We arrived in Nice roughly on time on Thursday. Although it was already night-time, we spent some time wandering around the outskirts of the city, but truth be told, there wasn’t much to do there - most of what the city had to offer was found further in. The following day, however, we took a tram into the inner city to explore the old town of Nice. Personally, I find the architecture of the Mediterranean mesmerising, and Nice had no shortage of villas, churches, and old apartment buildings to admire. The cuisine didn’t fall behind either - after spending the morning walking around the old town, I tried pan bagnat - a local fish sandwich - and found it great. Generally, any locally sourced meal or french/italian staple I could find was made with great care, so I never had to operate on an empty stomach.

The next day, we decided to take advantage of France’s public transport, and hitched a train to Monte Carlo. The cheap SNCF day pass coupled with on-time trains with proper AC made for a very pleasant trip. Monte Carlo itself was fantastic too; the tight urban sprawl and daunting verticality forced us to walk uphill everywhere, but the sights were worth it. Once again, the old town had many sights to see, and we decided in advance to visit the Museum of Oceanography. While Monaco was definitely more on the expensive side when it came to the Cote d’Azur, the clean streets and well kept buildings outside, as well as the quality museum exhibits made it worth it.

On our last day, we spent some more time in Nice. We sampled more of the architecture, including the bizarre Tete carré, which particularly was an interesting sight in-person. We visited a few more museums, notably the Masséna (a museum of local history) and the Museum for Asian Arts (hosting both historic and contemporary Asian art).