In this episode, we share the whirlwind 3-day journey through the stunning South of France! We explore the vibrant streets of Nice, get lost in the winding medieval alleyways of Eze Village, and relax by the colorful coastline of Villefranche-sur-Mer. We’re sharing the best pharmacy skin care to buy, beach clubs to hang at, and places to eat on a French Riviera escape + giving some tips for navigating medical emergencies while in the area.

Nice hotels we recommend:

• Hotel Splendid – Central location near the train station and beach 
• Mercure Hotel – Good location near the water

Let this episode be a lesson…don’t forget your travel insurance!

Check out our curated list South of France Experiences for all the tours and activities we recommend in the French Riviera.

Find a great flight deal to Nice by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and watching the daily flight deals (points & cash) that are emailed directly to you! Use our promo code TS10 to get $10 off your first year subscription.

3 Days in South of France – Episode Transcript

0:34

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast.

Today we are taking you to the South of France to explore as much as we can of the French Riviera in just three short days.

0:54

Kim, I’m really excited to get into this episode.

This was a trip with just you, me and Brittany.

We’re not on it, but I shouldn’t say just you.

My sister and OG squad member Zaina was on it with you as well.

But you’ve been talking talking about going to the South of France for a really long time.

1:12

We’re talking about the South of France here.

You also combined it with Mykonos, which we’re going to have another episode on later.

But I’m really excited to see if the South of France really met your expectations of what you’ve always dreamt of.

I know there was a snafu.

We’ll get into it.

But yes, excited for this episode nevertheless.

1:29

When I think of you, Kim, I know you love beach clubs, laying out on the beach, eating fancy food, going out for drinks, and so this all just screams South of France and that this is like your type of trip.

So I’m really excited to dive into it and hear all about what you did.

1:45

There are some places in the South of France I would love to visit myself, so maybe I know you want to go back.

We can do that together one day.

Oh I’m going back.

I love the South of France.

I would love to live there.

I think it’s not as busy and popular in the winter time.

2:02

From what I’ve heard from some of the locals who live in the nearby villages.

They said it’s very quiet, very sleepy outside of those summers seasons.

But summer in the South of France is where I belong.

I absolutely loved it there.

Three days was obviously nowhere near enough time.

I would love to go back and spend like 2 weeks there and just go to a lot more of the destinations because it is amazing and.

2:24

When we say South of France, I know you’re going to start talking about the cities that you went to and some of the other main cities and places to go that are down there.

But realistically, geographically, if someone is not very map inclined, the South of France is on the Mediterranean in that region.

2:39

So you’re on the Mediterranean.

So when you say that, oh, during the winter, the locals say it’s sleepy.

It makes sense.

Winter on the Mediterranean, especially in that region of Europe, it’s cold.

But come summertime, spring when you are here and summer, it’s just perfect weather and it’s the quintessential European vacation South of France.

2:57

So I had planned to go to South of France in my head for so long, I had my heart set on 2025.

I’m going to the South of France.

The reason it ended up only being a few days is because I had booked a retreat in Mykonos that you just mentioned, Jamal, We’re going to talk about that in another episode.

3:13

But I knew if I’m going to this region, there is no way I’m not achieving my goal of going to the South of France.

So even if it’s just a few days, I’m going to see as much as I possibly can.

And there’s a lot to see here, right?

There’s Sandra pay Con.

There’s Nice, which a lot of people stay in there is EZ via franchise Sumair.

3:34

There’s a ton of other small village coastal areas here.

There’s Monaco, technically its own country, very close actually to the South of France.

There’s Menten, which is a border town that is near Italy.

You can even go into Italy and kind of hit this Riviera area.

3:50

So when I say I want to go back for two weeks, I want to see all of that.

And this was your first time in France, right?

This was my first time in France and so Zana was already going to be in Europe and she said that she would meet me in the South of France.

She’d never been there either.

4:05

She then sprung on me.

Hey, would you like to meet in Paris?

And I’ve never been to Paris, of course.

So instead of spending four days in the South of France, we decided to meet in Paris on a Saturday.

Even though I could only have 8 hours in Paris, I wanted to see what I could and then we would take the train to Nice.

4:23

So we did a mini episode on Paris already, so you can go back to last week’s episode and listen to that in chronological order of this trip.

So let me start with what the plan was supposed to be and then I’ll kind of get into how the plan happened.

4:39

And spoiler alert, this trip did not go as planned.

Yeah, just watching your stories on our social media, I was like, yeah, I think we deviated a little bit here from the plan, but you just got to roll with it and make the most of it.

Yes.

4:54

It’s a good lesson.

Things happen when you travel unexpectedly and you just got to roll with the punches sometimes.

Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

So I know you have a good story.

Well, I shouldn’t say it’s a good story.

Interesting story of what all unfolded.

But yes, let’s hear what the plan was and what happened and how it deviated.

5:14

Yes.

So plan was supposed to be, you know, meet up in Paris that Saturday, take the train to Nice, get in pretty late, maybe like 11:00 PM, have champagne waiting for us in our Seaview room.

Sunday we were going to go to Monaco.

It happened to be the last day of the F1 Grand Prix, so we were going to be there during that race, which was epic, right Then we were going to take the train down to ES Village and then hit up via Franchise Soumair on the way back into Nice.

5:42

Monday we were going to do a nice day, explore Old Town, go to a beach club, have a nice time, and then Sunday we were going to go to Santa, pay and spend as much of the day as we could there.

We didn’t hit all of those places, nor in that order, but we’ll get into that in just a second here.

So before you dive into what you actually really did give our squaddies, just some tips for visiting the South of France.

6:03

Tip #1 I think the best time to visit is going to be your summertime June through August.

When I was there it was late May and it was still somewhat chilly, like we needed a sweater, especially at night.

It got cool and some of the beach clubs also don’t even open until June.

6:20

Some actually don’t even open until July.

So if you’re really looking for that quintessential beach club South of France, like vibe and energy and and the people that come along with it, I would push the trip out a little bit farther into summer than I did it.

Uber is available.

6:36

They they do have a metro system as well that is very easy to navigate.

I didn’t use it myself because we were only there a couple days and we didn’t really need it, but we did use Uber quite a bit and the Ubers are available.

They’re not always reliable though.

