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I am going to be traveling more often on my off-days in 2018. One of the first opportunities to take advantage of this came at the end of January, where I found a cheap return ticket with SWISS to Nice, France, leaving on a Monday and returning on the following Wednesday. Two nights in Nice was plenty of time to see the highlights of Nice and even taking a day-trip to Monaco.
Monday
First up was a smooth, punctual departure out of Zurich for a sunset flight over the snow-capped Alps. The sun had already set as we pushed back from our gate, on the picture above you’re looking at the moon. Less than an hour after departing, we landed in Nice, on the French Riviera.
My hotel was conveniently located just a couple of blocks away from the main train station, so I had my mind set on taking the train from the airport. According to Google Maps, this was certainly a viable option. I looked all around the airport terminal for a sign pointing to the train station, but no luck. I asked the attendants at a convenience store inside the terminal for “la gare” (train station), but my French is well, not great, so the employees tried to answer me in English, saying there are “busses inside”, while pointing to the outside.
Considering it highly unlikely that a public bus would come crashing through the terminal entrance and shatter the glass doors to park on the inside, I figured I’d indeed look for the busses outside. The store workers gave me a couple of relevant bus lines that went towards the city, and all I needed was to locate the bus stop on the highway outside the parking lot. I sure found the bus stop, but there was a fence in between, and no gate in sight. Having crisscrossed the partly-under-renovation parking lot multiple times, five minutes later I finally found a way through to get out to the bus stop.
So far so good, now where do I get a ticket? I had to unwillingly take advantage of a “trick” that I have used multiple times in the past. All the ATM gave me was 50 EUR bills, and when I tried to pay a simple 1.50 EUR fare with a 50 note, the driver simply refused and let me ride for free. Obviously he can’t refuse me because I am able to pay, but he either didn’t have 48.5 EUR change, or didn’t bother counting it (would have been a lot of coins). So, I got a free bus ride into the city!
I had to change to a tram later on, and the ticket machine at the tram stop didn’t take bills and my credit card didn’t work, so I had to ride that without a ticket too. Hey, at least I tried, can’t expect visitors to have small change on them from the get-go. Having finally made it to my hotel (for free!), it was time to get dinner. The go-to area in Nice is the old town, Vieux Nice, where most of the restaurants and cafes are located. As it was getting relatively late, and I had been up since 4AM for an early morning shift, I went straight for La Rossettisserie, a restaurant mentioned in my Lonely Planet book.
A plate of mixed grilled meats with potatoes and a small salad (buried under the meat). Great food.
Tuesday
Tuesday was my only full day in the French Riviera, so I decided to take a day-trip to the Principality of Monaco, the second-smallest country in the World, just a half-hour train ride up the coast from Nice. Monaco is an independent city-state of less than 40,000 people living on around 2 square kilometers (0.75 square miles). My initial spot on the to-do list was the Jardin Exotique, which evidently is the World’s largest collection of cacti and succulents. Having initially been commissioned by one of Monaco’s princes (being a principality, that’s the ruler), the site is very intriguing because underneath the hillside garden, an extensive underground cave network was discovered.
View of central Monaco and it’s marina from the Jardin Exotique.
Inside the underground cave, which is full of stalagmite/stalactite formations of calcium carbonate, some of the “poles” being hundreds of thousands of years old! This particular location inside the cave network bears the nickname “the cathedral”, because some of the formations look like organ pipes. At least if you have a good imagination.
Lunch time came closer and closer and I went off to “The Rock”, a hill housing the Prince’s palace and most of the old town.
The Prince’s palace, with an armed guard in the lower right corner. I love how parts of the structure are still in the classic stone castle style, although it’s certainly been renovated since it was first erected.
Also located on the Rock of Monaco is Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum, which housed an incredible range of marine wildlife, including sharks as seen above.
Panorama shot from a viewpoint adjacent to the Prince’s palace, looking down on the marina and downtown Monaco. A large part of what you see in this picture is actually France, that’s how small Monaco is. The hills in the background, most of the houses behind the tall apartment buildings and the coastline on the far right are all French territory.
