Monaco sort of sucks/ wandering around the French Riviera and weird ride shares

So I decided to do a little jaunt down to the French Riviera.

That makes my life seem 100% more glamorous than it really is. Instead of flying in a private jet, I took a ride share with BlaBlaCar.

If you’re unfamiliar with BlaBlaCar, it’s basically like a long distance Uber…or an Airbnb for rideshares…or just a less chaotic form of hitchhiking that adds an extra layer of safety through online reviews for each rider and driver.

You have a profile, you search for rides, and you make requests and plan on a meeting point. The good thing about this is that it’s almost always cheaper than taking the train. The bad thing is that drivers post rides just one or two days in advance so it is better for last minute trips.

So I wanted to go to see Monaco. I might have wanted to do that just to cross Monaco off the list…but also I was getting a bit antsy at home and there’s nothing like taking a dip in the Mediterranean.

First stop: Nice.

It’s not secret that driving in France is expensive. But it’s not only because gas prices are high…the tolls on the highway are ridiculous!

The five and a half hour drive between Lyon and Nice ended up costing more than 50 Euros in tolls alone! That’s why a lot of drivers are motivated to advertise their ride on BlaBlaCar!

But I like Nice. I almost moved there a few years ago for a job and it was fun to wander the streets and wonder what my life would have been like. It’s crazy how the architecture in France can change so drastically in a matter of hours, and I do like the architecture in the south!

I stayed at Hostel Baccarat in Nice. I have a reputation for hating on hostels (yet for some reason I continue to stay  in them…), but this one actually wasn’t so bad. I mean, it’s still a hostel, but my room was filled  with really friendly girls from Austria who traveled around Europe lugging huge books of classic German poetry with them.

A.k.a. they were awesome.

Plus they did a good job of keeping the crazy party in one room downstairs so I slept well! Hooray!

One really sweet South African girl was also in the dorm and she was in Nice searching for a job on a yacht. She said the ultra rich are just so nice because they seem terrified of coming across as assholes because they are, well, ultra rich haha!

I walked around. I decided not to go swimming. I ate pho even though it was 98987987987 degrees outside. Then I went to Monaco…

Getting to Monaco and then getting out of Monaco really quickly:

To get to Monaco from Nice, you just need to take the TER train along the coast for about 25 minutes. I enjoyed the train more than I enjoyed Monaco haha!

I don’t want to offend any Monegasque people out there (that’s what you call a native of Monaco!!!! Did you know that?), but Monaco sort of sucks.

If felt like the *cool* *popular* (but really sort of mean and cliquey) kids from my high school all got together and formed their own country.

The streets were empty and there were barely any shops or restaurants outside of the marina. I got my workout climbing all the stairs and steep streets!

I did find a big, silver turd though. Even their turds are silver in Monaco!

So yes, I wasn’t expecting much for Monaco and it didn’t exceed my expectations.

But of course I don’t really like wild night clubs or casinos. I’m also not really seduced by fancy cars or blatant displays of wealth. If you like that then you will probably love Monaco.

Why are there so many ultra rich people in Monaco?

Firstly it is about taxes (very low), secondly it is location location location.

Sure these ultra rich folks could go to tax havens in the Caribbean, but that isn’t a two hour flight from London and next to your rich friends’ villas outside of Cannes in France.

Plus, if you keep your 50 million dollar yacht in Monaco then you can easily sail it to Italy or Greece!

Going to Cannes and the strange ride home…

I had trouble finding a last minute ride share, but luckily something came through that was departing from Cannes.

I had never been to Cannes so I figured it would be a good excuse to check it out. I took the TER train there from Nice and wandered around the streets.

It was nice. It was touristy. It was a place that, unless I was a millionaire and had lots of spa appointments and fancy dinners planned, one morning was enough to get the feel for it.

One funny thing that happened was that I actually was sitting on a bench in a park and an old bourgeois couple came and basically pushed me of the bench! They sat down way too close to men and the old man gave me a look and said “you’re leaving now…” as a command in French! Lol what?

How to go to the beach for free in Cannes!

So I read online that all the beaches in Cannes require you to pay to use them, and so I therefore didn’t plan on going swimming.

But lo and behold, after being pushed off the bench  by the old folks I stumbled upon the public beach in Cannes! The FREE public beach in Cannes!

If you’re interested in that, the public beach is localed on Boulevard de la Croisette near the intersection with Rue du Dr. Zamenhof. Or you can search Public Beach Cannes on google maps.

It was still early-ish in the morning (around 9am) and so the only people swimming were elderly locals.

There were also public toilets near the beach where I could change. I traveled just with one small backpack so I was lucky I had my swimsuit and towel ready to go.

My flip flops slid on some sand as I was walking down the ramp into the beach and I fell flat and skinned my knee in front of everyone. Cool!!! But I haven’t had a skinned knee since I felt pretty nostalgic!

You can easily walk to the public beach in Cannes from the railway station in about 15 minutes. Not a bad thing to do while waiting for a ride share!

The ride share home was weird.

The guy was nice enough but started getting really into babbling about the nasty details of his sex life to me during our 5 hour ride. He was also like 60 years old so it was just awkward.

This happens to me at least several times a year and I never know how to react. I know I will never see him again so sometimes it’s not worth making a fuss about it.

But of course, as with solo female travel everywhere you will meet people who try to test your boundaries.

He wasn’t being creepy towards ME specifically, but in the end I just was itching for the ride to end.

It’s a shame because I usually have great experiences with BlaBlaCar.

All in all it was sort of a crappy end to a bit of a crappy trip (minus the lovely dip in the beach at Cannes).

At least Monaco has been crossed off the list! If I ever go there again it’s because I’ve become a billionaire and need to keep up with my billionaire friends. I doubt that will ever happen!

Thanks for reading!