Last Day On The French Riviera

This morning we had a business presentation with a local university in Nice, EDHEC. EDHEC is a French business school that is located on the street across from the beach. We learned yesterday that it is currently one of the top 5 business school programs in France. The presentation was rather long though, and I was having to fight my body from going to sleep. I was on the front row though, so I made myself pay very close attention. I’ve discovered the easiest and best way to stay awake during boring presentations is just to simply take a TON of notes. Afterwards, since I am a part of the Nice/Monaco presentation team, we took a picture with our speakers and presented them with certificates and a very nice pen in recognition of them taking time out of their day to speak to our group.

The meeting with the business school didn’t take up too much of our time though, which was fortunate because this was our last day in Nice. Jay, Taylor, Kinsey, Caitlin, CJ, and I changed and went to go try this restaurant on the beach, Lido Plage, that was recommended by kids who went on last year’s trip. The food was good, but not marvelous. I think I’ve had better on this trip so far. The view, however, was unparalleled. We were practically one of the only groups of customers in the restaurant because of the cloudy weather and had the sound of the ocean waves rolling up on the rocks to relax us during our lunch.

We attempted to lay out on the beach after lunch, but the clouds soon turned into a steady sprinkle and then into rain. We went back inside, showered, and just hung out in our rooms for about 3 hours. As luck would have it, as soon as I got out of the shower and was all cleaned up from the beach, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Go figure! The same group of us, except Laura came instead of CJ, set off for dinner in Old Town Nice. We decided on the Buffalo Grill (again, so typical us. Everyone wants to find the most American food possible, and it never is as good as home). The food was sub-par honestly. My grilled chicken breast lacked flavor was really tough. It probably didn’t help my appetite that I had just had a scoop of dark chocolate gelato from Julian’s snack stand right before we walked to dinner though, haha. While we’re sitting in the restaurant it starts pouring again, so we wait to leave until it stops (though apparently that’s rude to do over here, because the waitress told us to get up and leave before we had even finished our last drinks after our meal because she had customers waiting—well, no tip for her).


Some people wanted to walk around and find a pub or a bar to go drink in, so I followed the group. Honestly though, drinks are SO EXPENSIVE over here and I would much rather just spend my money on souvenirs for myself and people back home that I love. At least wine is cheap-ish, because that’s all I’m really interested in drinking anyways. Sometimes though, a beer can be around 7 Euros. That’s nearly $11 in American money! Waste of money! Well anyways, apparently there was some big soccer game going on tonight that had all the bars and pubs packed. Since it had started raining on us AGAIN, we just decided to head back to the hotel. I repacked my bag for our departure in the morning for Austria. Tomorrow we have the longest coach travel day of the trip… somewhere between 10-11 hours before we get to Innsbruck. That is a lot of time to sleep and be bored!

Perfumarie Fragonard & Monaco!

On our group itinerary for today, we were scheduled to set off on a 30 minute drive to Perfumarie Fragonard to see what their business of making perfumes is all about, and then head off on our very short drive to Monaco.

Perfumarie Fragonard was very cool! Once we got there, my group received a tour of the factory first, so we got to see how they manufacture all their products… from soaps to fragrances and body oils. I never knew so much went into the perfume making process and just how hard and rare it is to become “a nose” in the perfume industry. Currently, there are only an estimated 50 “noses” in the world! A “nose” goes to school for nearly 10 years just learning about essential oils, how to blend them, and making perfumes. During their first year of schooling alone, they have to memorize upwards of 1,000 different smells, and train their nose to identify that smell. Crazy! We got to smell many of the fragrances, and even went into the gift shop where I have to admit, I did some damage! Haha! Perfumarie Fragonard is based on the French Riviera and doesn’t do a lot of exporting of products. They don’t market their products to any other stores either, so the Perfumarie Fragonard factories are the only place to buy the perfume (besides their website, www.fragonard.com). I figured since I may never come back to this place again, I might as well buy some of the best and most uniquely made things in the world. So I got a few things for myself, and a few things for other people. I hope they like them!

