France: Nice and Marseille

We included Nice on the itinerary to check out the heart of the French Riviera, so we spent a couple days exploring this complex city of 350,000. Situated near Monaco and Cannes, Nice is familiar with the glitzy beach crowd and the glamorous jet-set . Needless to say, in our puffy coats and (by now) well-worn outfits, we showed the French a thing or two about glitz. But seriously, we enjoyed wandering along the spacious beachfront walkway called Promenade des Anglais, and had fun with the cliché of eating baguettes while walking through the cosmopolitan city center, which was set up for the upcoming Carnival. For a different perspective on Nice, we spent one afternoon hiking around Parc du Chateau, a beautiful hilltop park with views over this old city on the Mediterranean. As you might imagine, the cheesy “Nice view” puns were relentless.

Several tasty baguettes later, our train pulled into Marseille, a few hours west of Nice and the cultural center of Provence. According to the Marseillais, the city has undergone a dramatic comeback in recent years, and we found it to be a cool place to explore with a few pedestrian streets and a lively port area. A bit rough-and-tumble and even gritty, the city is as multicultural as they come. Influences from Northern Africa, the Far East and Europe are consistently present in they city’s stores, markets and restaurants. The wind whipped fiercely through Marseille during out stay, so that explains the frigid looks we have in the photos below.

Having both been to France before, we purposely dedicated just a few nights in the country en route to Spain, where we have El Grande plans. Next stop: Barcelona.