I have started this post three different times, but my desktop PC has decided to stop working. BOO! Hopefully, third time's a charm.
On Monday morning, the first thing I did after opening my eyes was run to my porthole window and VOILA! France!
I ate my almond croissant (leftover from yesterday's Palo brunch) and we went up to Cabana's for an early quick breakfast. We got to the WD theatre and were the second tender to leave. The tendering process was very quick (at this time of day) & easy and I loved being able to take photos of the approaching shore, while the Magic floated behind us.
This is one of my favorite photos of the whole trip!
We wandered up towards the train station (without a map - EEK!) and just tried to follow the direction that other people were going.
Hidden Mickey, anyone?
The station attendant spoke very little English so it was my first real opportunity to use my rusty French! It was a quick train ride to Nice.
WARNING: I planned on taking the tram down to the Plaza Massena, but couldn't figure out how to operate the ticket machine. It seemed like a touch screen, but really there was a knob there to make your selections. An "extremely helpful" teenager nearby jumped in and was trying to show us how to make our selections. Thankfully I didn't have the enough coins (it didn't take paper Euros) because it seemed like either this fellow was going to want money for his helpfulness or would try to pickpocket us while we were unsuspecting. (The fella was still there at the end of our day "working his scheme".) We ended up walking down Ave. Jean Medecin towards the Promenade d'Anglais.
Plaza Massena
On our way to the Promenade, I noticed a Segway tour office & was so excited at the idea! The husband was a little more nervous at this thought and so we continued on to the beach.
We rested for a few minutes and just enjoyed the view.
The husband agreed to do the Segway tour! I wasn't sure how much we'd get out of the experience, so I chose the one hour tour (30E pp). Our guide was wonderful, giving us each individual riding lessons before we headed off towards the Vieux Ville. The tour was sooooo much fun! We could've gone for another hour at least.
We got small history lessons on various buildings, could stop whenever we wanted for photo opps, and were able to scope out the Old City for shopping or snacking spots. I highly recommend this experience and am surprised that I didn't come across it during my research.
After the Segway tour was over, we made our way to a restaurant I had saved on TripAdvisor. (I love that app for travel!) Sadly, it was a bit of a letdown. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of my meal. But at least, hey, I'm in FRANCE! Some retail therapy was sure to cure my lunch disappointment.
We walked back towards the Old City for some wonderful shopping on pedestrian only streets. This part of Nice has such a quaint vibe with lots of colorful buildings with their balconies, shutters, and flower boxes. It's a great place to buy soaps, spices, olive oil, chocolate, mustard, and jams. I especially loved this little epicurean shop:
While shopping we made sure to stop at the famous Fenochio's gelateria, which offers over 100 flavors including some oddities such as beer and avocado.
We chose cinnamon and coconut. C'est delicieux!
We walked all the way back to the train station, popping into NicEtoile a large shopping mall on Ave. Jean Medecin, along the way. I just wanted to see what a French mall looked like. If you are a big mall fan, you might enjoy a visit as well.
Our train was late, but I had allowed plenty of time to get back to the Magic, especially since we had early dining and I wanted to make it to the MDRs each night. At this point, we were both tired and grumpy and could use a nice sit down meal. We eventually made it back to Villefranche and stopped for a few photos on our way back to the dock.
The tender was slow and the security line was long, so I was so thankful to be staying on deck 1! Our room was just right around the corner after passing through security. Our home away from home:
We hurry, hurry, hurried to dinner at Carioca's, where I had a delicious prime rib and potato meal. Somehow I have no photo of this.
I believe it was garlic crusted though and was a stand-out meal in my memory from the MDRs. Feeling full from dinner, I just didn't see anything that appealed to me for dessert, so I order nothing. That's exactly what our wonderful serving team (Jorel & Rosario) brought me:
We were exhausted after our long day! At 7:45pm I ran up to deck 10 to make one last phone call home as the Magic sailed away from France. I was asleep by 8pm. Needless to say, I saw no shows that night.