- Let us all continue to travel, to experience our own strange, precious and transitory moments
- Nice needs bikinis on the beach - not social media 'solidarity'
With that settled, we mentally braced for the 5.5 hour drive. Again, success! This time once we arrived at our apartment we were pleasantly surprised! We rented through a company called Kid & Coe. It's like AirBnb but the homes are specifically designed for families with kids. There are far fewer properties than AirBnb and they all seem more expensive but boy are they cute! The place we rented was huge with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and toys galore! What won me over was the toddler bed. Evan loved it!!! Well, the first 3 hours he slept in it. Then he climbed out and said he wanted to sleep with daddy, which was the trend for the rest of the trip. (We ended up with a ladies guest suite and a mens suite) Not pictured were the 3 different toy riding car / plane options which were a huge crowd pleaser.
Spoiler Alert: We LOVED Nice. It was picture-perfect beautiful, plus incredibly kid-friendly. There were parks everywhere we turned and everyone welcomed us & our crazy crew with open arms. If we were nervous about speaking zero French with two babies at adorable al fresco cafes, our fears were calmed at every place we popped into where they even encouraged big man's tableside silliness - see video. (Plus, everywhere we went they offered him ice cream or candy! Just like his grandparents. He did not like it when we kept saying "no merci")
We spent our days just exploring the city:
Trip up to the top of Castle Hill. There's only the remains of the castle, but the hill offers the perfect views of the city side, including Vieux Nice (old town) and the port side. The hill itself defines the origins of Nice itself, and the history is rich, continuing through WWII. I highly recommend reading this quick summary . It's fascinating. (also bookmark the whole blog if you ever plan to visit Nice).
Beach day. The beach of Nice itself is made up of rocks vs. sand, so our hosts recommended we head to Villefranche for a sandier and more comfortable option. Unfortunately, I wasn't feel too great on our beach day so EZ & Matt headed out on their own. After getting lost on their way there (and on the return) I'm assured they had a great time and continue to make friends everywhere they stopped.
Swinging by the playgrounds in the city center, every chance we got. They really went all out, with the underwater theme. :) Not pictured: huge sprinkler / water fountain area
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| Life lessons with Mr. Tortoise |
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| Love this |
We also spent a day in Monaco, but I'll save that for another post.
Finally, a stroll along the Promenade. We quickly walked along the promenade the first couple days as well, but we really wanted to visit the memorial of the victims of the Bastille Day attack. We decided to make this the last evening of our visit. Originally, the notes, flowers, flags, presents, memorials were placed on the promenade itself. Once the government decided they were going to reopen the promenade, the locals and tourist volunteers formed a human chain to move all the items to two different spots, one along the water and one within the gazebo of the park. Both were incredibly beautiful and heart-breaking memorials. The worst part were all the toys and stuffed animals for the lost children.
I struggle with how to finish this post. Our vacation was wonderful but our final night was sobering. We travel to experience new places and people. To gain a great understanding of the world around us. Our goal is to foster empathy in our children. They won't remember this holiday, but we will. We will also help them remember the people. Remember how very lucky we are to have these experiences, but more importantly to have each other surrounded by our friends & family. Thankful for every day.
