Two (O') Leary's are Better than One

Shannon O'Leary
Mar 21, 2017
4 min read

I'd like to first credit this wonderful caption to my friend Robyn Leary (hence the name pun). Over the weekend I took a beautiful bus ride to Nice, France to spend some time with my fellow IC Bomber on the European continent. Studying abroad in France she was my ticket to all the sites of Nice as well as my on-staff translator.

The journey to Nice was beautiful, I'm convinced NW Italy does no get enough mention or credit. Once my bus picked up passengers in Genova it was a straight line down the coast. With spring finally blooming (yes, mid fifty's and sunshine most days, sorry eastern part of the States) the steep hills of the country side were picturesque and actually reminded my a bit of Peru to be honest. I'm never sure if I'm meant to be in the mountains or by the sea because I fall in love with whichever I'm closest to. Being near both seems like a pretty good deal.

Those views made the five hour bus ride worth it. The French border patrol was quick and I arrived in Nice just as the sun went down.

Of course, my longest conversation in Italian happened in France when a woman from Genova was desperately trying to find the port her cruise was leaving from. Luckily we stuck together and found the answers before Robyn picked me up from the bus stop.

We stayed right in the heart of the Old Town. A hop to delicious food, a skip to the ocean, and a jump to the famous Russian Orthodox Cathedral. I celebrated my first night in France with a glass of rosé and a regional pasta dish (you can take the girl out of Italy but you can't take Italy out of the girl). It was, naturally, Saint Patrick's Day but we didn't get to celebrate. The Irish Pubs were packed and though we figured our Irish names may land us a free drink we opted for gelato and a walk around the old town. We called it in early to make sure we could use all of Saturday to see everything on our list. I was excited to see the ocean and experience the warm weather Robyn had advertised.

Out the door at eight we started the morning with a walk to The Port, a (you guessed it) port filled with boats big and small, expensive and...less expensive, etc. After we had fully woken up we meandered back to the Old Town and walked through the Saturday morning market to pick up a few croissants (because when in France). Breakfast in hand we took a seat by the water and I got my first real look at the sea since the morning mist had burned away. The water was beautiful, blue, and unreal. Most of us probably live near something beautiful that we now take for granted but I couldn't imagine being a runner on the boardwalk and being able to focus on anything with that ocean next to me.

Luckily the ocean is never too far in Nice and we continued our to-do list up to the lookout as well as explore Castle Hill. The look out provided a lovely panoramic: half ocean and half city. While we did wander though Castle Hill Park and see ruins, panoramas of The Port, as well as some impressive green space and playgrounds, our intention was to find the famous waterfall. Unfortunately, once we discovered it off we were disappointed that is was not a natural water fall.

Back into town Robyn led the way to the Notre Dame of Nice. A beautiful little cathedral preserved among the modern shops that had sprung up around it. Our next stop was the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, probably the only thing we wanted to see not five minutes away from where we were staying. Optimistic, we bought some sandwiches for lunch and only got turned around once before finding the beautiful site.

While not hundreds of years old the Cathedral is unique and beautiful and worth the walk to find. In the company of the cathedral we enjoyed our sandwiches while our feet enjoyed the rest before taking a quick spin inside.

With Robyn leaving later that day we headed back to squeeze in one more gelato by the beach. Fenocchio's is the rumored best gelato place in Nice with many flavors. Really, vanilla, to tomato basil to cactus flavored gelato. While my first scoop was my traditional dark chocolate I did try the lavender flavor and was not disappointed. Robyn was tempted to try cactus but chose rose as her experimental flavor.

The rest of the trip wound down as I walked with Robyn to her bus stop and thanked her a million times for the amazing chance to see each other while we were both abroad. My night included a small dinner and an early night for my bus the next morning. Sunday I ate my final croissant and said so long to the ocean before heading back to the airport to catch my bus.

While my time in Nice was short I thoroughly enjoyed myself and know if I had stayed longer there would have been plenty of beautiful things to see and do outside the Old Town. However, my short spell in Southern France left me satisfied with the exception of needing to see the ocean again as soon as possible.