Once we left the perfumeries, we drove through a bunch of twisty, windy roads up on the sides of mountains that overlook the Mediterranean until we got to Monaco. Monaco wasn’t what I expected however. I think I was expecting something a little more glamorous since it is the richest country in the world per capita. It’s also the second smallest, behind Vatican City. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely nice.

When we got there, we first at lunch at a little café that a small group of us found. I had a margarita pizza, and it was AWESOME. I was SO hungry, because the breakfasts at this hotel are not good. I swear they give our group the leftovers of what the hotel staff would be too embarrassed to serve regular guests. Our croissants this morning were burnt to a crisp! I have come to expect a little more from French croissants than blackened bread.

Anyways, after lunch and an AMAZING dessert, our whole study abroad group toured the Palace of the Grimaldi family. It’s still currently Prince Albert’s residence so not a ton of the palace was open for viewing. In fact, I bet I was in and out of there in 20 minutes with an audio guide in hand. Then we went straight to the Jacque Cousteau Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium (biggest aquarium in Europe). The aquarium part was cool, but the museum was really short and quite uninteresting. We weren’t there too long either, which gave us way too much time to kill in the afternoon until we were scheduled to depart for the casino. A group of us sat in the gardens overlooking the Mediterranean and tried to fall asleep because we were all so exhausted.


Finally we departed for the casino as a large group. I was expecting the Monte Carlo Grand Casino to look a little more grand than it did when we walked up to it. It wasn’t nearly as big as I was made to believe. I couldn’t go inside really because it cost 10 Euros just to enter, so after my morning purchases… I figured it best to save my money a little.

I did however go into the casino next door to the Grand Casino. There was no entrance fee for that one, and the buy-ins were much lower. Just for fun I decided to try to play my first slot machine game ever, and it didn’t go so well, haha! I didn’t really understand the concept of the game, and I’m sure that was a main part of the problem. Unfortunately, within just 5 minutes, my 5 Euro buy-in was gone. That was all I was going to risk though. At least now I can say with certainty that I have gambled in Monaco! One guy from our trip played craps though, and won 855 Euros!!! That’s somewhere around $1,200 American dollars!! Lucky!

We drove back to Nice at around 8pm. I was feeling a little down today, just missing home and really missing Brad. Going to dinner with Laura, CJ, & Callen was really good for me though. It helped me realize that I’m not the only one who is feeling this way. Nice is sort of the hump to get over on the trip, because it’s all downhill from here! I was able to skype with my mom & sister and with Brad this evening before I turned in, so that made me day! I can go to bed a happy girl! Goodnight!

Beach Day on the French Riviera!

Today we had a complete free day to enjoy Nice. We took our time getting up this morning (that meant about 8:30am) and went down to the beach by about 10. We went to a local shop to buy straw mats to make the beach more comfortable. The beaches here in Nice are composed mainly of rocks and pebbles… not sand. It’s pretty much impossible to walk on the beach without shoes/flip flops of some kind. I tried and it’s killer on your feet! The mats actually helped a ton though with my comfort level while laying on the rocks! I also bought a Nice beach towel as a souvenir, and it came in handy as a beach pillow.

The water was so blue but soooo cold! I went in a few times, mainly to cool off from the hot sun which was beating down on us all day today. Actually quite a lot of our study abroad group made it out to the beach today that is located right in front of our hotel. I laid out there from about 10am to 3pm, or 5 hours. I got a little sun, but I was already relatively tan, so the sun didn’t affect me too much. It was so nice however just to lay on the beach, doze off and on, listen to music, and relax with friends. It was a much needed rest day from the hectic schedule that we had been enduring in Paris and London!


After we left the beach in the afternoon, we headed out to explore Nice a little more. We walked around and shopped some in Nice’s main shopping district. Nice is such a cute little town, because yes its touristy, but not overwhelmingly so. You still get to experience the small town feel of a southern French city. I bought a few things at Zara (a very popular store in European countries), and I also bought a present for Courtney which I hope she enjoys and is able to get a lot of use out of!

