Nice, France
/(May 3rd - May 6th, 2015)
Nice has been niiiiice! Cliché but true. Although the weather wasn’t great, it didn’t rain once which was a major plus in our book. We definitely approached our time in Nice with a different pace than Paris. Our goal was to relax, see some sights, and eat a lot of great food.
We arrived in Nice in the middle of the day and settled into our airbnb flat located in Old Town. We were surrounded by cafés, shops and were only about two blocks from the beach. We set out to explore the area on foot and tried some traditional Nice food for lunch. Our airbnb host suggested a popular place where we could find "socca", which is a chickpea pancake that is usually eaten with a glass of rosé. We weren’t huge fans of the socca, but who doesn’t love rosé? After lunch we satisfied Allen’s gelato craving at Mera Viglia (an organic gelateria) and even though the shop didn’t serve affogato, we ordered an espresso and made our own :). Allen had the house special and I ordered coffee flavored gelato. Allen was so impressed that he vowed to have some from there each night we were in Nice.
After wandering around the city, through Albert garden, along the Promenade des Anglais, and the waterfront, we returned to Old Town to find a place for dinner. We found an Italian restaurant called La Massara just outside our flat with high ratings on TripAdvisor. It was packed and everything smelled and looked amazing so we convinced ourselves there was nothing wrong with eating Italian food in France, even though we were headed to Italy in a few days. We definitely made the right choice as we enjoyed our best meal yet in France (which is no surprise to anyone who knows us well). We had bruschetta with prosciutto, pasta with clams, garlic & parsley, and pizza with spicy salami, arugula, parmesan, and red onions. We decided to opt out on dessert and hit up Mera Viglia (that's right, for a second time in one day) for our gelato night cap. Allen had the house special again and I had raspberry.
On our second day in Nice we visited au Ble D’azur for breakfast, a small bakery known for having great croissants and coffee. We got an almond croissant, a plain croissant, and two double espressos. Everything was amazing and Allen decided that when we retire, we need to live within walking distance of a French bakery so he can have croissants and espresso for breakfast every day! After breakfast we hopped on a bus headed for Monaco. We were dropped off at the tourist center and immediately got in line with all the other tourists to get our passports stamped. As we started walking around, Allen immediately began telling me the names and price of each car that drove by. I felt like I was on a Top Gear walking tour through Monaco :). As we walked along the grand prix track and multiple luxury car dealerships, Allen could barely finish a sentence without getting completely distracted by what he was seeing. We popped into the Monte Carlo casino to see the ornate interior and gamble away our agreed upon amount of 10 euros on some slot machines, but it didn’t last long as neither of us are successful gamblers. We settled down for lunch at Café de Paris, next door to the casino and enjoyed some rosé and lunch in the sun. We had penne puttanesca, salmon wrapped in a pastry with veggies, and finished with espresso (of course!). We spent the next hour or so walking around the waterfront and marveling at the mega yachts before hopping on the bus back toward Nice.
We accidentally got off the bus a few stops early but ended up enjoying the longer than anticipated walk around the marina in Nice. We hiked up to the top of Castle Hill and got some beautiful photos of the city as the sun was beginning to set. After Castle Hill we walked along the boardwalk back to our flat to take a short nap before heading to a late dinner.
We decided to mix things up again for dinner and chose Lou Colonial, an Asian-French fusion restaurant. The food was incredible and the service was exemplary, but we're not really sure where the French part of the fusion came into play. We had a Thai chicken salad, beef Bo Bun (a beef, spring roll, and noodle dish served in a wok), and a spicy ginger shrimp and vegetable dish. We planned to finish off the night with some more gelato from Mera Viglia, but it was closed by the time we finished dinner.
On our last full day we started the morning with breakfast again at au Ble D’azur before heading to the medieval Mediterranean village of Eze (about halfway between Nice and Monaco). We hiked up to the village and walked around the garden above and got some spectacular views of the surrounding area. We enjoyed a glass of wine in the village before heading back to Nice. Once back in Old Town we stopped to get a quick Nutella and strawberry crepe after we realized that we hadn’t had a single crepe in France! We then strolled around some new areas of the city, popping into shops here and there. Allen did some shopping at Mossimo Dutti (no surprise there), but with a majority of our trip still ahead of us, the thought of having to carry around any additional items, helped keep us in line.
For our final dinner in Nice we went to Oliviera. Oliviera is a small restaurant operated by a husband and wife and is rated the 11th best restaurant in Nice (out of over 1,200). The husband greets every guest, explains each dish on the menu in great detail, takes the orders, and delivers all the food. He is so passionate about food, his olive oils and the flavors in each of the dishes they offer. There are only about 10 tables in the entire restaurant and they only accommodate those 10 tables once per evening. We arrived at 7pm and left at 10:15pm after enjoying an incredible dinner made with all fresh ingredients. The restaurant had an open kitchen so we could see his wife working away making each and every dish that was ordered. It was truly a unique culinary experience and made us even more excited to enjoy 2.5 weeks of Italian cuisine! We had the most amazing caprese salad with fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil, and heirloom tomatoes. For our main dishes we enjoyed homemade pasta in a pesto sauce made with young green garlic and pasta with rabbit and veggies. Both were fantastic! Each course was paired with a special homemade olive oil to bring out the flavor in each dish and for dipping delicious French baguettes in to. We finished the night with their homemade tiramisu, also topped with olive oil, and it was to die for. Definitely the best tiramisu we’ve ever had. Even though we were completely satisfied with our longest meal to date, we felt that we had to finish off the night with a final stop at Allen’s favorite gelateria: Mera Viglia. After our second dessert, we headed back to our flat, packed up our things, and prepared for our next day full of train rides to get us from Nice to Cinque Terre, Italy.
