Nice with a capital N.

{Disclaimer: I recently realized that I blog exactly like I write in my journal: I can't leave ANYTHING out. And mostly I'm assuming that if you're reading my blog you must not have anything else to do with your life, so why not know about every detail of my trip? Sorry, in advance, for this horribly long post. It's my can't-throw-anything-away tendencies that make me this way. I'm not sure who to blame for this one.}

Last weekend we headed up the coast to one of the most charming little places in France: NICE!

Say it with me:

\'nēs\

And may I  just say, that town sure is aptly named. It was so nice! I loved every minute of it.

DAY 1:

Our first stop was the Chagall museum.

("Okay then, it's settled. We're not staying at anyplace that wasn't built for Napoleon the third's doctor or doesn't have a Chagall in the bathroom.")

Listening to the audio guide. It was pretty good.

The Chagall museum was just this collection of like 17 giant paintings depicting Bible stories. It was so so cool, especially to see it from the perspective of a Jewish artist. We both loved all the bright colors in each painting. I'm happy to now be able to spot Chagalls everywhere!

Adam & Eve being chased out of the Garden:

Moses hitting the rock and water coming out. The yellow is the divine light that also poured out.

The angels breaking the news to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son.

The angel stopping Abraham from killing Isaac. You can see the ram behind the tree on the left. 

Moses receiving the commandments:

I loved this sculpture of Moses:

One thing that I have learned being in Europe is that I do not particularly enjoy visiting cathedrals. To me, they are just dark--literally and spiritually. Jacqueline made the comment that maybe it's because cathedrals are just symbols of the great apostasy to me, whereas for her they are symbols of the faith of those people who built them. Maybe that's it, but either way, I don't like the feeling inside cathedrals. Sure, they're good for a look as far as architecture goes, but I find that I can't even enjoy that most of the time because of the feeling inside. This museum, on the other hand, seemed to be full of a very good spirit...if you know what I mean. I don't know if it was just because it was literally so bright inside, but there is definitely a special spirit that resides there with those paintings of the Bible stories.

Next stop: this Russian church.

We weren't allowed to go inside, but we did have a nice picnic outside on a bench (after getting kicked off the lawn). This building was given to the rich Russian families who used to vacation in Nice in the late 1800s.  

In this one weekend alone, I saw more accordion players than the whole rest of my life combined! It was awesome. And I have to say that there was something nice to the whole accordion/violin combo. I especially appreciate the matching shorts. 

Nice's main square... and a bunch of old people. It was really hot, and they were taking advantage of the shade. Smart.

Random poles with naked guys on them. French modern art really leaves something to be desired. The cool part was that they light up at night. Not sure why, but it was cool!

I am not sure what it is, but the French are just carousel-crazy! There is at least one in every city and ohmygosh as I was writing that I just remembered this dream I had the other night where we went to this city and the main square was just filled up completely of carousels, but they were like little mini-carousels so it was more like tea cups, but still. Random...

We passed a few nice statues and fountains...

And this genuine old-timey candy shop,

which was hands down the fanciest candy show I've ever been in:

We also got ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

The opera house:

And Nice's main market drag (though we kind of missed the market every day we were there--we were either too early or too late). I was obsessed with all the colors! So pretty!

Then we went up to the top of "Castle Hill," where there used to be a castle, but now there's not. They should consider renaming that. But there was a nice park up at the top and this beautiful waterfall, where we just sat and enjoyed the mists. So nice and relaxing.

"Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage" 

Happy who as Ulysses goes on a good voyage... roughly. It's obviously better in French.

Love love love that view of the city. It's so beautiful with all the orange rooftops and yellow buildings and towers and churches.

We ate dinner at this place in the old town. We had a local dish, socca, which is a chickpea crepe. We  dipped it in oil and vinegar. It was pretty good, but I loved the squash tart thing much more.

How they decorate the main street! This is across from this huge mall- Nice Etoile.

The cathedral (looked like a mini Notre Dame de Paris to me!) at night.

DAY 2:

We enjoyed our price-of-the-room-included hot chocolate, baguettes, and croissants for breakfast. I kept thinking how the Mautzes would never approve of such a protein-less breakfast. Sorry!

{Funny side story. I only took my lip gloss outside with me to eat. After we'd eaten our breakfast and gotten our stuff all together, I realized that my lip gloss was missing! I retraced all my steps and couldn't find it. I told Jacqueline that I'd put it in the wasteband of my pants, and she was like, well, did you check your pants at your ankles? Indeed, there it was, safe and sound. Thank you, Jasmin pants, for keeping my lip gloss safe!}

We stopped by this little boulangerie before heading out for the day. It was once voted as having the best bread in France. And the best bread in France is basically the best bread in the world.

