Tag: nice

You need more sun? Last week we went to Nice by night train for 5 days, to visit my parents and catch a bit of nice weather during these autumn days.

We spent our days watching the sunrise while swimming in the sea, having a good morning run, enjoying some musea during the rain, and lots of lunches and dinners in the port and old city center of Nice.

When you go, you should immediately buy the 15 Euro museum pass allowing you to go into most of the museum for 4 days in a row. Whenever there would be a bit of rain, we would jump inside a museum: Villa Masséna, The Museum of Photography Charles Nègre, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, and many more.

To get to Nice, we traveled by Eurostar from Brussels to Paris after work on Tuesday evening, and jumped straight on the night train to Nice where we arrived on Wednesday morning around 9 am. With an early check-in in our Airbnb by the port and late checkout on Sunday we could really take the most out of it. We took the night train back on Sunday evening around 19h to Paris. On Monday morning we switched stations to Paris Gare du Nord (by taking the subway with a direct line for 15 minutes) and were back in Brussels by 10:30. If you go with a stroller, we do recommend taking a practical travel/folding one and not your regular big one which will be too difficult to store on both the highspeed and the night train.

We have plenty of recommendations for places to go in Nice, some of our highlights were:

• Colline du Chateau – nice views and a playing ground. With a stroller, you can go up with an elevator.
• Le Negresco – you are only allowed in if you consume something: we walked in, asked if they could reserve a table in La Rotonde and walked around inside, with August enjoying the incredibly nice playing cars
• Villa Masséna – amazing architecture and garden, next to Le Negresco
• Museum of Photography Charles Nègre
• Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain – in the park, nice views from the top
• Walk to Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez – the Cimiez Monastery – Matisse museum = really nice day trip! if you go there, stroll around the Ancien Hotel Regina and all the other beautiful buildings in the neighborhood
• Stroll around the old city center
• Walk to Villefranche-sur-Mer via the coastal trail “Sentier du Littoral”
• Swim at the little beach Plage des Bains Militaires / Le plongeoir
• Take a morning run along the Promenade des Anglais and a swim in the sea
• Take a morning run towards Villefranche-sur-Mer via the coastal route “Sentier du Littoral”

Restaurants

• Le petit Lascaris – a very cozy and affordable dinner
• Clay – for a fancy brunch
• Campo Caffe – for a good basic brunch on a nice terrace
• Little Boho – for a good salade niçoise on a nic terrace
• Peixes – for amazing fish
• La Pachamama
• Chez Acchiardo
• La Barque Bleue – cozy family dinner
• Maison F – nice terrace next to the port
• La Rotonde – for a fancy lunch, allowing you to stroll around inside of the famous Negresco hotel on the Promenade des Anglais

We stayed all together at a very nice 2-bedroom airbnb close to the port, with a big terrace and walking distance from all the highlights.

In general, there’s still quite some sun in November and December, and while bathing in November the sea water was not even cold. So, if you are looking for a good getaway to the sun during wintertime, Nice might be your place to go!