So, as you'll recall, we had got to Nice the afternoon before, and had a one-night hotel. In the morning, we checked into whether any rooms had opened up for a second night, but none had. We decided that we would spend the morning in Nice, and then go to Monaco in the afternoon, and continue on in the general direction of the Camargues (the next leg of the trip), staying at a Formula 1 (super el cheapo motel) along the way. So in the morning, we picked up breakfast at a bakery in Nice and ate on the beach. The beaches there are all rocky -- no sand beaches in Nice. From there, we walked through the narrow streets of Vieux Nice.
We were walking in the general direction of a hill on the side of the city that had been used as fortification during ancient times. The city was originally Greek, and named Nikaia, which I liked. So we hiked up the hill to get a good view of Nice.
That was nice, and a good long walk. From there, we headed back to our car. In the morning, when we had checked out of the hotel, we had lugged everything back down to the car, which took a good long while, but because we had a legal parking space it wasn't quite so nervewracking. We were less nervous about leaving things in the car now because first of all, it was the daytime, and second of all, Nick was quite sure that if anyone attempted to break in they would be interrupted every 3 seconds by someone else trying to steal the parking space. Anyway, the walk back to the car took us through the city center during the day time, which was nice. We also saw the plaza outside the art museum, but didn't actually have the time or money to go in.
On the way back, we saw a driving lesson -- except it was actually for the public tram!
Nick stopped to pose in front of the Nicolas booze store.
Once we got to the car, we ate a quick lunch and started to head out of town, but drove through the Cimiez district to see a few more of the sites and some of the Belle Epoque architecture on the way out of town.
From there, we left Nice and drove east along the coast towards Monaco.
Once in the principality, we drove sort of straight through its center until we found a parking garage which was thankfully not too expensive.
Once we parked, we got out and walked around Monaco for a couple hours, mostly just taking pictures.
From there, we set off driving towards the Camargues and towards the Formule 1 that we had managed to book for the night. Because we were driving along the coast, we were able to drive through Cannes, where we picked up supper, but unfortunately Cannes didn't end up being all that exciting.
We successfully found the Formule 1, but it was back to communal push-button showers again. Oh well. My shower stall also shook violently every time the water stopped (so every 20 seconds). We went to bed relatively late because we arrived there long after dark, and planned to go to our next adventures the next day.
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