The Life of Wade: Nice & Monaco - The French Riviera! Sept. 12-14 + PHOTO LINKS!!!!

*** Please note the links of the bottom of this blog. Those links will take you to my photo albums. ***

The French Riviera
Talk about an extremely gorgeous place! The French Riviera is simply breathtaking. On this trip there were seven of us, and as you can see from the picture below, we were all really excited about our first big trip! In that picture is Alec, Afton, Caroline, Kelly, Me, Caitlin, Brooks, Andrew, Samantha and Joe (Jeffrey took the picture, he is a great self-designated photographer). Even at 7:30 in the morning, we were all pumped about going to the south of France.

Once we arrived in Nice, we walked to our hostel, Les Camelias, and checked in and got situated. The hostel was decent, but definitely not something to write home about.

Here we all are getting ready to go down to the beach in Nice. You'll find this fountain right off the main square of Nice, it is a very expansive area with great architecture and good sites such as this fountain and others.

That's me, of course, after swimming in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time! The water was a beautiful and the perfect temperature. It was very salty, but not nearly as salty as the Dead Sea was when my dad and I swam there in January of 2007. An awesome quote from Afton W. was, "You guys, we are swimming in history! Hello history!" Her quote really does capture the essence of what it was like to be there. As you can see from the picture, it was not a sandy beach, but one made up of a lot of rocks.

The picture above is of the marina in Monaco, a place I highly recommend visiting. It is very luxurious and opulent, but it is neat to experience the principality and its grandeur. That day I was able to go to the Palace, the Cathedral (where Princess Grace was married and where she is buried; I saw her tomb) and I also went over the Casino which was on the other side. I did a lot of walking there. After getting back to Nice, I took a nap as I sunbathed on the beautiful beach and upon heading back to the hostel had one of my 3 Lemon Gelatos (the best!) of the day!

Brooks, Andrew, Jeffrey, Alec, Me and Joe all dressed up and ready for the night in Monaco. The ladies: Sam, Caitlin, Kelly, Caroline and Afton, looked great as well. We had dinner that night at Cafe de Paris which is right next to the Casino and it was really good. Caroline and I were the only ones not to pay the 10 Euro to get into the Casino, so we waited 2 hours outside for everyone else, but it was still a really fun evening.

This is the world-famous Monte-Carlo Casino in Monaco! It was beautiful by day, but even better by night as you can probably see. The overwhelming amount of wealth in Monaco is very evident by all of the luxury boutiques and cars being driver around and the Casino is just another luxurious aspect of the principality as well.

Here is a video I took in Monaco!

Finally, I leave you with another jaw-dropping picture of the coast of Nice, France to show you just how beautiful the French Riviera is. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and honestly, not very expensive, vacation!

The Life of Wade

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Nice & Monaco - The French Riviera! Sept. 12-14 + PHOTO LINKS!!!!

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