ON Friday, October 24, 10n students and two teachers, Ms. Norton and Mr. O’Connor, departed for Dublin airport on the first leg of our trip to Nice. Our first flight, to Zurich airport left at 7am, before arriving in Zurich an hour and a half later.
We had a two and a half hour stopover, most of which was spent talking to the girl at the history of Lindt chocolate stand.

On arriving in Nice, we were met by our host families, who were part of the language institutes organisation.

They took us to our accommodation in the centre of the city where we stayed in pairs.

Our first meal with the family was quite awkward as we had little French and they had no English. However this changed during the week and we were soon able to converse freely with our hosts.

Monaca

On Saturday morning, we met at the train station for the first of several train journeys, this time to Monte Carlo in Monaco, just 20 minutes away from Nice. Our guide, Jean Sebastien, began by telling us a lot about Monaco and its history. We witnessed the changing of the guard outside the palace of Monaco, which was amazing.

We then went to the famous Oceanographic Museum, and were stunned by its spectacular aquarium. We later saw the famous Monte Carlo Casino, and the flash cars outside it, Masserati, Aston Martins and Bugattis before returning to Nice to eat with our families.

Sunday was spent in Nice. All the shops were closed some of us decided to go to the beach and make the best of the warm weather. The sea was warm and we swam for quite a while.

We later returned to our apartment and spent the evening playing cards, as our French didn’t quite extend to understanding French television.

French lessons

Lessons started on Monday morning at the Alpha B language institute. We had previously taken a test to determine our ability and we were placed in classes according to the results.

The classes were quite difficult, but we improved quickly and soon were able to understand and speak the language better.

On Monday afternoon we went on a tour of the “vielle ville” or old town of Nice with Jean Seb.

We walked through the narrow streets and ate crepes and ice cream before climbing a hill to get an amazing view of Nice. That evening we went swimming again, and returned to our apartment after dark.

On Tuesday afternoon we went to Antibes, just a short train journey from Nice. We saw the marina, which is the largest in Europe, with its amazing millionaire-owned boats, looked through the tiny shops, ate crepes with nutella and went swimming at the beach.

On Tuesday evening in Nice, we went to the old town to see Nice by night and see the traditional bars and restaurants of Nice.

Cannes

We went to Cannes by train on Wednesday, and saw the handprints of famous actors and actresses in Cannes, people such as Anthony Quinn, Sharon Stone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Clint Eastwood and went to the sandy beach, which was the best beach by far.