Nice is nice!

Last weekend I took the train down to Nice to cover a conference for work and I decided to tack on a little extra time for a mini-vacation. Kelsey (you may recognize her from our stint as ABBA) came down to join me and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are a couple highlights.

Kelsey posing with THE BEST pizza in the world

Kelsey and I are pizza lovers so we followed Trip Advisor's recommendation and checked out their #1 rated restaurant in Nice - a tiny, hole in the wall pizza joint called Les Amoureux. We were sorely out of place when we arrived and were all but ignored by the sole waiter. But after chatting with a couple locals in the entryway who told us they had the best pizza in Nice, we knew we should give it a try. So, we settled in with a bottle of rose and then...the two best pizzas of our lives appeared. In keeping with the name of the restaurant (The Lovers), the pizzas are heart-shaped.

Broken heart pizza

After polishing off our pizzas we couldn't help but express our appreciation to the waiter who was thrilled to hear that how much we loved the food. He treated us to free drinks to complement our dessert. A wonderful meal overall!

Downtown Nice at night. We dubbed this square Buddha Place

After dinner we made our way back to the hotel in the rain, happily jumping in puddles along the way. Thank goodness for rain boots!

Exuberant sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle

After the conference wrapped up the next day we treated ourselves to a sushi lunch at Planet Sushi where I experienced my first sushi train. It was another heavenly meal, as we've been disappointed in the sushi in France thus far. But after a few inventive rolls we were happy campers.

A happy Liz enjoying sushi wrapped in fresh herbs

Kelsey doing the walrus

After lunch the weather started to cooperate and we were treated to a beautiful afternoon, which we spent wandering around old Nice, soaking up the beautiful architecture and popping into cafes for glasses of wine.

Old Nice

Since Nice is positioned right on the water we also got our fill of the soothing sound of waves crashing along the rocky coast. So relaxing.

The beach at old Nice

Happy Kelsey!

Nothing beats the sight of the sun reflecting off the ocean

Hand crafted candies - too beautiful to eat!

We wandered around a bit more before installing ourselves at an outdoor cafe with live music for a few hours. Once our stomachs started to grumble we headed to Cafe Turin for a meal of the freshest shrimp, langoustines and crab we had had in a while. The night took a turn for the hilarious after that. I'll save that for another post once I get my hand on the photos. Let's just say I had my dancing shoes on that night. In the mean time, here are a couple more photos from the trip:

One of the scariest things I've ever seen!

Hotel Regina!

Before hopping on the train to head back to Fonty the next day, we visited the famed Matisse and Chagall museums. Matisse has always been one of my favorites, but sadly, the collection was slightly disappointing. The Chagall museum, on the other hand, was absolutely breathtaking. A perfect way to cap off our trip to Nice!