Nice, France – what to visit – WordPress on Azure

Hey hey! Just couple of days ago I came back from the French riviera and I am totally in love with it! Most of my trips are either weekend escapes or long weekend trips but I try to plan everything I want to see for the short period of time that I have. In this post you can read what to visit while in Nice, France and more specifically what I managed to see during the three days I’ve been there (one of the days was dedicated to Monaco, but I am working on a separate blog post about it).

We stayed in an Airbnb apartment close to the train station. The neighborhood itself is not one of the best in Nice, hopefully our apartment was located in a quite street. I did my short research before going to Nice and if you Google Nice there are plenty of amazing looking pictures of Nice from above.

As you know I love panoramic views so this was my first priority – to find this place!

Right next to the city beach area there is a hill where once upon a time there was a castle. Nowadays Parc de la Colline du Chateau (Castle Hill Park) doesn’t have a castle, but the view from there is stunning and definitely worth visiting! Do you remember the heat wave from some days ago? Yeah, right.?! Our trip was just right in this moment and the heat was tremendous – approximately 40 degrees and more than 65% humidity! When we reached the top of the hill it was about to rain and I couldn’t take nice pictures because of the grey clouds but the view was still amazing. Shortly after that it started pouring and it was actually pleasant feeling in all that heat. There are two ways to reach the hill – climbing the stairs and taking the elevator. In my opinion the smartest choice is to take the elevator to the top and to go down by walking. Taking the elevator is free of charge, don’t worry 😉
One part of the hill is looking towards the beach and the old part of Nice and on the other side of the hill you can see the harbor and many colorful buildings. This view reminded my of the south part of Italy. The park is quite big, there is a waterfall inside as well, to be honest we couldn’t find it, but I am pretty sure that there was one, because of the number of mosquito bites we got there. These creatures are heartless!

Down the hill to the left you can find the famous “I love Nice” sign, popular scene for Instagram pictures.

The seaside area is quite picturesque, if you are tired you can sit on the blue chairs and observe the sunset or tons of water sports enthusiasts.

The beach itself is definitely not my cup of tea.

I prefer sand beaches and this one is a stony one. And we are not talking about small pieces but big lemon size stones which make it really uncomfortable and even harmful, especially if you are not prepared with water shoes (you can imagine that we were not). Going to the water and especially going out of it was a pretty funny picture 😀 Having more than 35 degrees outside required embracing this medieval torture in order to be able to refresh our melted brains.

On our way home we passed by the best ice-cream place I’ve been in my life – “Fenocchio Glacier”! They have more than 50 different flavors some of which are quite extraordinary such as beer gelato, olives gelato, lavander gelato, etc. There I found my new favorite flavor – passion fruit ice-cream. You must try it, it is a food orgasm!

On the most famous shopping street in Nice you can find the local cathedral, from the front part it reminds a bit of Notre dame de Paris. Close to the train station is located the Russian church. They say that this is the biggest Russian church outside of Russia. It looks quite stunning I must admit!

Our landlord was really helpful and gave us good advises where to eat.

It is always beneficial to hear from a local person which are the best places in town in order to avoid the tourist traps. We went to “Le Felix Faure” – definitely one of the best restaurants in Nice. The portions are not that expensive and they are gigantic! I had mussels a la marinara with fried potatoes for 15 euros and I could not finish it, it was big enough for two people! The restaurant offers Mediterranean cuisine on a reasonable price.

While being at the beach I spotted one bar that I really liked, there was something about this place, I cannot explain.. Later on we were told that this is one of the best party places in town. The bar is called “Waka bar”. It offers great variety of drinks and cocktails, amazing vibe, nice music and super international environment. The bar closes at 2 a.m. but as it is close to the beach you can continue your night there or to go to a club.

Our last day we spent wandering around old Nice (Vieille Ville).

I have a thing for narrow streets and small hidden restaurants. It is just so romantic to walk around and admire the buildings… It definitely reminds of Italy, but I guess all these Mediterranean cities have something in common. The flower market is one of the main attractions of this neighborhood, people sell not only flowers but soaps, spices, lavander souvenirs and different handmade stuff. Some of the restaurants in the area are really overpriced so you have to be careful when choosing where to eat. We had another recommendation for a nice place there and it was a strike again! The place is called “ Le p’tit resto”. Apart from the menu they give you huge board with recommendations for the day and they served grilled pigeons… Actually I was surprised how few pigeons I saw in the city and now I know why… weiiiirddd… I ate super yummy Cesar salad (9€) that I highly recommend. If you are into desserts you can try pain perdu a.k.a. french toasts.