I will say that you might have to wait 5 minutes, You might have to wait 20 minutes.

6:55

Sometimes they cancel on you.

There are taxis around town as well that you can hail a cab if you needed.

But it’s also a really walkable place, at least Nice where you will be staying.

Staying most likely as your central base.

Nice is pretty walkable.

I will say, staying in Nice, stay near the train station.

7:12

If you’re planning to do a lot of day trips around the French Riviera, and you definitely will, then you’re going to want to stay near the train station just to make it easy to hop on and hop off.

Zana and I stayed at the Radisson Blue and I would not recommend staying at the Radisson Blue because it was quite a ways away from the central area of Nice, where the train station is and where Old Town is, where all the beach clubs.

7:35

It was almost an hour walk to there, which is a beautiful walk along the promenade.

But if you want to be more central, especially if you have a limited amount of time and you’re going to do day trips, then I would recommend staying near the train station.

I know normally we’re all pretty logistical when it comes to planning our trips.

7:52

And I know you just made this tip, which is a great one.

We say it all the time, stay near mass transportation and Europe trains are mass transportation.

Yes, you guys chose the Radisson Blue for a specific reason, even though you knew it was far from the train station.

Why did you guys do that?

8:09

We wanted an upscale hotel with an ocean view and that is what we got.

It was a really nice hotel.

It was a great breakfast buffet and I loved the balcony and waking up to seeing the ocean.

Like as soon as my eyes popped open, my sleeping eye mask came off ocean and it was gorgeous.

8:30

So for that reason I think it’s great.

If you were renting a car, then you won’t need to be near the train station, so stay at the Radisson Blue.

They don’t have the best customer service, I’ll say that.

I would say they’re upscale, but they’re certainly not a luxury hotel, although they think they are.

Good to know, So you chose vibes over practicality in terms of wanting to be on the ocean?

8:51

Yes.

And then come to find out, we did spend a bit more time at the hotel than we thought we would.

So we really enjoyed all of it.

There you go.

My next tip is try not to do too much.

I originally in my planning wanted to do a lot more than once I got through planning realistically realized could not do so.

9:12

I would say just plan to visit one maybe 2 towns per day.

Yes they’re very short distance train ride away from nice, but you’re going to want to spend time there.

Go slowly taking the sights, take pictures, enjoy popping to places you weren’t planning to go into and you don’t want to feel rushed.

9:29

So I would say like one to two towns per day.

The only exception maybe would be EZ and Via franchise Soumair because you could do the medieval walks and whatnot and then hit up the beach club later in the day.

But again, you know, just take it slower.

It’s a place to just enjoy, not rush through from thing to thing to thing.

9:48

And then if you’re planning to go to San Tropez, it is quite a ways away from nice.

It’s not easy to get to either.

There’s not a direct train route.

If you’re going to go, you have to go train, then bus or you can take a ferry.

The ferries have short windows of schedules.

10:03

It’s expensive to hire a private car, about 3 to €400 each way.

So if you are going to make it over to San Tropez, which you definitely should, then definitely plan to stay a night, two nights maybe more so that you can really enjoy it and not have to do it in a day trip.

10:18

I don’t think I would recommend it as a day trip.

You would miss the nightlife as well if you did it as a day trip.

And of course, you know San Tropez has nightlife.

Yes.

So this is what you’re going to have to add on your return trip to the South of France.

So Radisson Blue is a great place to stay.

10:34

Some other good places that you could stay that have a better location more central would be Mercure and Hotel Splendid.

Hotel Splendid was a good one that I noticed when I was walking around.

It’s pretty close to the train and close to the beach.

So I’m not sure what pricing looks on like on that one.

10:51

But as far as location it’s Primo.

I have a question for you about that Mercure that you mentioned, Kim.

So mercures are really popular all throughout Europe.

And Brittany and I, the first time we stayed at a Mercure actually was in France as well, but it was when we were in Shamani in the French Alps.

11:10

And you come across some luxury ones and some just, you know, average ones.

So I know you said it’s a good place to stay.

Were you saying that specifically because of the location or being in South of France too?

Was it more of an elevated mercure?

I didn’t go inside, so I don’t know, but it was a good location.

11:28

So I noted those two down Mercure and Hotel Splendid while we were walking around and I was like, oh, if I would have known the area, this would be a good place to stay.

Yeah.

OK.

That’s good to know.

And I just think another tip, good to know.

Like I said, I don’t want to say mercures are hit or miss because they’re good hotels, but some are a little bit more elevated than others.

11:46

And just being this region and what it is, I was curious if it was on that higher echelon, so to speak.

Well, I’m really glad you recommended these spots.

We’re going to put them in the show notes for potential places for you squaddies to stay when you do your South of France trip.

But Kim, why don’t you tell us how you got from Paris to Nice?

12:05

Yes, so Zaina and I had bought a 2 day Rail Europe pass, which is the way to go if you’re going to be doing a lot of train transit in France.

The Rail Europe pass was like $130.00 and it gives you 2 full days of unlimited train rides.

For some train rides like long ones such as Paris to Nice, you do have to reserve a seat on it and there’s a reservation fee that ranges in price, but for us it was about 12 U.S. dollars.

12:31

So we had this train planned for I think it was like 5:21 PM and while we were in Paris we got a little carried away with our timing and we ended up missing that train.

That was the last train from Paris to Nice that day.

The next available train we could hop on that night would be a 12 hour journey for some reason and would put us there in the morning.

12:53

So we’re frantically looking at other routes we can take.

Can we get a plane ride?

Can we get on a train to Con?

Can we like what other routes are out there?

And luckily we have this pass so we haven’t lost like a train ticket pricing.

13:09

We can book a different train.

And so it’s getting late though, and the trains kind of stop running at a certain hour.

So we’re frantically looking, we find a good route coming up in about an hour to Marsai.

So I guess I did visit Marsai on this trip as well.

We did get on that booking.

13:26

We reserved our seat, we got on it.

The trains are very comfy and nice.

Oh, I should mention this too.

When you do a reservation for a second class ticket on the train, you can’t pick your seat.

So if you’re traveling with someone else, you’re likely going to be seated somewhere separate from them.

13:42

But if the trains not full, you can move and sit next to to them.

So we did get on that train.