Having visited the main sights in the old town, I took a stroll past the marina and went to the Monte Carlo neighborhood, with one very specific activity in mind. Gambling inside the Casino Monte-Carlo is part of the quintessential Monaco experience. It first opened its doors in 1863, and it truly is the playground of the rich and famous. Parked outside are a dozen supercars like Ferraris, Porsches and Bentleys, and inside thousands of euros worth of casino chips are moved across the gaming tables like it’s pocket change. A couple of minutes after I sat down at one of the roulette tables, an older man in a tailored suit showed up and bought chips at the table for 3500 Euros cash. I entered the casino with a much more modest budget of 50 euros, and after several rounds of blackjack and 20 minutes of roulette, my luck had run out, and I had no chips left. Oh well.
The front entrance to the Casino Monte-Carlo, notice the cars parked out in front. Certainly not the cheapest brands.
Being the responsible, non-gambling-addicted person that I am, I decided it was time to head back to Nice. I had mulled the idea of heading down to Cannes for dinner, further down the coast past Nice, but I changed my mind. On one hand it was getting dark, and it seemed as if most of the restaurants in Cannes were pricey. Having already blown some money at the Casino, I figured I’d find something comparatively cheaper in Nice. I spent a good deal of time wandering the streets and alleyways of the old town, because most of the better restaurants were fully booked. Took almost an hour before I eventually found a decent place with a vacant table.
Wednesday
Wednesday was my last day, and after having had breakfast and checking out of the hotel, I went down to the Promenade des Anglais, Nice’s beachfront. The sun came out shining, which made for a beautiful walk along the promenade. Plenty of the locals were out enjoying their morning too, several of them exercising. Some even took a swim at the beach.
As you can probably tell, there were still some clouds hanging around. The sun came out even stronger after I actually left the promenade itself. 
The Palais de la Mediterranee, one of the more iconic fixtures on the Promenade des Anglais, a classic casino hotel.
After walking along the beachfront itself, I hiked up the Castle Hill for some better views from above. It didn’t disappoint:
After taking in the beautiful view, I walked back down the Castle Hill and directly into Vieux Nice. Up until this point I had only seen the old town at nighttime, and during daylight, its colorful buildings stood out even more, and its narrow alleyways were somewhat more inviting.
Having been in and out of the main parts of the old town looking for restaurants in the past days already, at lunchtime I took to the Cours Selaya instead, an open area that’s more so a broad pedestrian street on the south side of the old town, which has plenty of fresh produce markets and its fair shares of cafes and restaurants.
Having had lunch in an admittingly slightly touristy place, I still had about 4-5 hours to kill before it was time to head to the airport for my evening flight back to Zurich. I usually don’t fancy art museums when I travel. This may be a surprise to some, but honestly, I don’t care much for someone’s international art collection that just happens to be showcased in Nice, for example. I love museums of all other kinds, but if it doesn’t have a local connection beyond its physical address, then it’s incredibly low on my list, and I find that this often is the case with art museums.
The only spots left in Nice that I hadn’t gotten to yet were all art museums. I honestly don’t fancy contemporary art, but I figured that the chances were high that I could get free entrance with my student card, so I went to the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Nice.
Looking out from the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. I found the views out of the building’s windows much prettier and considerably more compelling than anything visible inside the galleries.
I did indeed get free entrance to this particular art museum, and one kind of art museums that I do try to visit when traveling are the ones with local artists. Granted, Marc Chagall wasn’t born in France, but he lived part of his life on the French Riviera, and Nice is home to a museum dedicated to Chagall. However, at this point I needed to leave for my hotel (where I had my bag) in about 45 minutes, and I was quite close to the Chagall museum, so I figured I’d give it a shot. They had some weird rule that student discounts only counted for EU-citizens, and as a Danish resident of Switzerland whose passport was at the hotel, my Swiss driver’s license meant I was considered as a non EU-citizen, and had to pay the full entrance fee.
Being already relatively short on time, I decided to simply head to the airport, where looking out the window at the aircraft movements would certainly entertain this air traffic controller regardless. My flight time was relatively unfortunate as it was right around 7PM, my usual dinner-time, and arriving after 8 would be a bit late for eating in Zurich, so being at the airport in Nice early and having a meal was actually quite practical. After just a couple of days on the French Riviera, it was time to fly back to Zurich, to get back to work the next day.
