South of France - Nice and Cannes

Couple of weeks ago we had a random Thursday off because of a Swiss holiday so CJ took the Friday after the holiday off and we spent a lovely long weekend in the South of France, romping around Nice, Cannes with the rich and famous of this world. Haha... not really...

We left after Katherines's first feeding and drove through the back roads of Provance (as inf Herbs of Provance... ). Views were gorgeous and roads very windy. I do not have any pictures of that part because I was entertaining the munchkin in the back seat, as she was getting restless from the long drive. We hit some really bad traffic in the smaller towns, some due to road work and some due to a lot of people heading south for the weekend and heading to Cannes to spy on celebrities. Of all weekends to go to Cannes, this particular weekend was the beginning of the International Film Festival. Under any other circumstances I would me jumping for joy at the opportunity to stalk celebs. But this time, with tiny baby in tow, all I wanted was peace and quiet. Oh well. It was nice anyway!

Nice:
is the fifth most populous city in France. The city is called Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice. The area of today’s Nice is believed to be among the oldest human settlements in Europe. One of the archaeological sites, Terra Amata, displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.  Down the ages, the town changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength. For years it was an Italian dominion, then became part of France in 1860. Culturally and architecturally enriched over time, today Nice has become a truly cosmopolitan tourist destination.  Nice experiences a Mediterranean climate. The summer/holiday season lasts for 6 months, from May to October, although in April and November sometimes there are temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F).

I was hoping for some summery weather but it was a bit chilly and rainy at times. But even with that we had a nice time. We took long walks on the famous Promenade des Anglais and Quai des Etats-Unis right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

We explored the Old Town and tried a local specialty called "socca" - type of a giant crepe made out of ground up chickpeas. 

We visited an ancient castle high on a hill above the city, seat of some of the oldest settlement there.

Nice is a very stroller friendly city and Katherine did great in her travel system. We even rode the local tram.

She was so good at night too, which is always the stressful part when you're staying at a hotel.

The next day we ventured out to the city of Cannes where the film festival was just kicking off.  I was hoping we could spot some celebrities or at least see the Palace where the main part of the festival with awards takes place.
One of my friends here had mentioned that you could see the Palace right from the main road when driving by so I had high hopes. Well it turned out that due to the festival the entire part of town around the Palace was blocked off with metal barriers and police were directing traffic away from the area. Makes sense right? Now, you could probably walk through and get near but we had Katherine with us and it was starting to get late so we just did a quick drive through the city and along the sea front and took some pictures of multi million dollar yachts in the Cannes port.

Next up - day trip to Monaco and Monte Carlo.