It put us into Marsai around 11:00 PM and I had scheduled an Uber to pick us up here, but that Uber did not show up.

I could see on the map they were there, but they cancelled and then another one picked it up and it was the same thing.

13:58

They were sitting down the block just holding it for some reason and then they eventually cancelled.

So that was frightening.

We’re two hours away from nice driving distance and we have no idea how we’re going to get there.

But luckily there were cabs sitting outside of the train station and we chatted with one and he gave a good price to get us to Nice, which was about what we were going to pay for the Uber.

14:20

What was that good price?

Tell me what a 2 hour cab ride from Marseille, France to Nice costs.

Well, this was an expensive trip.

I just calculated up all my expenses and probably the most expensive trip I’ve ever taken because of fun stuff like this.

14:36

So the standard price for that trip based on mileage and their rates would be around €575.

And you got it at a discounted price of. €400.

Steep price, but you know what you have to do, what you got to do to get to nice.

14:52

And the Uber was 350 and and we looked when we got dropped off the tracker in the taxi did say about 575.

So he was being honest and we did get a quote UN quote.

Good deal.

I’ll say.

15:07

So you, I mean if you went from 575 to about 400, I mean that’s over like. 404 hundred for a few minutes.

We literally missed the train by a few minutes.

Yeah, that’s one thing about those European trains is they do leave on time and so you got to leave yourself.

15:26

Zaina was saying when she was just in in Germany that they were all late and in Italy they were late too.

But here in France, just to know, they leave exactly on the dot.

Funny you say that that about Germany because in 2023 Brittany and I were in Germany and when I was doing my research on the trains, lots of forums that I came across was talking about how German trains were punctual.

15:49

But within the last few years, through some sort of thing that they changed or privatization, I don’t remember that they are no longer punctual in Germany.

But good to know in France they are still on time.

Yes, yes, they are so.

You were supposed to arrive to your hotel in the 11:00 hour.

16:07

What time did you actually get in?

We got there around 1:00 AM and our champagne was not in our room, which is another Ding on Radisson Blue.

It was supposed to be waiting for us on ice.

That’s right, because you and Zana were talking about before this trip, we’re doing it big.

We got ocean views.

We told them yeah, for the little bit extra that they offered.

16:24

We want champagne on ice when we get to the room and they gypped you guys on.

That you did not have it, the champagne, which was fine because we we were tired and we just went to bed anyway it’s.

The principle though.

I know we talked to them the next day, but more on that.

So Sunday, this was supposed to be our Monaco day and we were so excited.

16:43

We were really going to lean into slow travel in France and we went down to the breakfast buffet to have coffee and croissants.

They had cheeses out, they had charcuterie meats out.

They did have an English style breakfast with scrambled eggs that were really weird looking, like very mushy, not like firm eggs.

17:04

Yeah, I can’t do that.

Yeah, it wasn’t good.

They had beans and they had hard boiled eggs, but it was all about the croissants and the coffee here.

They had Nutella chocolate croissants.

The they had a really good juice here.

How are the meats and cheeses?

Meats and cheese is very common staple in Europe for breakfast.

17:21

In a place like France where they’re known for their cheeses and sometimes their meats too.

I would hope that was good.

Too.

Oh, it was good.

It was good.

I had it every morning.

So stay away from the English style breakfast that they’re trying to offer and just go with the true European style of coffee, croissants and meat and cheese.

17:36

Yes.

So we had a couple croissants, couple coffees, and then we’re like, you know what, let’s get ready and let’s go to Monaco.

It’s finished getting ready.

So we were originally planning to like go to Monaco super, super early in the morning.

You know, there’s going to be a lot of crowds for the race.

So.

But because we got in late, we decided to lean into slow travel.

17:54

So we go back up to the hotel, start getting ready.

We’re doing our makeup, curling our hair.

And all of a sudden I hear a screech and it’s Dana.

And she’s like, I don’t know what happened.

She’s like rubbing her eye and she like, shows me her eye, right?

18:10

Her eyes are brown.

Her one eye was blue and apparently she burnt her eyeball with a curling iron.

I don’t even know how you do that.

Like your natural instinct when you get anything close to your eye is to close it.

18:25

So how on earth did she burn her eyeball without burning her eyelid?

Her eyelashes.

That’s what I was wondering.

That’s a skill.

Yeah, she said.

She didn’t know what happened.

It just jabbed in like, OK, but this is a serious situation.

I know I saw the photos when you say her eye was blue like it looks like, and I’m sorry, Zana, because I know you’re going to be listening to this.

18:46

It looks like when you look at photos of cats or dogs when they have glaucoma, when?

They’re old like that.

They’re going blind.

Like, yeah.

Cataracts.

Yeah, that’s exactly what it looks like.

So she’s rubbing her eye and I’m like, OK and thinking in my head like, how serious is this?

I see her eye and I don’t really like alert her of it, but I’m like, OK, I definitely know that’s not good.

19:08

And I plug into chachi PT like I’m in Nice, France.

She just burnt her eye with a curling iron.

And what do I do?

And it says whatever you do, don’t rub your eye.

So I’m like, Zana, stop rubbing your eye.

And it says to put an ice pack on it.

19:24

So we got the champagne this morning.

They brought the champagne to our room.

So I use the ice from the champagne container and make her a little ice pack.

And I was like, put this on for 15 minutes and don’t rub it.

And so I’m hoping like, maybe that would help.

19:40

But after, you know, reading through ChatGPT more and more, I’m understanding the severity of the situation here and that it’s very likely going to have to be a hospital situation.

But I did see a ChatGPT said you could get eye drops for antibiotic and for pain.

19:55

And I’m like, OK, maybe we’ll just get eye drops and then we’ll be on our way to Monaco.

You got to be hopeful when you’re traveling.

You don’t know how serious it could be, right?

But tell us what happened after that.

How did you decide that the eye drops weren’t going to suffice?

Well, basically I described the situation to ChatGPT and I said you really need to go to the doctor.

20:15

So we finished getting ready.

I I curled the rest of Zana’s hair for her.

Love it.

And then we go down to the front, ask them for a hospital.

It’s a Sunday, so they’re like, there’s nothing open.

There’s no pharmacies open.

Like a lot of the hospitals are closed.

