Day 12: Clear Waters

First full day in Nice was comprised of a walking tour around the Old Town, and then going to the beach at Villefranche in the afternoon! (It's a small fishing village just east of Nice)

In the morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hostel (cereal and toast), then met with a group for a free walking tour at 11AM. We walked through the Old Town of Nice, and visited the fruit and flower market, this large outdoor spread of stalls selling fruits, flowers, meat, cheese, and other assorted goods. We bought fruit for a picnic later on, but fruit here is so much more expensive than in Spain... :(

Fruit and Flower market on the left, Old Town on the right

At the end of the tour, we went to the top of Le Chateau (we were lazy and took the elevator up; the stairs are a ~10min walk), a large hill that overlooks the beach. The beaches here are amazing! The water is so clear and such a pretty blue! The only downside is that Nice beach is actually quite rocky (instead of sand). There were amazing panoramic views of the coast, and we sat down on the grass for a short picnic which was the end of our tour. 

Overlooking the coast of Nice!

Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel to rest a bit before going to the best local beach, in Villefranche. Unfortunately, Wesley wasn't feeling well (food poisoning from the night before) so he just stayed back and slept. Villefranche was a 20 min bus ride away, and was a small town with a beach that also consisted of tons of fishing boats. This beach was also pebbly, but the pebbles were a lot smaller, and certain areas nearest to the water the pebbles were like sand. It was beautiful! (Though crowded) Unfortunately, with only 2 of us, and our cameras and other stuff we brought, we were afraid to go too far into the water because there wasn't anywhere we could leave our stuff >.<

Villefranche!

We got back around 7PM, and went to this restaurant I found on a blog online. It's called Restaurant d'Angleterre (that's the street it's on), and it had 3-course meals for 16.50 euros. The portions were actually really big, and we couldn't even finish everything! (except dessert haha) We got to try Salad Nicoise, and I got a duck leg confit with potato onion puree. Even the side of green beans that came with our main course was huge! haha. For dessert, I just saw a tarte de mûres on the menu and decided to order, not knowing what mûres were, but luckily it was blackberries and not something icky!