So Long Sweet Summer

After a wild summer of trekking across the US, Jason and I needed a vacation from our vacationing and decided to head down to Southern France for our last days of freedom. We chose Nice as our base of operations because of its relatively central location and tons of great places to eat/drink/explore.

In lieu of a long-winded explanation of every single detail, I have a few notes and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Full photo album here.

Friday: Flight from Bordeaux to Nice in the morning. Chilling on the beach in the afternoon. We stayed at the Lou Souleou Bed and Breakfast, which was lovely, except for the fact that we had to share a bathroom with the other people on the floor. I don't know how we missed that in the description of the hotel... Breakfast was simple yet delicious and it was in a great location.

Saturday: Beach. Exploring Nice. Snorkeling. The rocks aren't the most comfortable for lounging on but you get over it real quick when you realize you don't have sand in your butt crack for the next six weeks. The pizza I had for dinner was delicious but I think it didn't agree with my stomach and I was very glad to have somehow managed to not shit on myself that night.

Sunday: Rented a car and drove up into the Alps. It's surprisingly easy to rent a car with an American driver's license. We recommend rentalcars.com if you want to reserve one ahead of time. Get the mid-range insurance for a couple extra bucks per day. The peace of mind is worth it. We stopped in some cute little towns along the way including Sospel and Saorge. I thought we were going to die in a head-on collision on the winding roads but Jason was a champion and did a good job of not killing us.

Stopped in Ventimiglia, Italy on the way back to Nice because we got lost on couldn't figure out how to get to the national park just north of Saorge. Not so bad for a second choice.

Back in Nice, we were eating delicious food on the outdoor patio of this restaurant and Jason recognized some guy he went to high school with, just passing through town. We got drinks together at some bar with great live music. Serendipitous, indeed.

Monday: Day trip to Èze, Roquebrune Cap Martin, and Monaco. We got back kind of late so I don't recall if the food was delicious but it probably was.

Tuesday: Drove up to St-Paul-de-Vence in the morning, dropped off the car, and flew back to Bordeaux. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azure, you were awesome. Thank you for a great way to bid our summer fun farewell.

So, so long sweet summer 
I stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays 
So long sweet summer 
I fell into you 
Now you're gracefully falling away