20:31

And I’m like, what?

But there is one main hospital in Nice.

It’s not in the Old Town.

It’s a little bit farther away.

So we get an Uber and the Uber’s telling us, oh, you’re going to have a four hour wait.

I bring my kids there.

It’s terrible.

Try to go to urgent care.

We go to urgent care.

20:47

The hot French doctor sees us right away and he takes one look at her eye and says you need to go to the hospital.

Oh no.

I even put in the translator, can you prescribe eye drops?

I think it says I can, but she needs to go to the hospital.

21:03

So we get back in an Uber, go to the hospital and they give us a number and they say you’re next on the list.

And we actually only had to wait like 10 minutes.

That’s not bad.

Yeah, it wasn’t bad at all.

We go back there, the ophthalmologist puts her in the machine, looks at her, puts drops in, scrapes off the outer layer of her cornea, finally gives us the results at the end basically saying it was a burn, but it wasn’t a serious burn, luckily.

21:30

And so for about two days, you’re going to obviously be in pain because we scraped off that cornea layer, but take these drops, you’re going to be just fine.

If I remember hearing the story correctly, when it happened Xana didn’t even know she was getting her cornea scraped when the doctor was doing it correct.

21:45

Like she just found out like after the fact.

Like oh, I just scraped your cornea off or part of it.

Well, she put her head in that machine where you rest your chin on it and then she put a light there and it looked like she was just like inspecting with AQ tip.

I didn’t even know that’s what she was doing either.

Well I’m glad it was not painful, that’s a plus for sure.

22:04

Then we went over to the pharmacy and got a bunch of eye drops, prescriptions filled.

So the great thing about the French pharmacy, in addition to the lack of weight, was that she didn’t have to pay anything.

Now, I don’t know if she’s going to get any type of bill because we did share passport information.

22:20

And if you ever have to go to the French hospital, bring your passport, I guess they will ask for it.

But there was no fee, there was no co-pay, there was no anything that we had to pay for at that time.

The prescriptions, I think she got four eye drop prescriptions and it was like €45.00 so.

That’s not bad, and I know this was not her first doctor’s visit on this trip.

22:40

I think it’s a good thing Zana did her traveling in her 20s because I don’t know if her late 30s are going to be good for her travel.

Oh yeah, because she, to Britney’s point, she was in Europe earlier, right?

Because you mentioned how she was going to be in Europe.

22:55

She was visiting her friend I sell in Germany and she got sick while she was there, ended up getting, I believe it was strep throat or something, lost her voice, laryngitis, whatever it was and had to go there.

So European Healthcare is good.

Apparently she didn’t pay a lot for any one of those things.

But like you said, to be determined on France, we don’t know since they asked for the passport information.

23:14

But it’s one of those things where maybe right now it’s looking like travel insurance wasn’t, but we don’t know since they have the passport.

But I recommend anytime you travel internationally, you should get it.

These smaller ones maybe won’t amount to anything in terms of cost.

But like this is a perfect example of how anything could go wrong while traveling.

23:34

A more serious bodily injury where you need to be life flighted or something.

So you shouldn’t ever underestimate the need for travel medical interest.

Seriously, we always think, Oh my gosh, I’m not going hiking in these crazy places.

I don’t need it.

But like, you could end up in the hospital from your own hotel bathroom.

23:51

That’s very.

Positive.

It’s very true.

Jamal is a health insurance agent and you all know that we talk about travel health insurance all the time, so we’ll link it in the show notes if you want to go with the one we recommend.

Zana should know better.

I don’t know why she didn’t get it.

So that took up quite a bit of the day and at this point I guess I don’t want to leave Zana because the eye that she injured was her good eye and she can’t even see out of the other eye that’s not injured, so she really can’t see.

24:19

I know, here’s some more irony.

I don’t mean to interrupt you on that one in about a week’s time.

So by the time this episode airs, she’s actually getting surgery on the eye that was unaffected by the burn because that eye is so bad and she’s practically blind.

So she really, literally almost blinded herself twofold on this trip here.

24:39

She was a trooper though, so I’m already in my head reformatting what I’m going to do because she needs an appointment on Tuesday and that means Tuesday.

Sandra, pay pans are not going to happen.

There’s no hospital for her to get a follow up appointment in San Tropez.

24:55

And so I’m like cancelling certain appointments or reservations that I had made, trying to rework schedules on, OK, I’m not going to go to Monaco today, so am I going to still be able to see it?

What’s going to happen?

I’m a really resourceful person.

I think I really excel in this right here.

25:12

I had to do it so much in Iceland and I’m really good at this.

This is not a skill I want to have.

I’m really good at it.

Really hard.

We’re good at it when things go wrong, that is true.

So we ended up going back to the hotel and just we’re going to do a pool day.

There’s a rooftop pool here at the Radisson Blue and it does have ocean views, so we wanted to enjoy that.

25:33

We posted up on some pool lounge beds and just relaxed.

I ordered Naparol Spritz hung out for a while.

I eventually did also get a Caesar salad.

And I’ll tell you what, the South of France does Caesar salads right?

I had multiple Caesar salads while here and they always do it with crispy chicken which is the only way I want it.

25:55

There’s hard boiled eggs in there and it always comes with a mini baguette on the side.

We need to step it up here in the US with our Caesar salad.

Hard boiled egg like so good, Jamal.

That’s my request for when we record together soon, no?

You want me to make a Caesar salad with a hard boiled egg and crispy chicken?

26:12

Is what baguette?

Understand and baguette.

So let me ask what is the baguette on the side?

And they don’t give croutons?

Or is it non?

Croutons.

There’s croutons and always comes with not one but two mini baguettes.

I love it.

All right, well, well, I will take a note and hopefully I can replicate it.

26:28

Ironically enough, we.

Have a picture?

Eaten at the original location of where they created the Caesar salad.

People think it’s a European thing.

It’s actually a Tijuana, Mexico thing.

That’s a fact.

You can Google it.

We’ve eaten the original.

The original is Play Jane.

It’s just the sauce, salad and crouton.

26:44

But in terms of like the dressing, I’m just curious real quick, where does this one stack?

I loved the dressing and like there’s a little hint of anchovy of course, but I loved it.

I had two different Caesar salads while here and they were both really good.

