Southern France

I was a little bit reluctant to do Southern France because most of my closest friends didn't sign up for it. I was originally not planning on going, but I was convinced by a few people as the deadline to sign up approach. As it turns out, those people dropped out of the trip. Still, when all is said and done, I'm really glad I went through with this trip. I'll explain why.

We rolled into Nice on Thursday night. I didn't see much of the coast because it was dark out, so all the sight seeing would have to wait until Friday. Our hostel was pretty nice and we had a good group of guys in our room. We walked around town for a while, looking for a bar or something to hang out at for a while. Most places were closed and the town was pretty much shut down for the night. We found a billiards bar, got a beer, and hung out for a while and then went to bed.

The weather was perfect on Friday and I went on a tour of the town, seeing some of the churches and a really cool open air market. Nice was a beautiful city, with a great feel to it. It was kind of like a richer version of Puerto Vallara; a beach town with a nice boardwalk and a lot to do and see. There was a great park overlooking the town with a large waterfall and some breathtaking views. There was also a park in the center with a large ferris wheel. After we walked around town for a while, we went to the beach and laid out all day. It was great.

That night I did a pub crawl with most of the group, but it turned out to be kind of a flop. Mainly because, in cooperation with my pub crawl theory, the leaders were not Australian and were therefore incompetent. By the end of it there were only about about four people left...the rest had bailed. But it was still nice to get out and talk to some people that I hadn't spent that much time with this year.

On Saturday we got in the bus and went to St. Paul and Cannes. St. Paul was a small village perched on a cliff overlooking the blue sea. I walked around for a while and then set up shop in the sun and watched some old guys play bacci ball. They're really intense and it's fun to watch them play and argue. After that we went to Cannes, which was a lot like Nice but even a little bit ritzier. Tom would later describe it as the most uptight beach town he had ever seen, with people like those in the movie Zoolander. I didn't really mind it that much. I went straight to the beach, which had sand this time instead of the flat rocks that Nice had. I did some swimming and got lots of sun. It was the perfect day.

That night back in Nice, not many people went out. A few of us were hanging out in the lounge of the hostel and decided to take a walk down to the beach. On our way there, we saw that the ferris wheel was open so we took a ride on it. It was a blast and provided a great view of the whole town and the ocean. After that I sat on the beach, had a beer, and talked as the waves crashed in.

The next day, on our way home, we made a stop in the mini-country of Monaco. It was a beautiful place and though I didn't go into the casino at MonteCarlo, I saw it and it looked incredible.

We rolled back into Florence Sunday evening and I was greeted by a distraught Miller who told me that his weekend down in Sicily had been "the craziest one of the year, and not necessarily in the good way." Turns out he had camped out in some shack and then in an airport to avoid the rain. I kind of wish I had been there. But still, Southern France turned out to be one of my favorite weekends of the semester, and when I get that sailboat someday and sail around the Mediterranean, I'll be sure to include that as one of my stops.