When the time came for winter break, I made the decision that I was tired of being cold, since being from South Carolina where our winters are at a 50-degree minimum, I didn’t have experience with France cold. I had to buy a scarf and gloves for the first time in my life. Me and my friends decided to go to the south of France to the city of Nice. This trip gave me the opportunity to have multiple different experiences abroad.
First Nice is far away from my host city of Lyon and the travel time ended up being a 7-hour bus ride. I didn’t really mind it though; it was a new way of travel that I had never experienced. At this point of my experience of France I had almost stopped being a tourist in my host city and was becoming a local. Therefore, when I got the chance to become a tourist again it felt like a new adventure for the taking. I finally got the chance to see the things that I had only heard about from other people.
When I started planning this trip to Nice, I was really excited to look at French beaches. Having only seen South Carolina beaches, I wanted to see if France would give me a different experience. Now I had heard that the beaches in Europe did not have sand but was completely surprised when I learned that they did in fact not have sand. Instead of sand they have rocks, they aren’t jagged because the water made them smooth over time, honestly, they were comfortable. The water was gorgeous and I never in my life thought that water could be that blue. My friends and I arrived in Nice around 7 am and we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 1 pm, leaving a big gap of time to be filled. After we grabbed breakfast at a local restaurant, we decided that the best idea would be to just lay on the beach until check in time. So that’s what we decided to do, and the rocks were more comfortable than expected, comfortable enough that I could nap on them for about 4 hours.
Even though we were in Nice on vacation we still used the opportunity given to us and went to a couple of museums to observe French culture through art. I really appreciate that France offers free entrance to all its museums for students. The museum that stuck out the most to me was the Musee des Beaux arts de Nice. There are multiple Beaux Arts museums throughout France, being as though I had already been to the one in Lyon, I had to see the one in Nice as well. I think that even though it was a smaller museum than say the Musee D’Orsay it still displayed a lot on its two floors. I was surprised when I entered, that most of the artwork had the same artist. I think it was different and I appreciated the continuing themes that the artist displayed.
For the most part I think I enjoyed Nice because it reminded me of home. There were palm trees everywhere and even with rocky beaches there was still a beach. I also loved how it was warm and I didn’t have to wear a huge, oversized coat for the entire trip. I’m even more excited to see what my next adventure will be.
