It was my second time visiting Nice, France, and I was determined to make the most of it. Last time, 5 years ago, I spent my layover here exploring the pretty old town and walking along the beachfront promenade.
This time, along with 6 others, we hired a tour guide and visited some of the most stunning spots along the Côte D’Azur.
Luckily for us our tour guide Ben usually takes crew out, so he was waiting for us in the hotel and we soon set out to explore. He picked us up and our first stop was the beautiful Old Town, where along he gave us a detailed history of Nice, and some free time to explore.
Nice Old Town
We strolled the the quaint streets, where holidaymakers were out enjoying the sunny day, and admired the colourful buildings and little boutiques.
First stop of the day was naturally to get an ice-cream, and where else than Fenocchio. Possibly the most famous ice-cream spot in Nice, Fenocchio boasts what must be hundreds of different flavours, and I sampled the refreshing lavender ice-cream and fresh mint sorbet. Delicious and a surprisingly excellent combination!
After a good walk through the old town, our group continued on down towards the waterfront, and the Promenade Des Anglais.
As expected with such beautiful warm weather, the beach was full, with sun-worshippers and swimmers out in full force.
After meeting back up with Ben, we drove on towards Nice harbour. A colourful, quaint harbour, full of traditional fishing boats and of course, many a super yacht.
After admiring the pretty little boats, we drove on along the windy coastal road, stopping occasionally to get out and have a walk.
How amazing does this restaurant on a rock look?
We continued our drive, stopping to admire the view from this spectacular viewpoint. This is one of the reasons I decided to take the tour, rather than jumping on a public bus. You would never know to stop at these viewpoints without a local showing you the way!
Eze
Our journey continued onwards towards Eze, a medieval mountaintop village along the Côte D’Azur.
On the way we drove past this stunning seaside town, Villefranche-sur-Mer, which looked so spectacular from above that I decided to visit it on my next layover in Nice.
We soon arrived in Eze, and walked up through the cobbled streets of the village towards Chateau Eza, which is perched atop the hillside, boasting the most incredible view you can imagine.
The seven of us were escorted to our own private balcony, and ordered a drink to sit and admire the view with.
Wow! There are truly no words for the beauty of this place. All of us were in awe and couldn’t help but repeat ourselves about how beautiful the view was.
Monaco
Eventually it was time to drive on towards our next stop, Monaco! Officially known as the Principality of Monaco, it is a sovereign city-state, country and micro state which has an area of 2.020 km2 and is the second-smallest and most densely populated sovereign state in the world.
Also, 30% of its inhabitants are millionaires!
Ben, our guide, dropped us off right in the centre, outside Monaco casino. We had a walk around, and the only man in our group was of course admiring all of the insane sports cars which seemed to be on display all over the place.
We gave the casino a miss – although I’m sure it would have been fun to watch all of the millionaires gamble away their riches, we were on slightly more of a budget, and all starting to get a bit hungry!
La Turbie
Last but not least, it was time for our final stop. And what a stop it was!
Ben drove us up the windy mountain road towards a small town called La Turbie. What awaited us was the most spectacular view over Nice, Monaco and across to Italy that you could possibly imagine.
All alone at the top of the mountain we collectively gasped as we came around the corner and saw the view in front of us.
With the sun setting, none of us could believe how beautiful the view was, and sat looking out to sea admiring it.
We walked back down the road to where Ben was waiting for us, and jumped in the car, ready to head to a local restaurant for some dinner.
As the sun set over the Côte d’Azur, all of us were so grateful to our guide for taking us to the most incredible spots and stunning viewpoints we could possibly have imagined.
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You look so sweet in this dress! I’m really enjoying your blog. Thanks so much for sharing all your adventures xx
Author
Thanks so much! Glad you’re enjoying reading! 🙂