24 Hours: Nice, France (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 1)

The first time I went to Nice in July 2018, I wasn’t impressed and I didn’t understand what the fuss was all about. But the second time, I saw more of the city and discovered the charm. The first time was somewhat of a business trip and I was solo. The second time I was with my second-born child Finn and despite the jet lag, we had a great time.

Nice was the first stop on our European adventure and after a brief stop in Frankfurt to change planes, we arrived at our hotel, the Mercure Nice Marché aux Fleurs, which is part of the Accor family of hotels. I’m a huge fan of the Mercure hotels in Europe. They tend to be charming, well staffed, moderately priced, and in good locations.

This was my third time staying in this hotel and it is on Promenade des anglais, right across the street from the beach. During my first trip, I made my way across the busy street to the rocky beach and stumbled down to put my feet in the Mediterranean. This trip, we decided it was too crowded and we weren’t up for navigating both people and the very rocky beach.

The challenge with the first day for us Californians in Europe is staying awake. We had dinner plans with a friend at 7:30 and needed to keep moving after finding some lunch.

Right behind the hotel was a street with a number of restaurants. As was going to be a theme for us during the trip, we were trying to find food in France during the ‘in between’ time.

We walked around for awhile, getting crankier by the minute as we wandered the old and narrow streets, before choosing an African inspired restaurant that we wouldn’t recommend.

After being cooped up in planes and airports, we walked toward the nearest green space that was the Castle Hill. Fortunately while warm out, it wasn’t unbearable, as we climbed steps and gradually made our way to the top of the hill for some spectacular views of Nice and the Mediterranean.

We made our way back down to Promenade des anglais which was way too busy for us so we cut back into the old part of Nice to continue to explore.

We walked into a charming church and saw a small sign that welcomed us into another part of the church. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to be there but continued onward until we found ourselves in a small, outdoor space in the middle of the buildings.

There were a few people drinking water, comfortably on a couch in the corner and a woman near the door with Ruby, a golden retriever. She welcomed us in French (the woman, not the dog), asked if we wanted something to drink, and after we got our water, she proceeded to tell us all about this special place (a bethel) where men used to come together to debate ideas.

Finn and I were able to cobble together an understanding of the stories as I struggled to get my tired brain and tongue used to understanding and speaking in French. It was a delightful respite from the busyness out on the street. We rested our feet and hydrated before venturing back out into old Nice.

We made our way back to the hotel to get cleaned up before meeting Kathryn for dinner. Kathryn was in Nice for a summer abroad before her senior year at University of Utah. She used to live across the street from us in Redwood City.

She had two suggestions, both requiring reservations, so we randomly chose a fantastic place called Citrus that had plenty of empty tables.

We sat outside and the chef/owner Phillipe was enthusiastic about the menu, especially his special vegetarian dishes that he creates each day, on a whim.

Dinner was incredible and dessert even more so. When he found out we hadn’t ordered the special peach dessert, he brought one out for us, on the house. This is not a peach but was artfully created to look like one.

Kathryn had class the next day and we were exhausted so back to the hotel we went.

We totally overslept and missed the pre-siesta window to pick up the car so we opted for a late breakfast in the plaza behind the hotel. Finn opted for the French breakfast of a baguette with butter and jam and I had to have a croissant.

Since we had an extra hour before we could get the car, we walked to the train station getting some steps in before we got into the car and the storm hit.

We picked up the car (a Volvo that was way more than what we needed) from a really nice lady at Hertz, drove back to the hotel to get our luggage, and set the GPS to help us get out of Nice with no particular destination and no actual hotel reservation.

This was one of the best parts of the trip…the wandering. It was Friday and our next commitment was Sunday afternoon in Dieulefit to visit our friends Sophie and Sandy.

I took a call for an emergency board meeting as we drove through the thunderstorm.

Where did we end up? The answer is in my next blog post Day 2: Nice — Gorges du Verdon.

Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two college aged kids, is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.