an american in belgië : Italia to the French Riviera

Day 4 and 5

We said goodbye to Italy and Lake Maggiore and headed to Nice, France and the French Riviera. It rained pretty much the whole way, but we got a break once arriving in Nice (pronounced like niece, of course).

Nice, France. Population is close to 350,000 in the city limits, but about a million in the surrounding area. I was so surprised at how huge and sprawling this city is.

The beach in Nice, France.

It is a combination of every imaginable size rock and pretty difficult to walk on. I don't think many people lay out here to get a sun tan. We did see a woman getting dressed after a dip in the sea. She didn't bother with a swimsuit, of course.

For obvious reasons, it was hard to miss this cruise ship.

Palm trees were everywhere and loaded with fruit.

A close up of the dates on the date palm tree.

The beach may be rocky, but the water is the most beautiful blue we've seen yet . . .

and it was crystal clear.

The beach quickly turns into high, rocky areas. This sign was posted for all those who couldn't figure out that . . .

if you were fool enough to stand or sit on the ledge . . . AND fell off, here's where you'd end up.

You can see people walking along the promenade. The view was spectacular.

A view back toward the city.

This is the harbor in Nice. Plenty of boats, but nothing like we saw later in our trip.

One of the typical streets in Nice once you get away from the main drag.

Lots of little shops lined these narrow streets.

And some were barely wide enough to walk down.

We saw quite a few orange trees loaded with fruit.

This is the promenade in Nice at night.

It's really well lit along this promenade area with lots of places to sit.

We enjoyed window shopping.

The streets were really clean and not crowded this time of year, of course.

We decided to drive down the coast back toward Monaco. The road went up the mountain. This is Nice from that vantage point.

The coastline and harbor in Nice.

This is on the way from Nice toward Monaco.

The road got a little curvy from time to time. I was glad Jim was doing the driving.

This is just a couple of the hundreds of yachts in Monaco's harbor. I thought some were just ridiculous. Funny seeing that little Smart car parked in front of that monstrosity :) You can see it was raining - raindrops on the windshield in my photo!