The French Riviera is Nice: Hyères, There, and Everywhere

Hola todos,

After sorrowfully saying goodbye (or, rather, au revoir) to Nice, we got on our train to Hyères (pronounced, as best as we can tell, "yair" but you swallow the "r"). Hyères is a small little coastal town (one of many in the region!) that basically starts the French Riviera from the west. When we were planning out our trip, we thought it would be nice to get a small town pause in the exploring hustle and bustle (read: forced rest for Tina).

But we actually spent our time in Nice at a decent pace, including lots of time at the beach, and we loved Nice so much that I was worried we had set ourselves up for disappointment in Hyères.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried at all.

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From Nice, we had a train and a transfer, and then a short city bus ride to where our Airbnb was. Since we were staying on the far east side of Hyères, near the marina and the water, we didn't get to see any of the downtown area of Hyères on our way in from the train station.

It took us a couple of hours to get to Hyères, so by the time we were situated and ready to hit the beach, it was the late afternoon. We were in beach withdrawal, so we stopped by a grocery store for an easy dinner and made our way to the beach for as long as we could hold out that evening.

The beaches were sand, which provided a new hurdle we hadn't had to face yet on this trip. (Windy beach + sand + food (or really anything else) = lots of strategic towel anchors and tucking deep into bags!) Our little area of beach was in a protected cove, so there weren't waves, misting, or spraying to deal with. The weather was a little cooler and the water was much colder than Nice, but we tucked into our books and listened to the water and generally just had a relaxing evening.

As Hyères is a small town and we were there at the end of the summer season, there were very few people around the beach. The marina was a bit more lively at night after folks came in and docked their boats. On our walk back from the beach to our Airbnb, we passed a few restaurants on the marina, including one that advertised a local band performance the next evening. We didn't want to overcommit our schedules, but we added that to the list of things we could do the next day.

Our second (and only entire) day in Hyères, we took it easy--we spent the entire day on the beach (or, really, the small patch of sand next to the other small patch of sand we had been at the day before) and only interrupted the beach time to walk to the local grocery store for lunch and hydration. We slept, read and chatted; the weather wasn't too hot, but when we wanted to cool down the (very cold) water was right there. There were a few fish swimming around (and nibbling ankles if you entered the water). In a word: perfect.

After a full beach day, we felt refreshed and interested in a little night out in Hyères--some local wine and food, some music, and views of the marina sounded like a good way to spend our final night there. So we got cleaned up, put on cute outfits, and went to that restaurant we had passed the night before.

When we got there, it was pretty dead (which didn't surprise us: it was a weekday evening and almost the off-season) so we managed to get a table with a nice view.

But, as it turned out, we were just there too early for the French--lots of the tables had reservations and filled up within the hour!

We ordered some regional wine (the restaurant was affiliated with a winery) and some pâté (definitely not my thing but definitely my mom's!) and just enjoyed the people-watching and the views and, when the show started, the music.

 

The band was great and played mostly American rock hits--so we could sing along! We stayed out later than we thought we would because we were having such a good time. Comparing notes later, we agree that this was one of our favorite memories of the trip.

The next morning, it was sprinkling as we left Hyères. We grabbed our coffees and croissants and caught the next train out to Marseilles, our next and last stop. The stopover in Hyères was short (fewer than 48 hours) but provided us the rest and calm and scaled-back tourism that we hoped it would. We were ready to tackle another city and get our step counts back up!

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora

The French Riviera is Nice! (Nice)

Hola todos,

Travel days are always a bit rough on me. I don't sleep well on planes (who does?) and depending on the time of the flight, the layover, and the time change, I am bound to be a bit of a mess upon getting to my destination. This time was no different, but at least my destination was a sun-soaked beach. All I had to do was remind myself that in 12 (or so) hours, I would be here:

We flew from New York to Nice with a brief layover in Lisbon--it was an overnight flight, with the intent to catch some zzzs, but I watched the penultimate Mission Impossible (which I hadn't seen yet, and I am such a sucker for a good spy-action movie!) and so landed in Lisbon without having slept.

Fortunately, my trustworthy travel companion let me sleep in the Lisbon airport while we waited to board our flight to France. Meanwhile, she grabbed a pastel de nata--a delicious Portuguese custard tart.

 

When we landed in Nice, we tried to get the bus into town. Unfortunately, the ticket machine was not working, so we bounced around between tram and bus stations (all near the airport) until we managed to figure out how to get to our airbnb.

A few stops later, after passing through the heart of the commerce and business district and into Old Town Nice, we got to our little maison for the next few days.  It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building--which, in Europe, means the sixth floor, as the ground floor isn't given a number!--but that led to great natural light through the windows and beautiful views. (And we worked up our appetites.)

