That Time I Did a 28-Day European Bus Tour — Part 5 (Nice and Monaco)

This article will cover Days 8–9 of the tour

If you’re reading this then there is a fair chance you’ve read Part 4 of my story, but just in case you haven’t, here is a link to it:

So as I mentioned before, we just had left Barcelona and we were heading out of Spain, along the French Riviera and towards our next destination, Nice (which is not pronounced the way you would assume if you’re from an English-speaking country).

I don’t remember much about the journey but on the way to Nice, I do remember stopping at the Fragonard perfumery in a town called Grasse (no, I did not remember the name of the town off the top of my head, or anything about the town really).

At the time I had not heard of Fragonard (because most Australian men probably wouldn’t have) and any mention of Fragonard will always remind me of this trip. I do believe I bought some perfume to give to my mum. I have no idea what she thought of it, but I’m sure she appreciated the gesture.

By the way, on these tours, they tend to do that. The tour companies take you to these places because they get a commission from the business for any sales they make.

Then we got back on the bus. I can’t remember if we had lunch on the way. We may have done. A few times, the Topdeck staff catered a decent lunch while the was stopped and we were taking a break from the journey.

Eventually, we reached Nice and we arrived at the hotel (I think it may have been a hotel this time, as opposed to a hostel) and because there was nowhere to park the bus, they stopped the bus and held up the traffic, while we all got off the bus and grabbed our kits. Then we checked into the hotel. I remember sharing a room with the two Koreans in my tour group (who seemed nice enough).

I don’t remember there being any major highlights of Nice, however, it is well known for being a holiday town. I’ve been told the rich and famous like to go there and they own some fancy properties. It’s like a holiday town with beaches, except that the beaches there aren’t what you might think of as real beaches (not if you come from a country that actually has proper beaches). It’s what you might call a “mid-sized city”. It’s not small but it is very laid back compared to Paris.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took while I was in Nice:

If I recall, that last picture is looking down on Nice. I probably took that when we went off to Monaco.

Looking at the first two photos above, see what I mean about the beaches. That’s European beaches for you. In fact, Barcelona was the only place I went to in Europe where I saw “real beaches” with sand. You go to Europe to experience the history, the culture, the food, the museums, the festivals, the clubs (if you’re into that) and whatever is of interest to you. Beaches are usually not on the list of reasons to go to Europe.

But that’s my point of view as an Australian. And I’m not even really a beach person. I do like the beach, but I like the atmosphere of the beach more than the beach itself. I’m not a surfer, I don’t have the right kind of skin for it (I’m too pale and I don’t tan, it’s my British and Irish ancestry). But I digress.

I remember wandering around and exploring Nice. I also remember going out on the night of Day 8 (the day we arrived in Nice) but I can’t remember if we did anything noteworthy.

I remember “chilling” and exploring Nice further on Day 9. But I skip forward to late afternoon when we got on the bus so that we could spend an evening in Monaco. We headed off and we had a fun night exploring Monaco. Here are a few pictures:

Monaco is known for being a very wealthy town. People who live there are millionaires at the very least (although having a million dollars in wealth isn’t “rich” like it used to be if you live in a first-world country).

Yes, that’s me.

And that’s some rich person’s car. I also remember seeing what looked like some rich oil sheik’s Lamborghini with Dubai number plates (but I didn’t get a picture of that).

And that’s a picture of some fountain I took.

I haven’t been to Vegas but I imagine that Monaco is like Vegas but richer and classier. There are casinos there. We did go to a casino. No, I did not gamble. I’m not one for gambling. And Vegas is one of those places where I think that “if I see it one day, then I see it and if I don’t, then I don’t.”

We hadn’t reserved anywhere to eat (if I recall, it wasn’t the easiest place to find restaurants to just walk into and get a table) but some of us went to an Irish pub (if I recall) and I think I had a burger with everything in it. On a side note, in Australia, we have something called “a burger with the lot”, which typically includes onion, sauce, cheese, lettuce, tomato, egg, beetroot and pineapple, but no pickles.

Anyway, this wasn’t that. This one I think even had foie gras in it. And at the time, I didn’t even know what foie gras was or how it’s made (and I probably couldn’t even taste it because of all the other ingredients). I don’t think it tasted bad (the French love foie gras) but I haven’t eaten it since because (a) it’s hard to get and (b) because of the animal cruelty involved in producing it.

Anyway, getting back to the story, we had a good evening, then in the late evening, we returned to Nice, to the hotel, and slept well. Or at least I believe I did.

Then on the morning of Day 10, we had breakfast (which was the one meal we had catered to us every morning, as is often the case with these tours) and then we headed off to Pisa and then Florence. Yes, that’s right, we went to Italy, where we would spend 2 nights each in Florence, Rome and Venice. Which I will talk out in my next article.

Thanks for reading. And thanks for your patience, as it’s been over two weeks since I posted Part 4 of this story. Life has gotten in the way.

To be continued…