Step 1: England to France

The first leg of our epic train journey begins in England as we hop in the train to London which will take us to Paris and down to Nice all in one day. We arrived at the beautiful train station in Nice.

Then we checked into our lovely hotel in the heart of the City.

The beaches here are lovely but rocky, not sandy. The different colors of Mediterranean blue in the sea and sky are stunning.

From Nice, we took several side train journeys. On the first day we went to Cannes. This was disappointing as the Cannes Film Festival is happening soon and the entire waterfront is under construction for VIPs. We did climb up to the castle on the hill to take photos and had a refreshment in the harbor.

We then went to Antibes which we liked much better. Can’t remember why but I don’t have any photos of that part of the Cannes-Antibes-Nice journey.

Since Nice was in the middle of our French Riviera trip, after our day trip to Cannes-Antibes, the next day we went the other direction to Villefranche-sur-Mer and on to Monte Carlo in Monaco.

Chapel on the waterfront in Villefranche.

You are not allowed to take photos inside the casino. It was really nice and opulent. There is a dress code at night but not during the day. It cost 38 euros to get in but you each get a 10-euro coupon for slots or a drink. We chose a glass of champagne each so rather than pay 20-euros a glass, it only cost us 10 each. Barry wanted to bet it all (20 euros) on a single spin of the roulette wheel and I picked black and lost:( No matter, it was the highlight of Monaco as the rest was very posh and more modern than I would have thought.

That was it for our 3-day French Riviera excursion. We hopped on the train and headed for the Italian Riviera for our next adventure.

France to Italy Part 1

From beaches to castles to home again