Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Week in the French Riviera

I got back to Paris yesterday after a week-long vacation in the French Riviera. It really was the vacation I had been dreaming about in the back of my head for a while - something I thought would happen really far off in the future - but instead happened sporadically when a few friends and I realized that we didn't actually have any exams during the exam week...

Days 1 & 2: Nice (pronounced like "Niece")
We stayed the week in a hostel called Saint-Exupery (apparently the best hostel in France), right next to the beach in Old Nice. Although I don't feel entirely comfortable with the hostel culture here, I'm starting to get used to it and even went out with some people we met that first night. At Penn, I feel like people are going along more or less similar tracks of life - we're all getting our Bachelor's degrees, have aspirations for graduate school or some career path afterwards - but in hostels it's really cool to meet a wide variety of people with whom I'd never cross paths with otherwise. For example, that first night I met a guy from Ireland who just finished a season DJ-ing in Ibiza and now is on the hunt for his next gig and a girl from Canada who just decided to up and leave her job to travel all over Europe for a few months.

The next morning, we got up extra early to see the Cours Selaya, which is the biggest fruit and flower market in France. There were so many tables for handmade soaps (someone should introduce The Body Shop to these!), spices, candies, and of course fruits and flowers. Afterwards, we took a stroll along the beach and I realized just why the area is called the Cote d'Azur - the color of the water is so beautiful! We went up to the ancient Chateau of Nice that the French destroyed when conquering the city, had a beautiful lunch of mussels and crepes, got lost around the windy alleyways (getting lost is truly the best way to explore), and explored the Contemporary Art Museum.




















(Some sweets at Cours Selaya)

Day 3: Grasse
Only about an hour north of Nice, Grasse is the perfume capital of the world and produces about 2/3 of France's perfume. We toured one of the largest perfumeries called Fragonard, learned about how much the perfume industry took root in Grasse and prospered, and smelled hundreds of different extracts and perfumes. This is the real stuff - I sprayed my scarf with one scent, and it lasted the entire week!

Day 4: Villefranche-sur-Mer & Cannes
Villefrance-sur-Mer literally translates to "French town on the water" which is precisely correct. We lounged at the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea for a good part of the day in 30 degree (Celsius) weather, unheard of during this time of the year at Penn, and then had lunch literally inches from the water. That night, we went out in Cannes, home of the famous film festival, did some window shopping, and had the best pasta I've ever had in my life, seriously.















(View from the gardens at Villefranche)

Day 5: Eze & Monaco
This was kind of bad planning on our part, because we had to dress up mildly for Monaco and the Monte Carlo Casino in the evening, but first had to hike down the famous Nietzche path in the daytime. We were five girls in skirts and flats trying to hike through a mountain, it was definitely a sight to see. Eze was a beautiful little village and the hike was quite nice, especially the view from the top.




















(Us about halfway through the hike)

Monaco, on the other hand, was entirely opposite from the peaceful and natural setting of Eze. Everywhere were just expensive apartments, expensive yachts, expensive cars, expensive stores...well, you get the point. The famous Monte Carlo casino was beautiful on the outside, but on the inside it seemed that honestly, no one was really having any fun. Other than that, we enjoyed touring the Palace and walking around the ports.















(There it is, THE Monte Carlo Casino)

Day 6: St. Tropez















(@ St. Tropez, we plan to return in 10 years together no longer as college students)

We completely lucked out with our trip to St. Tropez because it happened to be the weekend of the Jumble Sale 2011, which is a HUGE annual event at the end of October where pretty much all the stores have huge discounts on the streets. MAC makeup at 50% off, Gucci sunglasses for 120 euro (~160 USD), Havianas at 50% off...Unfortunately, we had not planned for this and none of us had any space left in our luggage for the flight back, so our purchases were kept at a minimum. Still, it was a great day just shopping and wandering around the beautiful city.

Day 7: Home!

After that week of sharing a shower with so many girls and doing nothing but eating and sightseeing, it feel refreshing to be back on campus. I hadn't anticipated missing the campus and the people here, but I guess my dorm does feel a bit like home now :)

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