For dinner, Kinsey, Sam, Caitlin, Jay, Taylor, and myself all dressed up to go out have a nice meal together. We decided on this Italian place a few blocks over from our hotel, and it was great! I loved the penne pasta I got there, and the bottle of rose wine that Caitlin, Kinsey, and I split was delectable!


After dinner, we came back to the hotel, had a small journaling party with CJ and Laura added into our girl mix, and then went and hung out with a few people before I decided to call it a night. Tomorrow, we meet downstairs in the lobby at 8:45am to head to Perfumarie Fragonard to hear all about the perfume making process and try out some of their special scents. After that, we head into the principality of Monaco, and go visit the famous grand casino and Jacque Cousteau Oceanographic Museum. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but a fun and interesting one! More later!

The French Riviera Is Calling My Name!

We didn’t have to load the coaches to depart for Nice until nearly 1pm, so the morning was our own to spend however we chose. I was tempted to sleep in, but agreed to get up at 8am and go out shopping and exploring Avignon a little bit more with the girls. I was able to skype Brad at about 8:15 while I was getting ready for my Tuesday and he was still awake from his Monday (even though it was actually about 1:15am Tuesday morning). The time difference is so strange to wrap your head around, but I’m managing alright.
Let me just say I am so glad I woke up to go out shopping. I saw so much more of Avignon than I even knew existed while we were walking around. I bought something for mom that I think she’ll like, and some clothes for me. A girl just can't resist an H&M store! Laura and I had a quick bite to eat at McDonalds (yes I know, gross. But we had to have quick food!) and headed back to the hotel to pack and check out of our rooms.
On the bus ride, I was able to journal some and work on memorizing my part for the presentation this evening. I was a little nervous, but I know that everyone is in the same boat at some point or another on this trip.
Once we started driving into the town of Nice, we got to see the pristine blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We were seriously just like little kids at Christmas time, all flocking to one side of the bus to get the best view of the water. Our hotel is the Hotel Westminster, located directly on the Promenade des Anglais which sits on the beach. The beaches here are rocky, not sand like we’re so accustomed to in the States, so that should be interesting tomorrow. As of right now, a group of us are planning on getting up in the morning, buying some tanning lotion, and heading out to the beach to rent chairs for the day. Supposedly its only 14 Euros which might be worth my comfort for the day! Tomorrow is just going to be spent laying out, sleeping, and relaxing on the beach. I seriously cannot wait! After hectic days in London and Paris, Nice is going to be my rest stop on this marathon of a trip.
Before we could go to the beach (or have dinner for that matter), we had to attend our orientation meeting, and hear from our speaker for the evening, Barbara Wilson, an expert on cultural diversity. She spoke to us about ways that French culture is different from that of the U.K. and from America. She pointed out some things to me that I probably would not have picked up on otherwise, like French people value their relationships with people over telling the truth under oath. In America, we’d normally tell the truth to avoid serving jail time.
Then it was time for us to present our presentation. It went really, really well actually!! I was super proud of our group and the skit that we had created. Ben was hilarious wearing his beret and attempting to speak in his fake French accent! After the presentation, Jay and Taylor even said that they thought ours was the best of the trip so far! Wow, what a compliment!  I’m just glad it’s over with now so we don’t have to stress about it anymore.

The meeting seemed to last forever, but when we finally got released at around 8:15pm, we hurried off to dinner to try to beat the rest of the group to the restaurant that was going to be the most popular. It worked! We went to Texas City (so typical, always wanting to go to the Texas place), and I had a taco plate (also, typical me). It was alright, but definitely not like what we get back at home.
After a fun dinner with Caitlin, CJ, Kinsey, Taylor, Jay, and me, I came back to the hotel just to make it an early night. Some of the crew was going out to Old Town where there are a lot of bars and pubs, but I just wasn’t feeling the going-out vibe, and would much rather relax and get some good, hard sleep. Beach day tomorrow!