It’s good to know.

Hey Squatty, if you want 50% off an itinerary, all you have to do is write a written review on Apple podcast, send us a screenshot and we will DM you a code for 50% off.

27:09

Then you just go to our website, shop Travel Squad podcast and pick out any itinerary you choose, use the code and get 50% off and download it right away.

After we hung out at the pool for quite a while, we decided to go to EZ.

27:25

I was going to go no matter what, but Zaina was a trooper and she wanted to go too, even though she couldn’t see as the medieval town.

Just a short train ride from Nice.

We ended up taking an Uber because when you take the train to ES, it drops you off at the bottom of the town.

27:43

Then you have a one mile hike up to the medieval village and we were a little bit facing sunset time here.

I think we were going at about 6.

Sunset was at 8:30, so we didn’t want to do that walk.

Dana can’t even see where she’s walking.

So we took an Uber all the way up to the village of ES and I would definitely recommend you go to ES.

28:03

Now the South of France, you’re thinking ocean and beach clubs and and that, but ES is a really cool break from that and a very old place like I love you guys know, I love ancient ruins and this gives me that vibe.

28:19

They’re just medieval alleyways.

You just get lost in the winding places like you, you just wander and walk.

Now there’s a lot of art galleries there.

There’s some restaurants in there, different shops that sell things.

We were there towards the end of the day, so not a lot was open, but it’s a beautiful place to just hang out.

28:38

And then there’s all these like stairways and windows built into the big stone walls, and through those windows you can look out and see the ocean and it’s really cool.

You know, Kim, I have never ever heard of as as anywhere in the South of France.

28:53

I mean, you hear of central pay com on nice, but I just googled this as you were talking about it and I would say you put it into words in a really good way as exactly what you described is what I’m seeing.

Very medieval ish.

And it looks like it’s on a hill too.

29:08

So you get to climb up and the windiness of it and it’s like really pretty.

And then you have the overlook of course then of the Mediterranean and the water.

So I know you said it’s not really the beach that you think, but you have medieval and still the Mediterranean right here.

It’s really beautiful.

29:24

Were you able to watch watch the sunset from an elevated point at all while you were here?

There is not a sunset to watch.

The sun doesn’t set over the ocean, so it kind of just gets dark.

OK, So what else did you do in as while you were there?

As we were walking through these beautiful alleyways of the medieval village here, we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant in a cave.

29:47

And I love caves.

I know you love caves.

But here it was just like a really cute barrel looking door and then a very like long narrow hallway esque cave restaurant.

It’s called Lata Verne.

The prices were pretty reasonable for the French Riviera.

30:05

We went in, we sat down.

There were tables on both sides.

It could probably fit, I don’t know, maybe 10 tables on each side so they can cram a lot of people in there.

They also have live music on certain nights.

The night you went, did they have any?

No they didn’t.

30:21

They had it the night before.

They have a little piano and they’ll sometimes have a guitarist in there.

They said the food was so good.

I would highly recommend you go here.

We got the artichoke truffle ravioli, a salami pizza and I got a red wine.

The red wine was only €6 for price setting.

30:38

For a glass or for a whole bottle?

For a large glass.

OK, that’s still not too bad. 6 year old for a very, very long.

Glass because the price is everywhere else for a glass of wine or champagne is like 15 to 25 euros.

What a steal.

I know.

30:53

And I think the artichoke truffle ravioli was like 25 or 30.

The pizza was maybe €15.00.

So pretty reasonable prices for this area.

And then that’s where we finished up our day.

We got an Uber back to the hotel, so we Ubered more than we would had we stayed near the train because it would be an hour walk or for a 10 minute taxi ride to the train station.

31:15

So at that point we’re like, we might as well just Uber to wherever we’re going.

The next day we actually did nice as I had originally planned.

We weren’t planning to do anything else on this day other than nice, so we kind of stuck with what we had planned.

We did our breakfast and then we actually walked the beautiful oceanfront promenade down to the main area here.

31:38

This promenade, you will always see people sitting on benches, running, skating, walking their dogs.

When we were crossing the street here to get to that side, there were two French ladies who saw us.

They asked Dana, what’s up with your eye, ’cause she made a DIY eye patch that just made her injury look 20 times worse than it actually was.

31:59

She was blocking light because the light kind of added to the pain.

But the eye patch that she made was not cute.

So everyone was staring.

So these two old French ladies ask us what it is.

And we’re now we’re like making shit up.

32:17

We’re like making hand motions of an explosion.

And the ladies like BBQ.

People are asking so much at this point.

And so the next question these French ladies ask is what do you think of your president?

Getting real crazy.

32:34

I know we’re like moving along with that one.

And so we have this beautiful walk down to the main areas of Nice.

And in this area, once you get off of the oceanfront promenade, we wanted to go see the Fountain du Soleil, which is this beautiful fountain in the middle of this square surrounded by gorgeous French architecture.

32:57

Like the buildings are so beautiful in France and it’s a beautiful statue with water coming out of it into this fountain.

Great place to take a picture.

It’s then the place Messina, and I know I’m not pronouncing that with a good French accent, so apologies everyone listening.

33:14

But it is their central square.

So a lot of people, there’s a lot of restaurants around this area, a lot of shopping around this area.

And one interesting thing they have are these very tall poles with statues of men sitting on top of them.

I saw one.

And then you keep walking and you see another one and another one and another one.

33:32

And I’m like, what are all these men sitting on top of these pulse for?

Is it part of like an art installation?

That’s what I was thinking so I ended up Googling it to find out and it is a bit of an art installation.

It’s called The Conversation a Nice by a Catalan artist Jomay Plensa.

33:51

Sorry for how I pronounced that.

There are 7 statues in total and they’re kind of looking at each other and it’s meant to represent a continent and symbolize communication between different cultures.

I thought that was so cute.

I remember seeing you post that on Instagram and I thought to myself, what unique art, you know, just seven people sitting looking at each other, all in different configurations and what not.

34:15

And obviously when you Google it, it could just be whatever, but then you Googled it and found out that there’s a meaning.

So I think it gives it a little bit more intrigue when you know that.

Yeah, I I love the meaning behind it too, because Nice does bring in people from all over the world.

It is a vacation destination for Europeans, Americans, people from other parts of the world, right?

