French Riviera Part II

On our second full day in the French Riviera, we decided to do another day trip. This time, we stopped at both Monte Carlo and a smaller town called Menton.

Monte Carlo is located within Monaco, which is unique as it is its own sovereign state – meaning that legally, it is its own country. With an area of only 0.78 square miles, it’s the second smallest country in the world. With over 36,000 in habitants, it’s also the most densely-populated. Monte Carlo is known for the famous casino, of course, as well as the site of the famous Grand Prix. In fact, while we were there, they were busy constructing the Grand Prix course. The town is extremely hilly, with very narrow, curving streets. I can’t imagine racing through at high speeds! Overall, the town was a bit underwhelming. It was cool to see the casino, but you can only enter the foyer unless you pay the admission fee and dress appropriately. We decided to pass on that. There are also some pretty gardens, and similar to Cannes, every famous high-end designer boutique you can think of. It was cool to see somewhere that you hear so much about, but like Cannes, it was not so impressive.

We got back on the train and headed to another nearby town, Menton. We were pleasantly surprised by the town of Menton. The old town here is very charming and the beaches are beautiful. It also helped that the weather cleared up and the sun was shining down. We had a lunch at the cutest creperie. We’ve had crepes before – in Paris and a few times at German festivals – but never like this! Mine was filled with goat cheese and olive tapenade and topped with fresh tomatoes and basil. Matt went for one with chorizo and cheese, and topped with a fried egg. We finished the meal by splitting a sweet crepe – one drizzled with homemade caramel, roasted cinnamon apples, and whipped cream. So delicious! We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the small shops and then we sat on a bench by the beach for awhile to enjoy the sun.

We took the train back to Nice for our dinner reservations. We ate in a really cool restaurant – the lower floor was a cave! It was very romantic. The restaurant’s specialty is roasted meat – you pick which type of meat you want and your side dish. I went with the ½ chicken and ratatouille and Matt tried the beef and mashed potatoes. All of it was very good, but the beef and mashed potatoes were incredible. I thought Matt was going to lick his plate! After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel since we were exhausted.

This is a creepy photo of another couple having dinner, but at least you can tell what the restaurant was like.

On Saturday, we wanted to take it easy in preparation for the half marathon on Sunday. We took the train to nearby Antibes, which is a beautiful beach town. We explored the town’s open-air market and even purchased some local cheese and a baguette for lunch. We found a bench along the water and enjoyed our picnic. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We explored the town a bit more before heading back to Nice to relax. We had a relaxed dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant so that we could carbo-load for the race!

On Sunday, we were up early to prep for the big race. The weather did not look promising. Although it wasn’t too cold, it was raining off and on. Fortunately, the rain held off for the entire race! Matt wasn’t able to run because of an injury, but I finished in 1:59. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours, so I was really happy. I was also completely exhausted!

After the race, we headed back to the hotel to shower and change. By this time, the rain had begun again, so we were fine with not doing too much sightseeing. The rest of the day was pretty low-key. We enjoyed our final dinner in Nice at a French-Japanese fushion restaurant. It was really unique and the food was delicious, especially the dessert we shared – rhubarb pie with yogurt ice cream! We really ate well on this trip!

On Monday, we did some window-shopping and sat along the water for awhile before it was time to head to the airport. Although it was not exactly what we had expected, we had a wonderful time in the French Riviera!