Pastries and Promenades

The last week of October my two lovely friends Ari and Alex took me to Nice, France as a birthday present. We took a few trains from Bologna, and Alex and I tried to learn French from Ari on the 5 hour trip (we were relatively unsuccessful). When we got to the seaside city the sun was shining and we checked into our lovely hostel. It was called Hostel Meyerbeer and I can't recommend it enough- they have locations all over Europe but the Nice branch is quite famous. We sat in their little common room relaxing and eating pastries we'd picked up from J. Multari on the way there.  

After settling into our bunkbeds and changing into France-appropriate attire, we headed out to the Promenades des Anglais for an afternoon stroll. It was so incredibly beautiful, and we felt a bit ridiculous for ever doubting the weather in the south of France, even on the last weekend of October. We sat for a bit listening to a cellist playing my favorite piece, Le Cygne from La Carnaval des Animaux (YouTube).

After our beachside promenade, we headed to the Place Massena in the center of the shopping area of the city. The grand square reminds me of Alice in Wonderland for some reason. After window shopping all of the designer stores we saw two gentlemen on the street with clear plastic cups bearing a round green logo. We literally stopped in our tracks and awkwardly stared at them for five minutes before pushing Ari forward to ask in French where they had gotten their magical beverages. 2 miles later we were in the promise land- Starbucks in Europe! Sucking down that sweet sweet latte made me ridiculously happy after 4 months going without seeing a Starbucks on both sides of a NYC street. To be honest Italian coffee is better, but you can't beat the atmosphere of or the public bathrooms, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes win any contest.

After getting massive headaches from the crazy amount of sugar and the bucket-size servings (we're used to thimble-fulls of espresso now), we headed to the Vieille Ville, the old market area of Nice. It's filled with tiny pastry and chocolate shops, beret stores, and soap factories selling the famous French lavender.

As the sun started to set we headed to a little Moroccan restaurant Ari had found. It was my first time eating Moroccan food and man was it delicious! I highly recommend the mint tea. After a nap (food coma) we got dressed up and met some new friends in the hostel's lounge before heading the Nice's most famous discothèque, The High Club.

The next morning we woke up to our German roommates' blaring alarm, and then went back to sleep until just before noon, when we decided to have a picnic on the beach. We stopped at the French supermarket next to our hostel to pick up wheels of camembert and brie cheeses, sweet plums and persimmons, little pots of creamy French yogurt, ham, salami and slices of Swiss cheese. Obviously we couldn't buy a supermarket baguette, so we stopped at a boulangerie to get a warm, crusty loaf of goodness (which we then had to pose with) and headed to the rocky beach.

We sat on the sun-warmed stones and munched on brie and jambon (ham) sandwiches, taking swigs of sparkling lemonade and listening to Sympathique by Pink Martini on my iPod (our theme song for the trip). After stuffing ourselves we laid back and cuddled in the sun listening to the waves and napping. it was one of the best afternoons of my life.

When the sun went down we wandered through the streets some more, stopping in shoe stores and hunting down the perfect French perfume (we recommend Fragonard). For dinner we had rosé and Croque-monsieur (pink wine and grilled ham and cheese, but boy does it sound better in French). We stopped at a liquor shop for more rosé and then headed back to our beloved beach to sit on towels stolen from the hostel and watch the night surf. Some guys came over and wouldn't leave us alone, even when it was clear we didn't speak French- the tricky part was when they turned out to speak Italian and English too! For some reason we decided to pretend to be German, and said our names were Lina, Gertrude and Etha. Unfortunately nobody's second grade "ich spreche Deutsch" was fooling anyone and we ended up having to leave our lovely beach spot to get away, but it made for a lot of laughs!  

We spent the next morning in the English gardens of a nearby mansion, and then headed to the farmer's market near Vieille Ville. While we were walking through stalls of veggies and spices, we saw a waterfall at the top of the cliffs overlooking the city and decided to hike up there. When I say hike I mean leisurely gravel walk with stairs, and wow what a view!

After coming back down from the lovely waterfall, we headed to a very famous stall in the market, Chez Thereza. They are known for their socca, which are incredible chickpea crepes! They only make 5-6 at a time with a 20 minute wait in between each batch. There's a line down the street and they cut it off when all of the batter is gone. We were the second to last before they started turning people away, and thank god we made it. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten- steaming hot and slightly spicy, we ate them with out fingers and lamented not being able to eat 8 more of them.

After our impromptu lunch we walked through Nice one last time, got a few little souvenirs, tried some chocolate and French macarons, and then had to run to catch our train back to Bologna. It was a really wonderful weekend!