34:35

And so to have this art representing communication between cultures, I thought was so nice.

And I wish we could see some more stuff like that around America.

But this is a great place to peruse.

Definitely give yourself some time to just unwind and relax.

Our hotel had the breakfast buffet included, so we did that.

34:52

But if your hotel doesn’t, I would recommend coming out here for brunch.

The way they have the restaurants all set up along The Walking paths, they have the chairs pointed outwards so they want you to people watch, they want you to sit there and enjoy food and drinks and smoke and just be a part of the bustle of the area here.

35:13

And I kind of wish that we did this.

So when I go back to Nice, I would stay more in this area and plan to dine out for breakfast or lunch or even dinner in this area.

Also do some shopping.

So the one thing I really, really wanted to buy in France was skin care.

35:31

Everyone talks about the French skin care from the French pharmacies and how it’s so good and Squatty’s.

I did this for you.

I went into all the pharmacies that I could to find the best products so that I could bring them back, talk about them on this episode and let you know which ones are good and which ones you need to get.

35:48

Not all pharmacies have all of these products.

Like the day before when we got Zena’s eye drops, they didn’t have any skin care products.

So you’re going to want to go to the pharmacies in this main area that are open on the weekdays and that are bigger and have skin care and hair products in them.

The ones that you’re going to want to basically everything from Caudalay, they have the best products and they have a really, really good eye cream, skin firming creams, moisturizers, like whatever your particular skin issues are, they have them.

36:17

Even the pharmacist will help you pick out certain things.

A313 is like a retinol really thick cream.

Definitely get that Enbrelise.

Get Enbrelise.

It’s like a moisturizer, but also a lot of makeup artists use it as a primer.

It will make your skin look like one of the those pretty French girls.

36:36

It’s so good.

The other thing is Nux, it’s a glitter body oil.

They have non glitter as well, but it’s almost like a perfumed body oil, but it’s a dry oil so you don’t feel oily.

Really, really good.

And it’s a French brand.

All of those are French brands.

That’s what you have to get when you go here.

36:52

How did you do your research to find out what skin care products you were going to buy and which brands were good?

I read a bunch of articles on the best skin care to get at the French pharmacies, and I had like screenshots what’s taken of certain products.

And when you’re reading the products, they’re in French, so you don’t always know what they’re solving.

37:10

So I relied a lot on the Internet pages that I found that describe the products.

And look, you can get these products in the US, It’s not like you can’t get them here, but they’re going to be more affordable there.

They’re going to have more options.

And it’s kind of fun to shop for them when you’re in France.

37:26

It’s like a thing to do when you’re here.

I was going to say, even when you’re in Paris or other places in France like Nice here as a good example, it’s meant to be strolled and walk and shopping is one of the things to do.

So even if you were just perusing, it would be a fun activity to just go and see the shops.

37:43

But you had a purpose, did some research, knew what you wanted, and let me ask you a question.

Can you tell a difference with these products?

Oh my God, A.

Couple uses.

I’m so glad that I got them too because I didn’t really bring much skin care with me on this trip.

And yes, 1000% especially the Ember lease.

38:01

That one is so so good.

I got several different eye creams and Oh my gosh the one from La Rouge pouche that is a dark circles eye cream.

It’s really, really good if you’re like a influencer, you take a lot of pictures, you’re a model or you just are on your vacation and you want good picks.

38:21

That one will be really good for under eye darkness and you know, you might have a lack of sleep while you’re traveling.

So you’re going to need that.

And then the Nux glitter body oil.

I’d never see that in the US.

So if you can get your hands on that, which you can, all the pharmacies have it.

38:36

Get that one.

I spent about an hour in this one particular pharmacy, probably spent like 200, two, 150 bucks on skin care and I would do it all over over again.

You wish you had a bigger suitcase to bring back more for yourself, I imagine.

Yes, I seriously messed up and thought that oh, I’m just going to do a carry on because I’m in Europe.

38:55

No, I should have checked a bag.

I really really should have.

I checked a bag for many of the legs along this journey.

Anyway, I bought a lot of stuff also in Greece.

So you know what guys?

I know everyone on TikTok wants to tell you to do a carry on bag for Europe.

Don’t listen to them.

39:12

Well, don’t listen to them if you’re going to be doing shopping, if you’re not going to maybe doing shopping, maybe handle the carry on, but you are do the shopping.

You know, if you know you’re going to come back with stuff yet.

We had a reservation made for 11:30 AM at La Castelle plus J Beach Club.

There’s a lot of beach clubs in Nice and they’re almost all next to each other.

39:30

Boom boom boom boom boom along the water so I don’t think you can go wrong with any.

I spent a lot of time analyzing them all.

Some of them weren’t even open yet in end of May.

I would recommend La Castle Plige because it’s at the very end of this route and it’s beautiful and the vibes were good.

39:49

The beds were amazing.

It’s about €30 for the bed rental all day and €7.00 for the towel rental so you can bring your own towel and save money if you wanted.

To but if you have a carry on bag then you probably don’t have room for a towel, yes.

So €7.00 isn’t actually bad, and then you don’t have to worry about carrying a wet towel with you or a towel with you all day anyways.

40:07

Yeah, I rented the towel because there was no room in my carry on.

So for the beach clubs, I imagine most of them are paid to rent the bed.

Yes, always.

And what are their price ranges for some of the beach clubs there?

Is 30 pretty standard or?

40:24

I think 30’s actually a steal because some of the other ones I saw could go up to 100.

Oh wow.

Yeah, and maybe the prices go up in higher season.

I’m not quite sure of that because it kind of blows my mind that it’s only €30, but this was a good one.

When you say beach club, you might think club, but it’s not really like that.

40:44

Maybe during higher season it’s more vibey.

It was actually very chill.

You go to your bed, you can order food and drinks from your bed.

You don’t really have to move.

I went into the water here.

It was really nice.

It was actually a very relaxing day and I discovered my new favorite drink.

40:59

Which is.

It’s a Rosa Spritz.

And what is?

That, yeah.

How does that differ than from an Aperol spritz?

There’s a lot of different spritzers.

I also had a limoncello spritz here so it’s a spritz is always always like some sparkling water and sparkling wine or champagne and then a liqueur.

