South of France: Nice

PART 1: NICE IN 24 HOURS

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WHERE WE STAYED:

First off, we stayed in the CUTEST airbnb in central Nice! 10 minute walk to everything and only a 5 minute walk from the main train station: Gare de Nice Ville! They were the most amazing hosts, and their place was stunning! You can check it our for yourself here! Highly recommend booking an airbnb in advance as the area books up quick, especially since we went during peak season in August.

WHAT WE DID:

We started our adventure exploring the Old Town that had the classic narrow streets and cobblestone roads. Truly adorable – our favourite part of Europe! Type Rue Pairolière into Google Maps & get lost wandering the streets with the cutest shops, cafes, and restaurants. Our first stop was obviously to grab a croissant!

We then walked up a street named Rue Saint-Hospice and there are many stairs but it starts taking you all the way up to Castle Hill! This was one of our favourite views of the whole trip and is a MUST DO! There are also signs everywhere so you can’t miss it!

During the walk up there are beautiful views around every corner! To our surprise there was even a gorgeous waterfall on the side of the mountain called Cascade Du Casteu!

Once you walk all the way to the top, this is the view! Breathtaking right?!

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It was NICE to meet you 😏 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you’re in Nice you HAVE to do the climb to the top of Castle Hill. It has breathtaking views that overlook the entire city of Nice with the red rooftops, water🌊, & mountains⛰. Plus it’s an easy hike and there is so much to see along the way including a waterfall. Easily one of the best viewpoints we’ve seen so far! 🙌🏼

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On your walk down from Castle Hill, there is actually a free lift (elevator- called Castle Lift) to take you directly down to the main beach area called Plage Publique des Ponchettes. Don’t be fooled like we were, this is a completely rocky beach! It’s the most popular so we just assumed it would be sand, but nope! Still gorgeous views, but honestly bring water shoes, it killed our feet!

Looking directly across, you will also see the famous Hotel Suisse as it has the best views overlooking the city!

If you continue your walk away from the beach, you will see another #ILoveNice sign and make your way to the Port! This is the main port with ships coming through constantly – many people taking trips to the island, Corsica. The port is called Port de Nice Lympia

This was the view from the Port area! We decided to stop here for lunch – keep in mind most restaurants close for the afternoon 3-4pm and don’t open again until about 7pm for dinner! We had lunch at Le Barque Bleu and it was delicious, highly recommend!

Okay! Lots of walking! On our way back to our airbnb we made a few more stops! We heard about this gorgeous Orthodox Cathedral that looked like it was from Moscow! Such a cool find! Look up St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral!

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Obsessed. With. Architecture. We’ll never get over the architecture here in Europe…the details, the quality, the COLOURS! UGH! 🙌🏼 They just don’t make em like this in North America! We saw this church and were blown away by it! Is there a building you’ve seen that has taken your breath away?! Let us know!!🤓🏛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ TIPS FOR GETTING HERE: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ – Took us a while to find the name of this place! It’s just as beautiful on the inside! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ – Address for Google Maps: St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Avenue Nicolas II, Nice, France

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One more Cathedral for you! A mini version of the Notre Dame! We learned on this trip that there are Notre Dame’s all over France, but of course the one in Paris is the largest.

This one is called: Basilique Notre-Dame de l’Assomption and is honestly just as stunning as the one in Paris! The inside is just as gorgeous!

This cathedral is on the main shopping street! If you want to go shopping, head to Avenue Jean Médecin! It has pretty much every type of store!

Okay almost done our day! Dinner time! Were told to go to
Le Plongeoir as it is a floating restaurant on the water, so pretty! I’ll show you the picture of it here, but we actually didn’t get a chance to go as you needed a reservation in advance and we didn’t have one – this is also a pretty pricy place just keep that in mind!

We ended up going to another restaurant which we LOVED! It is called Le Tono, it had amazing tapas and such an awesome vibe! It was reasonably priced too! You should definitely check it out if you’re in the area! & definitely get wine – wine in France was unreal – nothing like we have in North America!!

Lastly! If you’re into going out to a bar for some late night drinks and dancing, we HIGHLY recommend going to Wayne’s Bar. We honestly had SO much fun there! They have live music in the back and huge long picnic tables that everyone was dancing on top of!! The most fun!!

Don’t underestimate the amount of walking we did, it was a lot lol! If you have 2 days, this all would be ideal!

S & S

(Have any questions? Comment below or send us an email! Be sure to follow along on Instagram to see more tips & pics! @thethompsontrotters)