My sister was able to get a ticket to the Cannes Film Festival and finally decided to go the weekend before--so we had 4 days of planning for a 5 day trip (2 travel days, 3 days for fun).
Key takeaways/thoughts:
Are the tourists paying for the regional trains to run? No one checks tickets, and you're packed like sardines!
Hotel Royal Riviera is a great hotel to stay at! The pathway along the coast was so lovely--we walked in the morning and night.
Are French dogs the cutest dogs I've ever seen? YES.
May 15--flight to Nice via Delta and Air France (no complaints).
May 16--arrive in Nice, take cab to Hotel Royal Riviera (exceptional, we loved our hotel!) based between St Jean Cap Ferrat and Beaulieu-sur-Mer. We had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants (Jasmin)--the raspberry tart was so so good. We went to sleep.
May 17--We bought a ticket for the 10am train to Monte Carlo, Monaco. We missed the first train! Even though we were early, the train was jam packed--we had no idea you need to force yourself onto the train--we ended up squishing onto the next one. Monaco was just 10 min away and we walked from the station to the Casino, we didn't bring our passports with us, so sadly no tour of the casino for us. Then my sister had the silly idea to walk 28 min from the Casino to the Palace--there's a giant ramp uphill (don't recommend). There's only one small bathroom outside the palace with 3 stalls near the Castelroc restaurant and shop just FYI. Long line. The palace was beautiful and we loved touring it. We ended up eating at the Castelroc--we had no idea there were walkable streets close to the palace, again we had minimal time to plan this trip. It was tasty but probably unnecessary to eat there. We walked around and saw the church and the Cathedral, both beautiful. Then I used the taxi phone to get us back to the train station--another squish to get on, very annoying. We got back to the hotel, got a couple spots on the private beach, and relaxed and swam, then we went back to the same restaurant for dinner.
May 18--Cannes day! In the morning we walked along the path to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild--fabulous and pink, we shared a tart and tea and loved our time there. Then my sister got ready and we cabbed to Cannes! Cannes during the festival is NUTS. So many people--Disneyland levels of people. I dropped her off at the Carlton with her colleagues, then I ventured around Cannes. Stopped at the church where Napoleon started his journey back from exile. Shopped and had dinner at Scalini Restaurant inside the JW Marriott. Wonderful! After her premiere, we struggled to get a cab back--I had to go inside a random hotel--shout out to Hotel Mon-something, who were nice enough to call one for us. Will try to figure out the name!
May 19--We ventured to Old Nice, the cab driver told us a lovely story about a Scottish man named Coventry who used to tell his wife it was lunchtime by firing a cannon at noon. We heard the cannon when we were inside the Lascaris museum! Very cool museum. The flower market was lovely and all the shops around too. We had a snack at Chez Theresa--very cheap and there was a line (I thought that would be a good sign, overall a bit mediocre but did the trick). Next stop was Villefranche Sur Mer a really cute little town. Then for some reason we trained back, less crowded going in that direction, but we did see a man get pick-pocketed on the train! He and his wife both brought on their expensive bikes, I think his phone was on the bike somewhere, I felt bad for them. Dinner at the usual palm tree. Packed up our trinkets!
May 20--back to LA!
I had a lot of anxiety about safety before the trip--but overall we felt safe (both women in our 30s), the only doubt I had was when we saw the man get pick-pocketed, but that was at the end of the trip--good to know though for the future!