41:17

The Rosa liqueur was like a mango grapefruit type combination.

I can’t remember exactly but it was like this orangish pinkish combination.

It was a really good flavor.

I would highly recommend that one.

I didn’t see it on any other menus though.

41:33

I was looking for it after this.

Didn’t get any food here because we had dinner plans but I did get one last drink and that was the frozen espresso martini.

It’s always a good staple to have.

You can’t get wrong with an espresso martini.

You need a little pep in your step once you get to around 4:00 PM after laying out all day.

41:52

Other than just hanging out at the beach club and literally enjoying the beach, the food, the ambience, the drinks, is there anything else that you guys did today in Nice?

I mean, I know you did the shopping, strolled around, went to the fountain area beach club.

But I know you said the whole point of the trip to at this point was to do slow travel.

42:11

And it sounds like you guys are really doing that.

And I think you would be doing this regardless of Zana’s injury.

I mean, I know you canceled the next a few places, but that seems like it was the plan is really just kind of see the sights, be one with the area and what you’re in.

Yeah, I mean, my perfect day is laying on a beach bed at a beach club all day long.

42:31

That’s my vacation, baby.

I don’t know if I need to go to a museum.

I don’t.

I’d love to learn about the local culture but I love a beach bed and just laying out all day so I was loving it today.

That’s.

Good.

We did have one big plan.

I had made a reservation at a very special restaurant called which I know I’m not pronouncing correctly, but it is an iconic restaurant that is set atop sea stacks in the ocean.

42:59

So there’s they’ve built like a bridge that goes from the Cliff side out to the sea stacks.

And then they’ve set up a bunch of tables along the sea stacks, both the top and towards the bottom, which I don’t think the bottom area is a very good location.

If they do seat you there or you want to be a top, the sea stacks.

43:14

Were you guys on top?

We were, thankfully, I had made a reservation for four, probably 3, three or four months in advance.

And you really do want to go at least one or two months in advance to make this reservation.

If you try to make it within a month, you will not be able to get in during high season in the summer.

43:31

As soon as you possibly can make the reservation here.

I didn’t know who the four people were going to be.

I just thought maybe me and Zana will make some friends and we’ll have an availability.

But we did end up actually connecting with Zana’s good friend, Old friend Layla, who she went to school with in Lebanon.

43:53

Layla was actually living out in Khan for many years since we saw her last in Lebanon, actually, right?

And so it was really nice that she was able to come down, meet us at Le Planchier and have dinner with us.

How was the food?

I love the food.

44:09

I actually saw someone’s TikTok recently that said that it was overhyped and the food wasn’t good.

Don’t listen to them.

It was good, just make your reservation.

I had a amazing seat.

We went just in time to see as the sunset.

Even though there’s no sunset it got dark and the food was great.

44:26

I got a steak with potatoes and a little bit of vegetables.

We had these really really good zucchini like fried zucchini pops as an appetizer and burrata as an appetizer.

We had a really great like lemon, almost like a lemon bar cake with meringue on top for a dessert.

44:44

Oh my God, it was so good.

But that all sounds really, really good.

I love lemon meringue.

And it’s an upscale restaurant, so you’re probably looking at, I don’t know, at least 100 bucks per person.

That sounds about right, especially for the type of ambience that you described, right?

I mean, they catch you too on where it is on the sea back and then of course your location beyond that and Nice South of France, so.

45:05

And that.

Makes.

Sense we leaned in, we got 2 apps, mains and a dessert and wine.

So when in France, you know what I mean?

You definitely might as well Squad is now is a good time to tell you all about our website, travelsquadpodcast.com.

45:23

If you haven’t been there, be sure to go to it, check it out and see all the resources that we have for you.

We have our itineraries there.

Some of them are free for you guys to do instant downloads on that way you can see and do exactly what we’ve done on our trips, get tips, advice.

45:40

Also on there we have our Amazon store so you can see all of our favorite travel products that we have for you.

Our recommendations as well as Viator Shop of all our favorite tours and things to do in locations that we’ve been.

So be sure to check out travelsquadpodcast.com.

45:57

Day three, the final day in the South of France, Zaina was sick again, so she was going to sit this day out.

I was not going to sit this day out, so I ended up going to Monaco.

I’m going to do a Mini episode on Monaco.

46:12

It is its own country, it deserves its own Mini, and so I’m going to kind of skip over that and continue on to other parts of the official South of France that I went to after Monaco.

Monaco’s only a 20 minute train ride from Nice, so you can catch the train in Monaco back towards Nice, which is what I did.

46:33

I didn’t come back to Nice though.

I stopped at Via Francais Soumair, which is a small village town on the ocean and it’s really, really cute.

I recommend staying here.

You probably could spend a a full day here and I’ll get to why.

46:50

Or if you only have a couple hours, you can see some of the highlights within that time as well.

So whatever you have time for, I would try to make a stop here because I thought it was really worth it.

The train puts you right at the ocean.

You don’t have to walk very far at all.

47:06

You literally just go down the stairs and you’re at the ocean.

So it’s super.

Convenient.

I know you had gone to Monaco earlier in the day, So what time did you arrive to this little town?

Yeah, good question.

I wish I would have arrived a little bit earlier.

I got here around, I want to say like 2 or 3:00 PM, which I would like I said I would have liked to come earlier, maybe somewhere around 11:00 AM.

47:28

So I have heard via franchise Sumair in this region, don’t know much about it but of course as you’re talking about it, I’m Googling it and one of the things I see are the bright colored buildings.

I’m seeing some oranges, some whites, some pastels, yellows, creams, Blues, etcetera.

47:45

Did Nice really have colorful buildings like this too along like the harbor area or is it more classical here?

Looks more Italian quite honestly of what I’m seeing in the building.

You know what, there’s a lot of Italian influence in this area because Italy is only, I think, a 25 or 30 minute train ride from Nice, the border of Italy.

48:04

So there’s a lot of Italian influence here in the French Riviera.

There’s a lot of Italian restaurants.

And no, I did not see any colorful buildings like this in Nice, but in franchise Sumer, that is one of the things to do is to walk along the oceanfront promenade and take in all these beautiful colorful buildings.

48:26

I imagine if you were actually out on a boat in the Bay Area, right there, you would have a much more beautiful view of all the colorful buildings together when you’re so far close to it, right, You can’t see the sprawl.

