had KFC for dinner (yes, I know, how could we have wasted a meal in France on KFC- but hey… it’s been so long since I’ve had chicken tenders…. And we were saving up for our nice seaside lunch! It actually turned out to be quite a nice experience with a very efficient little man behind the counter who heard our accents when trying to pronounce “tenders” the French way and spoke to us in perfect English! Guess we were in more of a touristy area!). For lunch the second day along the sea, we sat underneath beach umbrella’s and sun sun sun, eating mussels and chips (not me- Hannah and Helen, although I did try a tasty mussel), pizza (not I again- Caroline), and salmon with buttery delicious veggies and risotto with a crispy slice of bacon (yep, this one was mine!). It was soooooo yummy. Parfait, as we say in France.

And there you have it! Hope you enjoy the pictures!