I went to the French Riviera with my roommate, her boyfriend
and my friend Kevin for a short two-day weekend that I had in April. The French
Riviera is composed of small cities that border the coastline of South France.
Nice (pronounced niece) and Monaco were two of the towns that I visited for the
48 hours that I was in the Riviera. The first night we went to Monaco, which is
considered it’s own country and is ruled by Prince Albert II. Monaco is known
for money, money & money, with a 0% unemployment rate. It has the Monte
Carlo Casino, known as one of the richest casinos in the world – and some of
the décor inside was literally made of gold. We spent the evening touring
around the gardens of the casino and spending some time near the water. Cars
like Ferraris & Bentleys were everywhere, as were really old people dressed
like a million dollars. We had dinner near the Casino, and it was surprisingly
not expensive and really good. France is close to Italy, so there is a lot of
Italian influence in their cuisine. I had the best chocolate mousse that I have
ever had for dessert. It wasn’t fluffy and yogurt tasting like it is in the
States, but so rich and flavorful that I could barely finish my plate.
Afterwards, Emily and I went into the Casino alone because the boys were not
allowed inside with their shorts. I was excited to play at this world famous
casino, but I knew I would just be walking out thirty euros poorer. I
embarrassingly settled with my 5 euro chips to play roulette with old men that
were betting with 100 euro chips. Somehow, I kept getting all the corner
numbers right, and I walked out with 220 euros 45 minutes after being in the
casino. That’s subtracting the cover I paid and the money I spent to buy the
chips. It was pretty exciting…..but it lasted about thirty minutes. We missed
our train ride back to the hotel, and I offered to pay the 90 euro cab ride
back. Overall, a bitter sweet night.
The next day it was pouring outside, and none of us had the
desire to go explore in the rain. So, we went and had lunch at our beachside
hotel. We were indoors but had a good view of the sea, and I ordered an omelet
and a honey crepe. I’ve decided that I do not really like crepes, there are far
many tastier desserts in the world. Afterwards, we all went back into the hotel
room and napped or read our books until it stopped raining later in the day. We
took a train to Old Town Nice and walked along the beach and through a nice
park. Nice was surrounded by flowers and gardens blossoming everywhere. We also
watched the sunset from the middle of the town, as we searched for our fondue
restaurant that was highly recommended in one of my books. Sadly, the
restaurant was full for the night so we were left to find a new place to eat. We
stumbled upon an Indian restaurant called Delhi Behli, and my friend Kevin
experienced Indian food for the first time. Afterwards, we walked to a nearby
casino because I really wanted to play my luck again. This time I lost 20
euros.
We had a 4pm flight out on Sunday, and we woke up around
10am to beautiful weather. We walked and sat along the beach right by our hotel,
before going to the Beach Club for lunch. Not only did we have lunch outdoors
on the beach, but all of us got our own chocolate fondue for dessert. It was
really, really good, and it made up for the terrible pizza that I had as an
entrée. It was not the most ideal weather for the French Riviera, but it was a
relaxing and entertaining weekend.
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