We did not, however, get bread, but instead got a tourte aux blettes, which at the time we were guessing was something like kale, but I just looked it up and it's actually Swiss chard. Whatever that is. We got the sweet version (instead of the savory), and it was a surprisingly good mix! There was also pine nuts cooked in, which I loved.

More of the old town:

And then we took the bus out to Monaco (I'm working on a whole nother post for that one), which was the most beautiful drive along the cote d'azur. We were following Rick's self-guided bus tour, and it was great. We saw Sean Connery's house and saw the neighborhood where Elton John has a house (love celeb-stalking info like that). On the way, we made a pit-stop on the way in this little town called Cap Ferrat. It was so beautiful.

Our next stop was to visit la Villa Rothschild. This was the house of a banking tycoon's daughter, Beatrice Rothschild. Extravagant would be putting it mildly. Rick said that it would be worth the admission just to see the gardens, and he was right! They were extensive and amazing! We were so impressed, and we spent quite a few hours exploring the gardens and the mansion and just taking it all in.

A pink house? Yes, please.

The musical fountains. It was timed to go off along with music such as the wedding march and other operatic pieces.

A few successful jumping pics

In the Japanese garden!

In the rose garden:

I loved these flowers the most.

Out in the middle as the fountains were going off! Only got slightly wet...

Inside the house, this was my favorite thing. A perfectly cute little pink couch to go inside Beatrice's sitting room. In her pink house.

 The entire house was filled with things like, oh, you know, Marie Antoinette's game table:

 Marie Antoinette's writing desk:

And the only remaining rug out of four that was originally in Versailles (the other three were burned). 

 Yep. That's why it's good to be rich--so you can buy up all these cool pieces of history and keep them in your mansion forever. Life lesson.

Rounded doors? Yeah.

These two little seats were made specifically for her pets: the one on the right was for her dog, and the one on the left was for her pet mongoose. Yeah, apparently people just have pet mongeese. Random much?

View from the balcony.

After wandering about the beautiful gardens for hours, and then touring the whole inside of the house, I was about to fall over dead. We were lamenting on the way out that it was going to take us forever to find a place to buy water, but as we were on our way out, we saw these blessed vending machines. Hallelujah!

MONACO... stay tuned for that post.

When we got back to Nice, we headed straight for the ice cream shop. Notice anything weird about this picture? We died laughing when we saw it.

Hanging out on the beach. The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful!

DAY 3:

Was Sunday. So naturally, we headed out really early to get to church. The guy at the hostel commented on how early we were up, and he remembered that we both wanted hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea. Yeah, we're weird. What can ya do.

So we got to the bus stop, hoping that we would make it to church. Luckily, there were clearly several other members there on the bus with us (including the sister missionaries!), so we felt right at home and had no problem getting there.

Church was great. Everyone was so nice and welcoming, and we had a nice little chat with one of the young adults there. 

We felt the spirit so strong at church, which was great. After church, we headed over to the Matisse museum, but on the way there was, oh hey, another cathedral. We walked in and I literally had to turn around and walk out because the spirit was just so not in there. I don't know if I've ever felt the difference that strongly in my life! Jacqueline and I both commented on it and how the inside of the cathedral was just completely void of the spirit. We whistled some hymns and felt better.

But hey, I touched the pope!

Musée Matisse... was kind of weird. It seemed like he just cut out shapes of colored paper and put them together and called it art. Obviously I don't get it.

We just happened to get on the same bus as the missionaries! It was fun to chat with them for a while. They are obviously great missionaries. How lucky for them to serve in this beautiful city. Love this picture: didn't realize how much the sunglasses set us apart!

Cute little map of the city:

I've got my eyes peeled for all the insignias with my initials on them... there are an awful lot of Ms!

This cute belle époque (1912-ish) hotel. I just love that time period! Titanic, and all that. 

Inside the hotel:

Lis, I took this picture just for you!

A painting of the beautiful building that used to be out on that white thing... before someone bombed it during WWII. Sad. 

We had to go back up to Castle Hill and take more pictures since the water was so much more beautifully blue today.

Nice has definitely earned its four-flower rating!

And... that was about it. I LOVED Nice and will definitely be going back someday. And spending an entire day at the beach. The rocky beach might be a bit hard to walk on, but that water cannot be beat!