Sorry for the four week delay in continuing to catch my readers up on our summer adventure. In the past for weeks my husband left for another deployment, with only a weeks notice, I started a new job and I have been under the weather. Thus, it has caused a lack in my drive for blogging, but we will get there I promise. I left off around mid July, with Erin and I having a rough arrival to Paris.
Saturday: July 13th
This was our full day in Paris. Erin speaks French and she has also been to Paris before so she became my tour guide and it was awesome! We spend the morning walking around the streets of Paris, we saw the Arch D' Triumph, went into the Disney Paris store and enjoyed "visiting" all the high end stores. Well at least taking pictures in front of them. I felt like we were on an episode of Gossip Girl. After we pretended we were "It" girls we headed to the Eiffel Tower where we found the perfect place to take pictures. The Eiffel Tower is just as amazing as it looks on TV and hopefully when Sam and I go back to Paris I can see it at night. After a tasty lunch, complete with French Fries, we headed to Versailles. We took a bus and a train to get there, it was a long journey but between Erin's French and my willingness to just hop onto any public transport and give it a go. We went to the Palace of Versailles and it was beautiful.Getting back from Versailles was a bit difficult and hot, but we made it! After a long day we crashed early, until I leaped out of bed to see the fireworks for Bastille Day, which is the French Independence day which was the following day. I was pretty excited when I heard fireworks in Paris, but we had an early flight to Nice so we didn't go to see them at the Eiffel Tower.
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| Arch D Triomphe |
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| Ah yeah...Disney |
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| Abercrombie and Fitch Headquarters |
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| Beautiful buildings in Paris |
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| From Nada....to PRADA ;) |
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| Love the buildings |
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| Amazing |
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| Oh hey there Eiffel Tower |
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| You can see the setup for Bastille Day |
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| Lunch time |
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| Real French fries |
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| Crapes! |
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| Fireworks! |
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| Palace of Versailles |
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| Erin outside of the Palace |
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| The Gardens at the Palace |
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| This fire place says Hercules |
Sunday: July 14th
Erin and I left our Paris hotel early on Sunday to catch our flight to Nice. We met my sister-in-law, Rachel, in the airport of Nice where she flew in from London. Rachel had already scoped out the bus we needed so we grabbed our luggage and headed toward our flat. We rented a cute flat from a nice lady and we met her there and she showed us around the flat. It was a warm humid day in Nice, I think in the upper 80s to lower 90s, but very humid. Luckily the flat had AC. We went and had lunch and walked around Nice, we even walked down to the gravel beach...and it was just breath taking and gorgeous. We bought some groceries, wine and ice cream. We also kept exploring and found a place to hike up which provided us beautiful views of the entire city and there was even a water fall. It was amazing and I enjoyed the hike! We even saw a small airshow and parade for Bastille day, or Le Fete Nationale Day as they call it in France. For Dinner we decided to get some take away pizza and eat at the flat, however it took like 45 minutes just to get the pizza, so we were all starving by the time we got it. However, the pizza was delicious and we got to relax while eating it. We discovered that at 10pm there was a firework show on the beach to celebrate the French Independence Day and since I didn't get to see fireworks on the Forth of July, and it was only the 14th of July, I considered a late celebration of America's freedom by singing God Bless America...in my head of course....since I don't think French people would appreciate that.
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| Walking the streets of Nice |
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| The town centre |
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| The beautiful shops |
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| Loved the building in Nice |
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| Lots of Vespas |
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| The beach |
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| And Again |
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| Beautiful |
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| This water is actually warm enough to swim in |
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| See the rocks? |
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| Erin and I in Nice |
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| My Tiffany and Co purchase....just kidding Sam! |
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| Rach and I love our Ice Cream |
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| The beautiful city of Nice |
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| Erin and I hiking! We look a bit tired from our long day |
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| I was so excited to hear thunder |
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| The storm rolling in |
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| Love the city view |
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| The girls while hiking |
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| A French Harry |
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| The french fighters for the air show... |
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| Waterfall |
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| I love waterfalls! possibly more than fountains |
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| Ha! Not sure what Rachel is doing, but since she is afraid of heights...this looks like a big deal...but maybe its not that tall of a ledge |
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| Fire Works! |
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| Happy La Fete Nationale! |
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| Happy Bastille Day |
Monday: July 15th
This was our relaxing day at the beach! We spent many hours soaking up the sun, something you don't get to do much in England (as I am sitting here typing it is currently raining outside and it has been everyday) and swim in the ocean. It was a lot of fun! We headed back to the flat after awhile and had cheese, bread, wine and apples for a snack and of course a good amount of girl talk! We went and had a bucket of mussels for dinner, which is delicious and has become my favorite meal to try in coastal regions. After dinner we walked around and shopped. It was a beautiful and relaxing day in Nice!
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| Soaking up the Sun |
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| Chillaxin on the beach |
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| Spedo man...gross |
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| Rach and I at dinner |
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| Bucket of Mussels....YUM! |
Tuesday: July 16th
Our flight wasn't until later on Tuesday night so we decided to go to Monaco for the day. We kept seeing it advertised and we even saw a bus that went there! Bonus, we could cross another country off our list.....since Monaco is considered to be its own country. According to Rachel's blog the next smallest after Vatican City. We tried to find the cheapest way to get to Monaco and a place to leave our luggage. We did research and the airport advertised 15 euros per customer in held luggage. We decided since we were going back to airport and the bus ride from the airport was free then we would take our luggage there and leave for Monaco from the airport. However, when we got to the bus it cost 12 euros one way to the airport! So much for keeping the trip cheap. Then once we got to the airport it was going to cost 15 euro PER piece of luggage....yikes! We finally got that squared away and had to find our way back to the Monaco bus stop, but with the help of a nice French man, Erin's ability to speak french, lots of walking, and a short stop inside a casino we finally made it on the bus to Monaco. The bus ride was 2.50 euro....which is how much we thought the entire trip would cost, but it was an adventure. We had planned to have about four or five hours in Monaco, so we didn't plan any activities, we figured we would play it by ear. However, we only ended up with two hours there and didn't do much of anything except walk around in the hot weather, it was much hotter there than in Nice. Monaco was beautiful though, very pretty and I can see why the famous people vacation there! We did see a cool church and bought souvenirs to prove we were there and I can cross another country off the list. There was an accident though, leaving Monaco and our short bust ride, that was really hot, seemed to last forever and we were worried we would miss our flight, or not get our luggage. But, luckily, we made it and everything was fine. We flew back into Stansted and my husband was there to pick us up and take us home, we made it home around midnight!
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| Rachel loved the Vespa's in Nice |
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| Monaco had a lot of Yachts |
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| Monaco also had lots of nice cars |
We had a great time traveling to Paris and Nice! Erin is a great travel buddy and we loved that Rachel could join us in Nice. Thanks for reading!
Amanda
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