NEW YEAR ON COTE D'AZUR

We wanted to spend the new year somewhere special somewhere we have never been before, we didn’t want to go to a more traditional new year’s destination like Vienna, Salzburg… Instead we decided to go somewhere warmer but not too far from Slovenia so we chose to go to the Cote d’Azur. More specifically to Cannes. 

We spend four beautiful days on the Cote d’Azur not just in Cannes but we made some day trips to the other cities on the Cote d’Azur. 

The reason why we really chose to go to the Cannes

We have a really tight budget for traveling and because of that, we are always on a search to find the next cheap travel offer. And this was an offer we didn’t want to miss. So we packed our bags and board a bus to Cannes. We drove all night and in the morning we were able to see one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen near Savona (Italy). 

Monaco

The sights from the sunny highway were amazing but noting couldn’t prepare us on a beautiful scenic ride on the road descending toward a small city-state of Monaco. 

Upon arriving in Monaco we first walked around the upper old town We saw Musée Océanographique de Monaco, Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Prince's Palace of Monaco

(Le Palais des Princes de Monaco) and looked down at Monte Carlo from Monaco Palais Belvédère’s viewpoint. 

Later we also walked past Port Hercule and a little bit up to the Monte Carlo Casino (Casino Monte-Carlo). It's a very unique experience standing in front of the Casino Monte-Carlo and just watching all those rich people driving their luxurious cars around beautifully decorated Casino Square.

Unfortunately, we had to head back quite quickly if we wanted to see the changing of the guard ceremony that takes place at Palace Square every day at 11.55 am.

After a quite long performance, we bought some souvenirs at closeby shops and walked to another beautiful viewpoint (Vue panoramique sur Monaco - Fontvieille).

We spend the rest of our time in Monaco at Saint-Martin Gardens (Jardins de Saint-Martin).

Drive from Monaco to Cannes went quickly as we watched beautiful scenery through the window.

Cannes

Upon arriving in Cannes we walked past some of the main attractions like Palais des Festivals where they have the Cannes movie festival, we’ve also seen hands pressed into the concrete blocks around Palais des Festivals and red carpet stairs that were full of people wanting to get a picture on the stairs. We continued our walk around Cannes in the amusement park and Christmas market until it was time to check into the hotel.

We were staying in Ibis Budget Cannes Centre Ville, the hotel rooms were small, nice and clean. We also liked the location of the hotel, because it was just a short 10 min walk to the beach. 

We were tired because of lack of sleep from the previous night and walking around all day so we rested for a bit in the room before heading on a short walk around the city to see the Cannes at night.

Day trip 

The next day we headed on a day trip. First, we went to Grasse, where we took a tour of Parfumerie Fragonard and their historic factory. As soon as we stepped into a building we got overwhelmed with all the beautiful smells in the factory. The tour short but very informative and we learned a lot of new things about perfumes and smells in general. We also had a chance to buy the highest quality perfume by factory prices. Later we also went to see the old town of Grasse which was very small with beautiful streets.

Nice

In the afternoon we continued our day trip to Nice, the biggest city on Cote d’Azur. On our way to the Nice city center, we drove on Promenade des Anglais (English Promenade) to the Fountain of the Sun and from there we walked through the city center.

We stopped at the cathedral (Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice), we walked past Christmas market and walked on the covered river (Le Paillon), we also walked through narrow streets of the old town until we stopped at the Nice market (Cours Saleya market).

As we were quite hungry we went into Pôp-ô-thym to try some of their gelates. (More about what we eat there in one of the upcoming blogs - Gluten-free on Cote d’Azur)

After lunch, we went to the great panorama Nice viewpoint and Point de Vue Colline du chateau viewpoint in Ancien Chateau park.

To end our short visit in Nice we went to the beach before heading back to Cannes to prepare for the longest night in the year.

New years eve 

New year in Cannes was something amazing, people were gathering on the beach, music was playing on the speakers and everyone was happy. Exactly at midnight beautiful fireworks with musical backgrounds went up and lasted almost 20 minutes. Soon after the crowds disappeared back home or into bars, which were mostly reserved. 

On the first day of the new year, we slept in a bit, but after that, we headed on a short hike to Parc naturel forestier de la Croix des Gardes. We were amazed by plant diversity in the park and the number of flowering plants that weren’t just in the La Croix-des-Gardes but on all Cote d’Azur.

On our way down to the city, we stopped at the beach and dipped our feet in the Mediterranean sea on the first day of the New year.

Back in the city, we went on lunch to Bella Storia (More about what we eat there in one of the upcoming blogs - Gluten-free on Cote d’Azur). 

We spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach watching all those big and beautiful yahtyachts and daydreaming how fun would be to travel the world in one of them. We enjoyed our last sunny but quite a windy day on Cote d’Azur until the sunset when we headed back to our cozy hotel room.

It was a relaxed last day on Cote d’Azur as we were heading back home the following morning.

On the last day we woke up early and decided to go watch a sunrise at the beach, unfortunately, it was a little bit cloudy.

On the way back we stopped at the charming small village of Eze, where we wandered around the beautiful streets. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to the Le Jardin Exotique, a garden with a beautiful viewpoint over the Cote d’Azur.

After a long 8-hour bus ride and a few movies later we were back home with new memories of our travels.

V.