Day 1 – Nice

Our journey starts with the French Riviera town of Nice. A short flight from Birmingham and a surprisingly simple bus journey from the airport led us to our hostel, Ville Saint Exupery, in an old monastry up in the hills above the city. Although a bit of a trek the facilities are excellent and according to our room mates are some of the best in Europe. The staff are very friendly and everyone here seems to be either American, Australian or English which may ruin some of the French charm but also makes things easier for us, backpacking beginners as we are.

Once we’d dumped our bags we hopped on the bus back down to the city. The public transport here is good (by English standards) and appears to be in the process of being supplemented by quite an extensive tram system being built across the city.

Our first port of call was… well, the port actually (!) with the usual array of expensive and extravagent sea vessels of all kinds. A quick ice cream later (it had to be done) and we climbed the excessive number of steps up to the old castle ruins and great views of the city in both the port and the old town/beach directions. Descending from the cliff gave us good views of the bright blue sea and rather ugly pebble beach, full of tourists of course! The old town of Nice is a warren of streets centred around the flower market (of course another tourist attraction) which makes way for a large number of restaurants in the evening. We ate pizza here and then wandered around a bit longer before the long journey back to the hostel. A good night’s sleep is what we want now ready for our trip to Monaco and the mountain village of Eze.