 

The view out of our living room window (left) and the view of our little street (right).

We grabbed lunch at a local spot and then set off walking around Old Town and the Promenade d'Anglais, which is the the main walking path along the coast, and came back around through the commerce district. Between the beach, the coast line, and the beautiful buildings, we had plenty to see.

 

  

Jet-lagged and on sleep-fumes, we went back to the airbnb for a nap. (And by "we", I mean "me".)  After feeling refreshed, we set off again to 1) get cash from an ATM (very important!) and 2) see the sunset along the beach and explore Nice some more.

 

The evening glow on the water and the hillside was just so beautiful. There were so many people out and about, and while the town wasn't loud, it was quite vibrant. We walked along the Promenade d'Anglais (the opposite direction from before) and came across some sculptures and features.

 

The sea urchin.

The #ILoveNice sign.

And lots and lots of yachts.

On our walk back to the airbnb, we took a quick detour through the Cours Saleya market, an open-air artisans market just off the beach. We ended up strolling through the market several nights throughout our time in Nice.

The next day, we (I) slept in quite late--the jet lag was brutal!--so we had a slow morning (or at least what was left of it) and walked over to the beach to lounge for most of the day. The water! So blue! So crisp!

We also ventured off toward the downtown commercial district, too--there are so many restaurants and shops, and lots of beautiful buildings.  This was the main square:

Eze

One of the days, we took a little half-day trip to Eze (pronounced "EHz-uh", or at least I hope so because that is how I kept pronouncing it...). It is a cute little medieval town on the mountainside about a 40-minute bus ride, or 25 minute train ride, from Nice. Both the bus and the train travel along the coast, so the views while you commute are spectacular. We took the bus to Eze, because it drops off in the town proper.

Eze was very vertical--we definitely got our climbing workout in that day--but was so cute to walk around and explore. There were some restaurants, lots of artisan shops, and a ton of photo opportunities.

 

 

To get back to Nice, we decided to hike down the mountain from Eze to the train station. It was about an hour-long hike and a bit harder than either of us expected! But the views of the water and coastline were spectacular.

 

 

 

It was a pretty warm day, so after catching the train to head back into town, we hit the beach again. That was a theme of many of our days--a half-day trip of exploring followed by an afternoon of cooling off and resting our legs at the beach.

Monaco

I managed to check off another country on this trip--Monaco! Home of the Monte Carlo casino, Monaco is a teeny tiny country just a 30-minute (or so) train from Nice and so is perfect for a day trip.

 

The Monte Carlo casino at a distance.

There was a beautiful green space and garden as you walked from the main street to the Monte Carlo.

The casino itself was quite beautiful inside and it felt like an art museum that hosts events rather than a casino with art on the walls. It has tours each morning before the gambling ensues, so we got our tickets and our little audio guide and walked around.

The foyer of the casino.

There were a lot of signs admonishing people to not take pictures inside the casino, and I did not want to have a sticky situation in a foreign language with casino security... so even though a ton of other folks were taking photos and video, I refrained. But needless to say, the artwork was really breathtaking. The casino has these huge panels of scenes from different parts of daily life that really should be in a museum. And even the bars throughout the casino floor have mosaic artwork decorating their set-up.

After checking out the casino, we went off into the rest of Monaco. We ventured into the historic part of Monaco up on the hillside with spectacular views of the water and city.

 

The old town also holds the palace and a lot of cute, tight winding roads that are easy to wander and get lost in. (Speaking from personal experience...)

 

Monaco had yachts and fancy cars and high-end shopping (think Madison Avenue in NYC), but at the end of the day, I was more than happy to go back to our little spot on the beach and watch the sunset.

*    *    *

And, of course, throughout our time we made sure to sample un peu of the local fare (or a lot of it, as it were...) The wine is cheap and incredible, the seafood is delish, the boulangerie and patisserie game is on-point, and there are too many glace flavors to choose from.

 

The daily pan au chocolate is one of the things I have been missing the most. The French know breakfast.

Our last morning in Nice was definitely a bummer. Neither of us was quite ready to leave because we really loved being there. We could have done at least one more day trip during our time in Nice, but we both enjoyed the town so much that we didn't really see a reason to go somewhere else or to another nice beach if we were happy where we were.

Before catching our train out, we did two important things: 1) we went to a local English book store to buy more beach reads (we had exhausted our supplies already);

and 2) we went to the beach to just sit and chill for a few minutes, soaking in the last of Nice before we caught our train to Hyeres.

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora