Oh, to be back in France, the land that owns Paris and all the difficulties we encountered during our 2 night stint.
Unfortunately, things didn't get much better this time around in France (in regards to transportation & accomodations) with the exception that we met some pretty spectacular people along the bumpy ride and stayed in the most amazing hostel in Cassis.
Cassis
We arrived in Cassis on the evening of August 10th at about 8:30pm. To our dismay, the public bus stopped running at 8:20pm. We decided that we would just call a taxi and get a ride to our accomodations because it was about 4-5km away and we did not have a map of the area with the exception of a close up iPod Google Map of the vicinity of our hostel.
While at the train station, we met a couple (US/French couple) who were also travelling and planned on taking a taxi as well. We spent close to 30 minutes trying to call for a taxi and each and everytime we received a busy signal. What was going on here?? As the sun began to set, we decided to walk the journey and follow the road signs to lead us to the centre of town.
Oh, what a long walk with our heavy bags! Thankfully the sun was setting and eventually did set so it was rather cool and not during the heat of the day. I'm always looking for the silver lining!
When we finally arrived at the city centre, we went into a restaurant/pub and asked for a map of the area. We found our hostel on the map and said goodbye to our new friends - traditional French style with kisses on each cheek.
We then began the uphill trek to our hostel - and when I say "hill", envision San Francisco type hills. We dragged our butts with all our gear up multiple steep hills until we finally reached our destination. The staff at the hostel were waiting for us and greeted us very warmly. We quickly unloaded our gear to find that we were drenched in sweat - front & back. The bonus - it was a good workout!
We received a great orientation to the area and were fascinated by our accomodations. The house was a mansion complete with a swimming pool and giant terrace lined with beautiful flowers. The place was simply stunning!
We only had one full day in Cassis but wished we had more time since the area was beautiful and small.
Here are some pics:
Nice
What a dump our hostel was! Fantastic location but the owners were completely disorganized and overbooked the hostel. The toilet was always out of toilet paper, the fridge smelled like something had died in there and the showers had a drainage issue which resulted in constant flooding. Our room resembled a refugee camp - no joke. There were 16 beds (8 bunks) to begin with, but due to overbooking etc., there were people sleeping on the floors, doubling up in the bunk, sleeping in the kitchen and sleeping under the sink! But....here comes the silver lining, all of us in our hostel room bonded over the circumstances and had an amazing time together.
One of our roomies was a travelling musician from Holland and on several nights we went out onto the Boardwalk to support him. What a fantastic musician Matt (from Holland - not Matt from Canada) is. We were also priviledged to have him sing & play his guitar for us in the hostel. As a bonus, he gave both Matt and I a CD.
Our 2nd to last night in Nice was awesome. After Matt (from Holland) finished performing on the streets, we went down to the beach, sat on the rocks and Matt played his guitar and sang, while the rest of us joined in on the singing - great tunes we all knew. There were also fire throwers who sat right beside us and we had our own personal fire throwing, fire spitting etc show. Seriously, a totally memorable night!
Nice was the worst hostel experience I have ever had and also one of the best!
And here are some other pics of Nice:
Monaco
Unfortunately, things didn't get much better this time around in France (in regards to transportation & accomodations) with the exception that we met some pretty spectacular people along the bumpy ride and stayed in the most amazing hostel in Cassis.
Cassis
We arrived in Cassis on the evening of August 10th at about 8:30pm. To our dismay, the public bus stopped running at 8:20pm. We decided that we would just call a taxi and get a ride to our accomodations because it was about 4-5km away and we did not have a map of the area with the exception of a close up iPod Google Map of the vicinity of our hostel.
While at the train station, we met a couple (US/French couple) who were also travelling and planned on taking a taxi as well. We spent close to 30 minutes trying to call for a taxi and each and everytime we received a busy signal. What was going on here?? As the sun began to set, we decided to walk the journey and follow the road signs to lead us to the centre of town.
Oh, what a long walk with our heavy bags! Thankfully the sun was setting and eventually did set so it was rather cool and not during the heat of the day. I'm always looking for the silver lining!
When we finally arrived at the city centre, we went into a restaurant/pub and asked for a map of the area. We found our hostel on the map and said goodbye to our new friends - traditional French style with kisses on each cheek.
We then began the uphill trek to our hostel - and when I say "hill", envision San Francisco type hills. We dragged our butts with all our gear up multiple steep hills until we finally reached our destination. The staff at the hostel were waiting for us and greeted us very warmly. We quickly unloaded our gear to find that we were drenched in sweat - front & back. The bonus - it was a good workout!
We received a great orientation to the area and were fascinated by our accomodations. The house was a mansion complete with a swimming pool and giant terrace lined with beautiful flowers. The place was simply stunning!
We only had one full day in Cassis but wished we had more time since the area was beautiful and small.
Here are some pics:
Nice
What a dump our hostel was! Fantastic location but the owners were completely disorganized and overbooked the hostel. The toilet was always out of toilet paper, the fridge smelled like something had died in there and the showers had a drainage issue which resulted in constant flooding. Our room resembled a refugee camp - no joke. There were 16 beds (8 bunks) to begin with, but due to overbooking etc., there were people sleeping on the floors, doubling up in the bunk, sleeping in the kitchen and sleeping under the sink! But....here comes the silver lining, all of us in our hostel room bonded over the circumstances and had an amazing time together.
One of our roomies was a travelling musician from Holland and on several nights we went out onto the Boardwalk to support him. What a fantastic musician Matt (from Holland - not Matt from Canada) is. We were also priviledged to have him sing & play his guitar for us in the hostel. As a bonus, he gave both Matt and I a CD.
Our 2nd to last night in Nice was awesome. After Matt (from Holland) finished performing on the streets, we went down to the beach, sat on the rocks and Matt played his guitar and sang, while the rest of us joined in on the singing - great tunes we all knew. There were also fire throwers who sat right beside us and we had our own personal fire throwing, fire spitting etc show. Seriously, a totally memorable night!
Nice was the worst hostel experience I have ever had and also one of the best!
Here's Matt singing and playing the guitar. Incredibly talented! He drew in quite the audience with his skill.
Here is a pic of some of us hanging out on the rocks at the beach!
And here are some other pics of Nice:
The rocky beach
My new friend Julie who I met in Cassis arrived in Nice on my final day, so we went out for the evening together. Dinner, wine, walking around Nice & fireworks!
The fireworks!! If it wasn't for the awesome people we met, Nice would have been a disaster simply due to the poor hostel experience. But, amazing people and great new friends saved the day!
Cannes
During our time in Nice, we also made 2 day trips. One to Cannes and the other to Monaco. Cannes is well known for the Cannes Film Festival but all we cared about was the beach. The city is pretty and the beach front is lined with glamourous stores (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Valentino, Bvlgari etc.), but we walked right past all of that and headed straight to the sandy beach. We were totally looking forward to sand as Nice has big rocks on it's beach.
Here are some pics:
What a busy beach.
The streets of Cannes....I only put this photo up because I didn't take too many.
Monaco
Our 2nd day trip from Nice was to Monaco, a soverign city state on the French Riviera (Cote d'Azur). Did you know that Monaco has the highest GDP nominal per captia? It's pretty obvious when you visit Monaco. As you walk around, you find yourself saying, "Oh look, there goes a Lambourgini....a Ferrari....a Maserati...." Yeah, it was something else. It's also home to the Monaco Grand Prix and its port contains the most amazing yachts my eyes have ever seen. Here are some pics from our day trip to Monaco:
The view of Monaco straight out of the top floor of the train station.
And the car admiring begins...
I loved the yachts!
Coastline of Monaco
We found a brand of car that we had never heard about before - I don't remember the name, but this is a pic of it!
At long last, our time in France was coming to an end. France was definitely an interesting journey for us. To date, some of my most vivid memories are from France - from our Paris experience (bad) and Nice hostel experience (bad), but also from the amazing people we met in Cassis and Nice....very good experience!
Next stop - Switzerland!
What is the name of hostel in Cassis?
ReplyDeleteThe name of the hostel in Cassis is "Cassis Hostel".
ReplyDeleteThe address is:
Les Heures Claires
4. Avenue du Picouveau
Cassis, France
P: +33 (0)9 54 37 99 82
email: cassishostel@free.fr
They also have a website: http://www.cassishostel.com/en/