Nice, Eze, and Monaco

Yesterday was a long, exhausting, fun, exciting, interesting, etc. type of day. Our CEA program took us on an excursion to Nice, Eze, and Monaco.

The first stop was Nice. We took a tour around the city via bus, and after a bit, got out to walk. Nice was originally Italian, so the old town of Nice was very Italian looking with narrow streets. I thought it was very pretty. We stopped at a few churches as well. We had some free time at an open air market. I ended up buying a cook olive oil holder thing. We also walked over to the beach, which was very pretty. There aren't many people out on the beach this time of year, but there were a few people on the beach and a couple in the water. Unlike Antibes, Nice has pebbled beaches. I thought Nice was very pretty, but I am glad I ended up in Antibes since it is a bit smaller and easier to navigate.

Next was the village of Eze. It was very cool, made of stones and what not. There were a lot of vines and it looked pretty old. In Eze, we went to the perfume manufacturer. They showed us how they make them. I thought it was interesting that the guy who makes new purfumes can only work for 2-3 hours a day, or he starts to get confused (they said that is why it takes so long to make a new fragrence). We had the opportunity to buy perfume, and one of them was the most amazing smell I had ever smelled in a perfume (I didn't buy it since it was 19 euros for about a half ounce bottle.)

Finally we got to Monaco. I thought it was amazing how small it was (second smallest country in the world). It is also very expensive to buy houses there. I think they said it is about 25,000-35,000 per square meter of house. Monaco seemed a lot like France, just more updated (like the paint on the houses all seemed new, yet the country still looked old). Apparently the country has no direct taxes, which is interesting. We spent some time in the capital, Monaco Ville. When we were done walking around there, we went to Monte Carlo. The drive there was part of the same road as the Formula 1 race. Monte Carlo was the place packed full of super expensive cars. I went inside one of the casinos, but it was quite different than I expected. It was super luxurious, but very quiet. Given the time of day and year, there weren't many people in there. I can now say I have gambled in Monte Carlo, but I lost 5 euros. The tables had a minimum 10 euro bet, which I thought was super high. Later we were told the other casino is more lively and similar to a typical casino.

10 hours later, we finally got back to Antibes. I was super exhausted, and ended up sleeping for 12 hours :)