Nice, France

Although a gazillion and one things went wrong this weekend, we still had an amazing time making memories along the coast of the French Riveria!

(Photo from RnR Nice)

We went for the Rock'N'Roll 10 Miler du Carnaval (which was AWESOME by the way, you can read more about that adventure here).  It was just the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day weekend!

We ended up leaving Thursday night and drove about half way down (4 hrs) and spent the night at the Comfort Hotel in Beaune, France.  The area was nice to stop at (right off the road, easy access, etc.) but the hotel itself was not.  It smelled like smoke and was dark and dingy.  The staff was nice and they offered breakfast for 8 EUR per person but we didn't stay for it...we had brought our own breakfast and we were ready to hit the road!

(Pic from www.comfortinn.com)

The drive into Nice on Friday was easy peasy (minus the 78 EUR in tolls we had to pay!).  We stopped for lunch at a Quick (kinda like a McDonald's).  The kids loved it because they got to play and we were more than happy to let them run some energy out!

We found our hotel relatively easily and were glad that they had private parking (parking alongside the street was almost impossible to come by in the area we were in).  We stayed at Hotel Flots d'Azur along the Promenade des Anglais (the race route and street along the coastline).  The room was small but it was on the second floor and had a great view of the ocean!  

As soon as we unpacked the car and got settled we walked into Old Town to find the race expo and have dinner.  We ate at the Hard Rock along the Promenade and saw several American families we knew who were also there for the weekend!

Massena Art & History Museum

Palace of Justice

On Saturday we bought a bus pass (there was a bus stop right across the street from our hotel and we were able to purchase a day pass for 10 EUR) and headed downtown to find Fenocchio's, a famous ice-cream parlor with over a hundred different flavors!  We spent about hour walking around (without a map) trying to find this place and when we finally did...it was closed!  Lol, we have the worst luck at things like this!

Luckily there was a restaurant nearby that had pizza (the kids are not a fan of French food).  We had a nice lunch and even ran into some friends who had also came down for the race! Afterwards we toured the church next door and decided to walk up to the waterfall on the top of Castle Hill.

The Cathedral Ste Reparte on Place Rossetti

The views from the hill were amazing, despite the rain and fog!  There is also a really nice park area at the top for the kids to play and a look-out point with views of the port and Mediterranean Sea!

After our little hike up the hill we headed back to Old Town to try and catch a bus back to our hotel.  This proved a little harder than we thought (the buses did not seem to come on any set time schedule).  However, we were able to stop and get a map...and find another Fenocchios!  After we got our sugar-high we
 finally made it on a bus and got back to our room to dry off and pick up our tickets for the Parade of Lights.

We ended up getting back downtown right at dinnertime.  We didn't have too much trouble getting a seat, once we found one we wanted to go to (several wouldn't take kids or our kids wouldn't eat the food or they were fully booked, etc.).  I wish we would have kept looking though because the restaurant we ended up at was horrible.  The food was not good at all (I had trouble finishing my pasta and I eat pretty much anything) and the service was even worse.

After dinner we walked around the downtown area for a few minutes then found our seats for the Parade of Lights.  You can read more about the parade HERE.  We ended up leaving before the parade was over.  (It didn't start until 9 pm and the kids were getting super-tired...and so was I, not gonna lie).  Plus, we thought it would be smart to leave before everyone else did to avoid a huge crowd at the bus stops.

Long story short we ended up getting lost and had to walk the entire way back to our hotel, putting us at about seven miles for the day!  Probably not the smartest thing to do before a 10 mile race the next morning but we made some memories, lol!

After the race we had a quick lunch and then headed back to the hotel to shower and pack-up.  We had planned to stay the night and leave on Monday to drive home; however, we were not looking forward to making the whole trek in one day.  We thought we would split it up again but this time driving a different route to avoid most of the tolls; however, my husband got a second wind and drove the entire 10 hours home that night!

The route would have been beautiful to take in the daytime.  Although, even with the rain/fog and eventual darkness, the drive was breathtaking!  It took you along the coast of France and part of Italy, then through the fields and mountains of Switzerland.  We laughed because we had breakfast in France, dinner in Italy, bought gas in Switzerland, and made it all the way home to Germany before our credit card was turned off (we told them we would be in France this weekend, we just didn't think to call when we decided to go home a different way, we are glad they are on top of things though, we have had our card stolen before!).

All-in-all it was an amazing weekend.  It was not a weekend without it's moments - both good and bad.  But, for every time I wanted to bust into tears there was always some laughter waiting behind it.  It was just one of those trips were everything went wrong but everything came together.  We all got along and it was a perfect weekend away...