Almost adjusted to the time schedule, even though Heather and i don't feel like we slept a bit, I was up by 8:15. Its cold outside this morning, probably 60 degrees, cloudy, and lite rain....great weather for our last beach day, not! Getting the girls out of bed is getting tougher by the day, we don't know what it is, we wake up exhausted, but we're still running strong at midnight; perhaps the sun staying up until after 10pm has something to do with it.

Old Nice is great, but if it has a fault other than being expensive, its that it is essentially closed off to vehicle traffic unless you live in the area, which means you have to hike out to get to transportation. Its not a bad walk up and out of town to the park, and then through the park to the bus station, it just isn't convenient. The bus is stuffed full of people, like they all seem to be, but its an easy ride and we're there ind 25-30 minutes. The train is a better option to get here once you arrive in Villefranche, but its tougher to get to in Nice, so its a "pick your poison". Since we took the bus, its a long trip down hill to the beach and harbor, but dang! its beautiful!

Its getting hot by the time we get to the beach, and of course...there are zero amenities on the beach except for 1 small snack shop. Time to open an umbrella and lounge chair rental place here. There are a couple of small shops around the corner from the beach, so I hike back and buy a beach towel and umbrella since our apartment doesn't come with any...I try to bargain with the guy, but he knows he has the market cornered, so no dice.

Back on the beach, mamma is set up under the umbrella and MD and I are jumping in the COLD water. The water isn't quite as cold here as at the other beach because the pebbles are much smaller, almost qualifying as sand but not quite, so they hold more heat. Maclaren and I have a great time frolicking in the water, its Father's Day today...no better way that I can think of to spend it than with my girls on a beach in a foreign land. :)

The clouds are billowing on the horizon and the wind is picking up...nap time on the beach isn't happening because we are all too cold. But we hold out almost to the last people on the beach before we finally tap out too and held back into Old Villefranche for a nice lunch on the docks. Heather ordered some pasta Arbarita (sp?) which turned out to have a nice spice to it...first spicy thing we've seen so far.

For the return trip up the hill back to the bus station, we decide to take the direct route in lieu of the winding roads we took on the way down, which entails about 200 steps with me carrying the backpack and MD sitting in her stroller...no need to go the crossfit gym in Paris!

Back at the apartment in Old Nice, we quickly shower and change into some nice clothes and head West out of town back to the park for 1 last ride on the carousel, and then up to the shopping district which is already closed by the time we get there. So we strolled over to New Nice which we haven't been to yet...its just as busy here as in Old Nice, but the crowd is a little more local feeling and the shops, bars, and restaurants are more hip and mainstream. A stop into a coffee shop for a hot chocolate that ends up being more like a melted chocolate bar is an interesting experience trying to get a replacement (they don't have the concept of customer happiness here).

Its drizzling pretty hard, and Maclaren is sleeping in her stroller, so we take the opportunity to take a romantic stroll under the umbrella along the promenade to end the night.