Côte d'Azur: The French Riviera ~ ELC

I had the chance to travel to the French Riviera for Carnivale during the first weekend of March. The French Riviera has to be one of my favorite places in the world. Traveling from city to city was so easy by train and each town had a beautiful coast. We flew into Nice and stayed there for 2 nights, travelled to Menton and Monaco one day, and Cannes another. It was so refreshing to see the ocean, sandy beaches, beautiful cars, clean streets. Usually I don't travel in big groups, but this time I flew out of the country with 14 other people. I thought it would be madness to roll that deep but it actually wasn't too bad. During the day, we split into smaller groups and at night and had the time of our lives.

1. Nice, France

In France, Nice is called Nice la Belle, "Nice the Beautiful" and now I know why.

There is something beautiful about this city that cannot be put into words.

The city was adorned with beautiful lights and decor.

Carnivale is a big annual festival in Nice. You can see all the set-up for the parade in the distance.

The theme for Carnivale in Nice was "King of Sport" to celebrate the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Everyone was masked, dressed up and attacking each other with silly-string (got hit quite a few times).

We were looking for a nice place to eat dinner and of course, get trapped in the tourist part of town. We settled at this restaurant where we were so excited to have authentic French cuisine. After chatting with the waitress for some time, the owner comes out. He's Italian. Perf. Drink to that.

Complimentary glass of wine thanks to our new Italian friend.

The food was good nonetheless. First order of delicious calimari.

My main course, seafood pasta.

I can never refuse sweets after dinner.

Here we are at our hostel dining area, hanging out before we head out to party it up in Nice.

Group shot of all the girls in Nice!

2. Menton, France

We took a train to Mention, a city that is situated right at the Franco-Italian border. We weren't even supposed to come here, but we met a Scottish family on the train who were heading here and were telling us about an "orange festival". We were curious & followed them lol.

Citrus everywhere! Their annual lemon festival where they featured walls, buildings and monuments created entirely from fruits.

The Eifel Tower made out of oranges.

Gorgeous assortment of bouquets.

Seafood galore.

Seafood pizza.

The coast of Menton on a rock peninsula.

3. Monte Carlo, Monaco

Monte Carlo should just be synonymous with ballin' out of control. Monaco is a sovereign city state bordered by France on all 3 sides. It's also the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. It's a major banking center holding over 100 billion euros worth of funds. In other words, this place is insanely baller.

The entire area was extremely lavish and gorgeous.

These cars were posted right in front of the Monte Carlo Casino. Yachts and luxury cars left and right.

View from the Monte Carlo Casino.

The famous Monte Carlo Casino, often associated with James Bond.

Our hostel offered us really good deal for one of the nights, party bus transportation to Monaco and VIP entrance to a nightclub...with special guest appearance of "Big Al" (no one knew who he was).

We were all supposed to get dressed up in masks and costumes for Carnivale, but we all gave up towards the end. Declan on the other hand decided to be the Joker.

We hopped on a double-decker bus that provided transportation to Monaco from Nice & back. The bus was bumping all of our favorite songs, passing out free shots, people were singing and dancing and kissing and hugging. It was a hot mess.