Nice

That Monday morning, we left Paris to go to Nice, stopping in Chambéry on the way.  I haven't talked much about the trains so far, but they were awesome.  The trips seemed to pass quickly and the seats were comfortable and it was nice to look out the windows.  We took high-speed trains practically everywhere we went.

On our way to Chambéry from Paris, we had a layover in Lyon.  Our train from Paris was a bit late and we ended up missing the following one.  Thankfully we were able to catch the next train to Chambéry but it was stressful and significantly shortened the time we had in Chambéry to switch our dirty clothes out for clean ones and just get stuff done.
After a short break, we were on our way to Nice.  We arrived around 6pm, got moved into the hostel, and then went out towards the beach to find dinner.  Nice is an awesome city.  It's so colorful.  In the main square of the vieux ville, the buildings were all coral colored and the ground was tiled with black and white.

We grabbed dinner at a Chinese Restaurant that was okay.  Reed really liked it.  As we were there, it got darker and the lights came on.

Those men sitting on their knees were always changing colors and the blue lights in the background where strung over the road in a really cool way.  From dinner, we sought out the beach.

The airport was nearby and it was fun to see planes landing and taking off.

As you can see, this was no ordinary sand beach.  The beaches in this area were all rock beaches.  I liked the rocks because they'd been rubbed completely smooth by the waves going over them a million times.
The next day, we woke up to find that it was all foggy. 

As you can see, there are still quite a few people out attempting to sun-bathe despite the fog.  We decided to just wander along the coastline for a bit.  As we did, it started to get a bit clearer.

After that it was lunch time, so we got some from a nearby Monoprix (one of the principle Target-like stores in France).  Then we decided to go swimming.  I didn't want to risk getting my camera stolen while we were swimming, so I didn't take it with me.  The water was fairly cold and since Reed is a chicken about cold water, he barely went in.
For dinner that night, we went to an Italian restaurant and I got some yummy pizza.

Here is Reed enjoying his new-found ability to drink legally.

The following day, we walked back to the beach.  It was a beautiful day.

We decided to walk up Castle Hill which had a nice park at the top and a great view of the city.

This is another view of the beach that we'd been on.  It was called the Baie des Anges (the Bay of Angels).  Rick Steves said that this name came from the body of a Niçoise saint who died and whose body was, according to legend, carried into the water by angels.

From the top of the hill, we could see the other side of Nice (which we actually never got around to), the port side.

That afternoon, the waves were really big (especially for that beach), so we decided to go swimming again.  I have some wave pictures taken after the fact to try and show how big they were.  I didn't like swimming so much in the waves.  They knocked me over a lot and I inhaled salt water, but Reed really liked them and spent a long time swimming.

Ok, three things that I forgot to mention about the beaches in Nice up to this point:

#1: Because it is a rock beach instead of a sand beach, it's not that fun to swim because your feet hurt all the time.  It doesn't even turn into sand once you get a few feet into the water.

#2: Although it shouldn't have surprised me, I was caught off guard by all of the women who sunbathed topless.  It's quite a different culture over there.

#3: The sun there is brutal.  Most of my friends can attest to the fact that I am a pretty sun-conscious person and I really thought I was doing well reapplying sunscreen often enough but I got totally burned. It was probably the worst sunburn I've ever had and I was uncomfortable for many days after that.

The following picture has kind of a funny story to go along with it:

I had asked Reed to please take a picture of me on this little point that juts out a bit right as the waves splashed up behind me, so he did it.  He got this picture on the very first try.  I tried to do the same thing with him for his camera and couldn't get the timing right and I tried for literally like 10 minutes.  Reed was getting more and more frustrated with me until finally a giant wave came up and completely drenched him.  Of course, I sill didn't get it on camera because I have possibly the worst timing ever.  He was kind of angry but I thought it was hilarious.

We had to go back to the hostel so that he could change, but then we headed out to dinner at a seafood restaurant.  I really didn't like my pasta that I got there, but I think Reed really liked his dish.  After that we wandered back along the beach one last time.  That was the end of our time in Nice.