Nice, Antibes, Cannes, et Grasse

Ok so I tried to post this yesterday, but the internet went down. Oh and today we went to Cap d'Ail and Villefranche, but I'll be writing about that later. So here is yesterday's post about Nice, Antibes, Cannes, and Grasse:

So I've just consumed a great deal of sugar, and I'm now going to try to sum up what Lindsey and I have been doing for the past 3 days. Sunday, we walked around Nice. Our hostel is really nice, but it's located pretty far from the beach (about a 35 minute walk), so we decided to take our time and just wander around, knowing that we'd end up at the beach at some point. This would be the perfect point to give you a link to my pictures (because I've taken about 200 so far), but my internet here at the hostel is kind of weird, so you may just have to wait on pictures until Friday, when I get to my room in Aix.

Anyway, you'll have a better idea of how beautiful the walk was from our hostel down to the beach when you see the pictures. But yeah, Lindsey and I spent some time laying out on the beach and definitely should have used more sunscreen. We are paying for it now, but don't worry, we've learned our lesson. But being at the beach here in Nice was so cool. Women of all sizes are so confident in their bodies--they have no problem being topless while laying out, walking on the beach, and swimming in the water. I don't even really know how to describe it, but it was kind of liberating, and I wasn't even the one who was topless. I just suddenly felt more confident, which is cool because I've always thought that French women are so attractive, partially because of their natural confidence. Anyway, after the beach, we went to this restaurant and ate cassis sorbet (my favorite!!!), and then we headed to this lookout point and took a lot more pictures. By the way, I'm looking through my pictures right now while I'm writing this, and I'm just in awe at the beauty here. I can't wait to show pictures to anyone who's reading this right now.

So then on Monday, we went to Antibes and Cannes. Antibes was so beautiful--it was like paradise. It's a coastal town west of Nice, and when we got off the train there, we just walked around until we hit the water. Oh and I drank an Orangina Indien (orangina with grenadine) and it was so good! But the town was so beautiful (I use this word too much, but it has applied to what I've seen so far in the south of France), and there was a really cool feel to it. There were yachts everywhere, and the sand was so white and the water so blue. Once again, pictures right now would be amazing. I know for a fact that I will definitely be coming back to Antibes someday and will be spending more than just a few hours there! But we still had plans for the day, so we got back on the train and headed to Cannes.

By the way, the Cannes Film Festival is going on right now. Yes, be jealous. I was in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival. That's right. So Lindsey and I did our usual: wander around until we reach the beach (it has been a foolproof plan so far in all these coastal towns). So when we hit the beach, we also hit the crowds. There were so, so many people in Cannes, walking the road along the beach, trying to get tickets to movie screenings, attempting to take pictures of celebrities, etc. It was really crowded, but really exciting. So we got as close to the action as we could, did a bit of stalking, but sadly we never met Johnny Depp...our goal for the day. (But we haven't given up yet and think that we may run into him tomorrow at Cap d'Ail). Anyway, the beaches in Cannes are beautiful (surprise, surprise) and there are so many restaurants right on the water, just lining the beach. So we walked around for a very long time and then decided to try to find a place to eat (which also means a high likelihood of a free restroom). We settled on this Chinese restaurant, and the food was good, but the service wasn't that great. This lady who worked there was trying to get us to leave so she could seat the next pair of people even though I wasn't done, and she even sent a married couple over to stand next to our table...to get us to hurry up? I don't know--it was annoying, but oh well. So then we thought about going to the movie showing on the beach, but we were tired so we took the train back to Nice.

Today, we went to Grasse, the perfume capital and our first noncoastal town. It was very pretty in a way that was different from the beauty of Nice, Antibes, and Cannes. There were these narrow little side streets that made the town look like a movie set. So we walked around and visited the Parfumerie Fragonard, a perfume museum. It was very interesting and I bought awesome gifts for my Mom and Dad! Then we retraced our steps and walked back through all the pretty side streets. We ate lunch and Lindsey bought some gifts for her family. Then we walked down the hill to the train station and took the train back to Nice. Now we're in the hostel, where I have consumed far too much sugar for my own good.

Tomorrow we're going to do some random stuff around Nice (including purchasing a new suitcase) and then head to Cap d'Ail in the afternoon for some relaxing beach time. And the plan for Thursday is to go to Monaco. Anyway, stay tuned!