A Rainy Weekend on the French Riviera

When I think of the French Riviera, images of sunny streets and bikini-clad French women come to mind. I picture couples walking arm in arm under the palm trees and having coffee at outdoor cafes under the sunshine. But it’s February and instead of sunny skies, I watched rain run down the airplane window when I arrived. Bummer? Maybe. I didn’t really know what to expect from Nice in the rain. Thankfully, it is still quaint and beautiful, even under umbrellas. 

After living on a relatively small island for the last few months, arriving in Nice felt more like London or New York than the lazy seaside town that it is. People were speaking Spanish. And Chinese. And English! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner simply because we could. We ate burgers and strawberry daiquiris and it was amazing. They even had a teenie tiny little shop which sold a few souvenir t-shirts. It was almost like the one in Times Square. 

We started our day in Nice by wandering through the flower market. By running from flower stall to flower stall, we stayed relatively dry. Even though our original breakfast plans didn’t pan out, we ended up treating ourselves to a giant, delicious brunch. And we picked the perfect spot called Pain & Cie. As we ate, we looked out the window and watched the people run past the flower market. For the rest of the day, we visited the modern art museum, the natural history museum, and did some shopping. All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday!