“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air’s salubrity.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oh, how I love traveling! I just spent the most wonderful weekend on the Côte d’Azur in the south of France. Scrumptious!
I was visiting two of my sorority sisters, Jill and Darcie, who are studying in Antibes. My friend Blair and I took the train down on Saturday morning to go stay with them. We took the TGV (Train à Grand Vitesse), which is very speedy, apparently, although it didn’t seem to me to move any faster than a normal train. It was, however, so much nicer than any train I’ve ever been on in the U.S. – two levels, very clean, very safe and non-sketchy, etc., etc. Blair and I, since we booked separately, were assigned seats in different cars, but serendipitously a man asked to switch with me, and his seat was in the same car as Blair!
The train ride was about five hours long, and absolutely breathtaking! At first, Blair and I decided that the French countryside wasn’t that different from driving through the Midwest, save for the occasional chateau or castle one passes. Once we got to the coast, however – oh rapture! It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I’m not sure if that’s because I don’t get out a lot or what, but oh my goodness, I was in awe. Huge huge cliffs with beautiful pastel houses (red tile roofs) all up and down them, with the Mediterranean crashing on the rocks below. Fabulous! (Look at my pictures – a lot of the scenery ones that I took were from the train, although they don’t quite do the view justice.)
Needless to say, by the time we got to Antibes, I was jumping up and down in my seat, I was so excited. Darcie and Jill live in this adorable apartment with another girl from AU named Rosie. Their apartment is a five-minute walk from the beach, not a bad set-up for study abroad! Luckily, they had two couches for Blair and I to sleep on. When we got there, it was immediately decided that the beach was the best option! Darce graciously lent me one of her swimsuits, and we headed down to the beach. I can now say I’ve been in the Mediterranean, and it was frickin’ freezing. I thought it would be pretty warm, it being the end of the summer and that the sea is a “smaller” body of water…no dice. The beach itself was an experience, though. Toplessness is quite okay, apparently. I won’t go into detail, but I saw some pretty shocking anatomy, including a rather obese English woman who took her top off right in front of her teenage son. Awkward. In addition, an eight-year-old boy, completely naked, playing leapfrog with his bits and pieces bobbing all around. Pretty disturbing. Okay, I guess I went into detail. Sorry.
That night, we walked around Antibes and had dinner in the town’s open-air market. We had moules frites (mussels and fries), which I guess are somewhat of a regional specialty. I devoured them all, of course – yum! After dinner we went to the first absinthe bar in Europe, because none of us had ever had absinthe and apparently the bar is famous. It was really neat, if only because it was different – when you order absinthe, they bring it to you in this glass and then you take this spoony/strainer thing and put a sugar cube on it and rest it on the glass. After that, you put drops of water from this decanter thing onto the sugar cube on the spoony thing and it dissolves into the absinthe – very scientific. (See my pictures if you need a visual.) Unfortunately, this does nothing to remedy the foul taste of the absinthe itself – something in between grape Dimetapp and liquid Good ‘n’ Plenty, although it’s actually green. Foul. We drank it anyway, naturally. I hallucinated all night. (Only kidding – I’m pretty sure the hallucinogenic properties of absinthe are removed for it to be legal, although I did see this weird greenish fairy thing floating around…)
The next day, it was off to Monaco! We literally went to Monaco and back for 4 Euro and 80 cents. Amazing!
Monaco is, well, the type of place that makes you think marrying for money might not be such a bad idea. It’s everything you’d think – gorgeous yachts, gorgeous cars, gorgeous mansions, gorgeous people. While there, I toured the Royal Palace (small-ish but opulent), the Cathedral where Grace Kelly was married and is buried (shame on my friends who are reading this and asking why she’s buried in Monaco), and I saw the famous Monte Carlo Casino. (Note: the casino in Monte Carlo is so different from the ones in Vegas – you have to pay 10 Euro just to get in, and there is a dress code - a coat and tie is required in many of the exclusive gaming salons. Unfortunately, all of us were too cheap to pay the 10 Euro cover charge, in addition to the fact that our flip flops were quite unacceptable.) Outside, cars were lined up: Mercedes, Bentley, Bentley, Mercedes…it was funny, but typical. It was a really fun day.
Today, Blair and I took the train to Nice because Jill and Darcie had class, and our train back to Paris left from Nice anyway. Nice was…not nice. This morning was basically a torrential downpour – not the best weather for touring. When we got to the Nice Ville station, we got a locker to store our bags in, then went next door to the tourist office. We decided to take this Open Tour bus (due to the rain) that goes all around Nice and drops you off at key locations, for a mere 15 Euro. We trekked what seemed like miles to Musée Marc Chagall, where there apparently was a bus stop for this tour. By the time we got there, Blair and I were completely soaked, and lo and behold – no bus stop, and the museum was closed for renovation. Brilliant. After a few expletives, we decided to turn back around and head back toward the train station. (You don’t understand. This wasn’t rain. This was RAIN.) We stopped in a boulangerie for coffee and carbs, then at a shoe store where I got some black boots. (No judgment please – when I feel upset, buying something usually cheers me up. I was much perkier after I acquired some new winter footwear! Plus, they were very inexpensive.) Then, we went back to the train station where I was able to change out of my wet squishy tennis shoes into my fabulous new boots. (See? A both fashionable and practical purchase.) Après ça, we spent the afternoon in the train station. (Pretty much anything worth seeing in Nice is conveniently located really really far away from the station, and Blair and I were easily defeated by the fact that we couldn’t feel our feet anymore.) Needless to say, Nice was not my favorite. Ironically enough, the rain let up and it became a beautiful sunny day, oh, about 40 minutes before we had to catch our train – giving us just enough time to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING without missing our train. So, I am now very familiar with the Nice train station (it costs 50 cents to use the restroom and the price of a sandwich and Coke is 5 Euro, a café crème is 2.50). Oh well – it was an adventure, and Blair and I had a good laugh. I also happen to know where you can get very cheap chic boots.
One last thing to add to the adventure – I haven’t had a voice for 48 hours now. When I try to speak, all that comes out is a raspy squeak reminiscent of a 13-year-old boy in the throes of puberty. It’s fun, let me tell you.

‘til next time,
Squeaky