Cap d'Ail, Villefranche, et Monaco

Ok so it's about 11:35pm here, which makes this my last night in Nice, after an amazing week of traveling around the south of France. I haven't packed yet and my bus leaves in the morning, so I'll keep this short.

On Wednesday, Lindsey and I went beach-hopping. We took the train east and went first to Cap d'Ail (one stop before Monaco), which was the most beautiful place I've seen yet. The town is very small and quiet, there are huge villas that go up into the mountains, and the beach was perfect--secluded and peaceful. When you see pictures, you might not understand...so you should go there! Then we traveled back in the direction of Nice and stopped at Villefranche. This beach was also beautiful, but louder and more crowded, and we decided nothing could top Cap d'Ail. Still, I recommend going to both of these beaches, along with the several others we visited during our week o' fun.

Today (Thursday), we went to Monaco, and it happened to be the first day of the Grand Prix. It was pretty crowded and pretty warm, but we walked around a lot and I took a lot of pictures (surprise, surprise). Not sure what to say about Monaco, other than the fact that there are a lot of expensive cars there and I overheard someone saying that it's the size of Central Park in NYC (about 500 acres). Apparently when you're in Monaco, a lot of what you see is actually a town in France called Beau Soleil. So Monaco is very small and very opulent. But it was beautiful just as was every place we've visited this week. You'll see that in the pictures.

Oh and I got a suitcase today...woohoo! I went to a French mall for the first time and I went to Carrefour (like a French Walmart) for the first time! And inside the mall, across from Carrefour, was a store called Texas. It was pretty ridiculous. The clothes that the mannequins were wearing did not at all resemble what we wear in Texas. So yes, good times during my first French mall experience.

And tomorrow I'm off to Aix-en-Provence for the start of my study abroad program. I'm definitely grateful for this week (and grateful for the hostel experience...which I may write about at some point) that I've had to help me adjust to life in France and prepare me for what is ahead over the next 8 weeks! And now it's time to pack and sleep for a few hours...