I know I haven’t posted much about Nice yet, and I promise I will get to it. But today I took a day trip with hostel peeps to Monaco and Menton, so that’s what I’m going to focus on right now.

Monaco

Getting to Monaco from Nice is a breeze. You can either catch the train which is 5 euros and 30 minutes or you can take bus #100 for 1,50 euros and 1 hour. I took the bus because I’m cheap, and I’m glad I did because the views are incredible! (I took the train on the way back, and it has good views too, but I think the bus was better.)

None of us had had breakfast, so the first thing we did was seek out a patisserie. Mmmm mmm. As you can tell from the delicious pastry that I’m holding below…I’m going to gain so much weight!

After breakfast, we hiked up the hill to the Prince’s Palace. Totally unimpressed. So much so I didn’t even take a picture. In all fairness though, it could have had something to do with all the construction going on. We walked around some of the street but were again unimpressed. However, the spectacular view from the top of the hill made up for it!

We then walked around the port area and admired the buildings and yachts. Some of the yachts are ridiculously luxurious with hot tubs and helicopter pads. And of course we checked out the Monte Carlo casino.

Menton

And then we decided that we had had enough of Monaco, so we jumped back on bus #100 and headed to Menton. Menton is a charming little seaside town right next to the Italian border. Because of the location, you will hear and see a lot of the Italian language mixing with the French. You will also see a lot of Italian food such as pasta, pizza, and gelato.

Menton is probably best know for its lemons. I tried to read a poster of the history, but with my super rusty French, here is what I got. “As the legend goes, someone planted a lemon tree, and it grew, and now there are lots of lemon trees. The end.” 🙂 And there are tons of lemon trees and lemon products now. You can sample lemon liquors, lemon tarts, lemon candies, lemon olive oils, and lemon sauces. And, you can buy lemon soap, and lemon salt scrubs, and lemon perfumes…the list goes on and on.

And then I came back to Nice and ate more scrumptious pastries