Appreciate it.

You can because it’s kind of a semicircle.

48:42

When you’re on the farthest point of the semicircle, then you have a better view of the buildings and you can see more of the colors next to each other.

But that walk is what you’ll do.

There’s restaurants right there, so it’d make a great place to have a dinner after being at the beach club all day.

And that’s kind of what I did.

48:57

I walked along this promenade here.

There’s also a citadel that you can go to and walk around, a very old citadel.

I didn’t do that.

I didn’t walk that far because I was a little bit on a time crunch, but I I saw as much as I could of this area.

The real reason I wanted to come here was because in all my research I read Nice has rocky beaches.

49:18

If you want a sandy beach, go to Con or via Froche Soumer and Nice beaches are rocky like they’re big rocks.

They’re not like small pebbles, they’re kind of big.

And so I wanted to go see what the sandy beach would be like here.

I saw it on some videos.

It looked really pretty.

49:34

It’s very close to Nice and they do have one beach club.

It’s a small beach.

When I went, it was full of people laid out on their own towels.

And then there’s a beach club and this beach club’s so beautiful.

It’s like themed with lemon.

So everything’s like yellow and white and beautiful.

49:49

And even the bathroom had beautiful decor inside to this theme.

There’s tables that you can eat at and then there’s tons of beds that you can lay at.

And so I rented a bed.

It was €45 for a bed and a towel here.

So a little bit more than what you paid for.

A nice, but the ambience and a sandy beach probably make it worth it.

50:08

The thing is, it wasn’t exactly the sand I was expecting.

For people saying go here because it’s a sandy beach, I was expecting what you would imagine a sandy beach would be.

I would say it was more small pebbles, sand and small pebbles.

Well I guess in comparison to boulders and nice and the the small little rocks is going to be sand.

50:28

OK, nice was not boulders, but they were like maybe half the size of your palm or your palm.

Size.

I know I’m exaggerating, I’m just making jokes over here, but that is upsetting.

If they say sand and then you get there and it’s more little small rocks, but at least you know, easier to lay on if you put a towel out.

50:47

I would.

Yeah, like the people laying in Nissan towels, I don’t know how they’re doing it, but here in VIA franchise Sumeri, you definitely could do that.

And I did go in the ocean here.

So as soon as I got here, I was so hot from walking around Monaco and then walking around and looking at the buildings here that I just immediately went in the water and I swam around.

51:07

I feel like the water here has more salt or something because it was like easy to float.

I don’t know, maybe it was in my head.

But I floated around here for quite a while, and then I saw that he was bringing my Aperol spritz and my Caesar salad on a big, beautiful wooden tray.

51:23

Which Caesar salad was better day 2 or the day before?

I think the day before this one actually did not have a hard boiled egg.

A hard boiled egg does it for Kim.

I’ll remember that when I make you yours.

But eating it on this big beautiful wooden tray on my beach bed right in front of the ocean like that was the best meal I’ve ever had with my upper all spritz.

51:48

And I was just I was a little solo day, which actually I want to talk about solo travel for a second here, because I know I did a solo travel mini and I said I wasn’t like in love with solo travel.

And I thought that the South of France would be a place where I wouldn’t want to solo travel because of all the beach clubs and the partying and all that.

52:07

And I still agree with that for nightlife.

But after doing this day on my own, I would definitely do the South of France alone.

And in fact, the fact that Zana wasn’t there, sorry, Zana, I enjoyed it.

Like when you’re doing your solo travel, you can do whatever you want on your your schedule.

52:22

Like I didn’t have to ask, hey, do you want to go to this beach club?

I went because I wanted to go.

I didn’t have to ask.

Like, hey, should we get a Caesar Sally?

Like, no, I wanted it.

I got it.

And that is a good feeling.

So then I took the train.

I wrapped up here.

They closed the beach club around I think 7:00.

52:40

So I wrapped up, went right up the stairs, got on the train.

This was the only time I went on the train that it was so crowded.

I’ve seen these videos on TikTok saying beware, the trains are going to be really crowded.

Hadn’t had that experience yet.

But on this one, like I almost didn’t get in when the door was closing.

52:57

Wow, and was your pastel valid for this day as well?

Yes.

So you could choose the two days.

So this was the other day I chose.

It was only a 7 minute train ride back to Nice, so it was fine.

Got there just fine and got off.

But I was like wow.

And the trains are really easy to navigate in this area because there’s one going one way, there’s one going the other way, and it does that route like sequentially throughout the day, all day long.

53:20

So you can always catch the next train.

And there’s always 1 going probably all the way like towards San Tropez, all the way towards Italy.

Did you do anything else to wrap up your day or you just headed back to the hotel and and that was?

Yeah, that was pretty much it packed.

We had early morning flights out the next day.

53:38

The Nisa airport was very close and for us it was like a 10 minute ride for if you’re central, it’s probably 15.

And unfortunately had to say goodbye to France and get on to Mykonos.

But you know, I’m going to be back.

I loved it here.

I want to go to San Tropez during the high season for several nights.

53:55

I want to go to Con, I want to go to Antibes and I want to do some SPA activities in France.

So I’m just curious in general, Kim, what what is your collective opinion on France?

Because I feel like everyone has this image of France in their mind to travel there for the first time and you hear it a lot.

54:15

Some people are very disappointed with it for certain reasons and some people love it.

I’m genuinely curious of your opinion because let me tell you something, Brittany and I went to France.

We went to Paris.

Paris was nice, but I thought I don’t see what the hype is about.

But then we were in Shamani and I loved it.

54:32

So I know it’s kind of really by region, but what was your your overall opinion?

I would like to go back to Paris and do a few days there and shop more and slow travel more.

So I liked it, but you know, I’m not like.

Dying to go back.

I loved the French Riviera and I will go back every year if I can.

54:51

I want to go back this summer actually.

Then I guess the overall theme and feel of our consensus as a podcast is go to Paris, you’ll probably enjoy it, but it’s one of those things where maybe all of us think it’s not the best, but other the regions of France that we have been to are shining.

55:07

France has a lot to offer outside of Paris.

Absolutely.

Squaddies, thank you so much for tuning into our episode this week.