French Riviera (Cote d'Azur)

Just came back from visiting a few cities on the Cote d'Azur including Nice, Grasse, Monaco and Cannes. Weather was pretty crappy on the day we arrived into Nice and travelled to Cannes for our first night. As the hotel reception said it was very unusual for it to be raining. We were both so tired we ended up taking a nap before heading out to walk around Cannes and visit the Cannes Film Festival Hall (Palais des Festivals) and Boulevard de la Croisette.

Cannes very pristine with its small sandy beach and streets lined with luxury hotels and stores. Plenty of casinos are dotted around town in case you are interested. Its a nice place to visit to get away from the busy french cities like Paris and Nice.

The next stop for us for Grasse, home to the perfume industry that is built on the side of hill inland on the coast of the French Riviera. There are a number of perfumeries that you can visit but its more difficult towards the end of the summer season as we found alot of shops were closed or operating limited hours. We did manage to take a tour in Fragonard which has shops outside of Grasse selling its own range of perfumes. Tour was good since we learnt about 'the nose' who is basically in charge of developing new perfumes which takes a minimum 10 years training before they are able to recognise over a few thousand scents. Ordinary people recognise about 50-60. Not an easy job to get either since there's only so many of them - all in France (Grasse and Venice).

The best way to travel around the coast is by train and make sure you have your card handy as its easier to use the ticket machines then to line up and wait for a ticket operator. You need to validate your ticket in a yellow ticket box before heading onto the station.

After Grasse we headed to Nice where we were for that evening. We arrived in Nice Central Station and it was very very busy. The atmosphere was completely different to Grasse and Cannes - alot more people but also alot more shops, restaurants, bars and cafes.

Waking down the main high street towards Promenade des Anglais, there was a great view of the waterfront and the Colline du Chateau above the hill. Not much is left of this ruined castle besides some of its original walls. Its a steep climb up to the Castle but its worth it for the views of the waterfront. The beach itself was all pebbles.

The old town (Vieux Nice) beneath the hill is a maze of streets and alleys with picturesque houses, boutiques and home to a huge street of restaurants. We chose to eat Italian!

Monte Carlo (Monaco) was our last stop on this trip. The Monte Carlo casino made famous in the old James Bond movies wasn't open when we arrived in the early afternoon. I was thinking it'll be open 24/7 but obviously not. Doesn't take too long to explore this part of town - a couple of hours. The casino was nice but other than that its a pretty hard trek up and down hills and roads to get to places. Better off getting the tourist train that takes you around the main sites including the Palace.

We've decided to come back to the French Riviera again when we get the chance but hopefully in the summer season next time.

Until our next trip (Stockholm!) 

Kat & Will.