A Very Nice Day — The Swallow Twins

A Very “Nice” Day—get it? Because it’s about a day in Nice? Patting ourselves on the back.

We are going to give you a rundown of what a day in Nice, France looked like for us. And I’ll tell ya, she was real pretty.

1. Castle Hill and Promenade Des Anglais

Because of the copious amounts of croissants and Aperol Spritz we consumed on this trip, we thought it best to start our mornings with a bit of a jog/ hike. Castle Hill is right off of the Promenade des Anglais, which is the Promenade that separates the beach from the Old Town. The “I Love Nice” sign is at the edge of the Promenade— we highly recommend being a tourist and getting a photo in front of it. We did!

The Promenade des Anglais in all her glory.

The beach is separated from the Old Town by the Promenade.

We would jog along the Promenade until we reached Castle Hill, which—you guessed it— is, in fact, a hill. Sarah and I just had a tiff about whether it should be considered a hill or not. I vote Yes. Sarah argues it’s a “stairs hike.” There is an elevator you can take straight to the top for one euro that opens at 11am (but hours may vary). We recommend taking this if you’re going purely to take outfit photos so that you don’t get sweaty walking up.

There’s also the option to take the stairs— a lot of stairs. If feeling ambitious we would jog up, but it makes for a nice leisurely walk as well. The stairs open into a huge green space at the top, park included. Across the green space is one of the most beautiful views you will ever see (check photo for evidence) of the port in Nice, Port Lympia. It’s truly a must-see.

2. Boulangerie du Palais

You can check this out in our “Top Food Spots in Nice” article. It is, hands down, one of my favorite grab and go food spots I’ve ever been to. Hell, it even rivals a lot of sit down restaurants I’ve been to. As mentioned in this article, they have an array of fresh pastries, sandwiches, and pizza, ranging from pain au chocolat to cheeseburgers. I had their chicken sandwich three (THREE!) days in a row because it was that damn good. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of it because I literally couldn’t wait the two seconds it would have taken to take a photo of it before I ate it. Sorry y’all.

It also isn’t pricey, averaging about 15 Euros for a few croissants and espressos. I almost called them espresso shots but I think classy people just say espressos, if espresso even has a plural. ANYWAY. That is a discussion for me, myself, and I. This place is a must visit— a great way to start the day. I’m not suggesting you have the chicken sandwich for breakfast but I’m also not NOT suggesting it. Okay, I hope my passion for the Boulangerie du Palais translates here. This place haunts my dreams.

3. Marché Aux Fleurs

This literally translates to “Flower Market.” One of my favorite things about Nice is that they host this flower market on Cours Saleya daily, where you can find the most beautiful floral arrangements, potted plants, and other regional decorative and useful items like embroidered hand towels and bags. They also have food, like the famous Chez Theresa food stand. Nice (and Chez Theresa) is famous for its socca, which is essentially a pita made from chickpeas.

We actually went to a restaurant in Nice and ordered socca, but we clearly picked the wrong spot because they didn’t specialize in it, and thus it was NOT good. The intricacies of messing up this simple dish are beyond me but still, they managed it.

At the market, there are also stands with nuts, nougats, and things of that sort. There’s also fresh fish, fresh fruit, and fresh veg. This is where you go to get your ingredients for dinner that day, like the locals do. However, we did not do that as we wanted to experience as many restaurants as possible (and nobody in my family can cook—bar my brother). Sarah and I bought the most beautiful roses for our apartment (see photo). We also had the most lovely visit from our French host parents (from when we studied abroad in 2017) on this trip, and we made sure to get Maman a glamorous bouquet. Prices for bouquets ranged from about 12 Euros for a small one to 35 Euros for a grandiose version. Strolling through this market is a MUST. It’s French sensory overload in the best way possible.

The flowers we got for our French Maman.

4. Thrift Shopping

Hello, this is a sustainable fashion blog— OF COURSE we went thrift shopping. When Sarah and I visit anywhere, the first thing we do (besides complain about how heavy our luggage is) is google thrift and consignment shops in the area.

In case you don’t know the difference, thrift shopping is basically secondhand shopping without the expectation of there being designer clothes. Consignment means the purpose is usually to resell vintage (or current) designer goods, usually for a lesser price. We grew up going to vintage designer clothing auctions, so we love the consignment concept. However, we also grew up going to flea markets in New Hampshire, so our passion for finding good items—thrifting—started there. We could be in the middle of nowhere, and we would still be googling thrift stores.

We found two shops in Nice that are 100% worth a trip, O’Chineur and Caprice. The former is a thrift store and the latter is a consignment shop. Thrifting is pretty straightforward—to “perform” well is finding an item that’s reasonably cheap and thus you don’t have regrets about the spend. At a consignment store, you really have to have knowledge of the cost of vintage designer items to ensure that you get a good deal. I stand behind every purchase we made, except for maybe the pair of sunglasses I got for 60 Euros. When I bought them, Sarah asked how much and said cool!—because she thought I said 16 euros when I actually said 60. She looked horrified at that. That purchase was a bit excessive/reckless since it wasn’t a designer I recognized, but the shop owner explained that they were previously normal reading glasses that she added a lens to turn into shades, and I thought that was pretty cool. Oh well, I don’t have time for regrets in 2022.

The stores are also in very close proximity to each other— convenience! They also were only about a ten minute walk from our apartment— convenience!

Caprice has the cutest exterior— it’s a must take outfit photo opportunity. #microinfluencing

In an upcoming article, we will post photos of every clothing item we purchased in Nice at these two places. In the meantime, we’ll put the photos we have on here. Photoshoots must be done still! We found some AMAZING items for some great prices. At the thrift shop, we got this aqua button down dress (which I wore to the Rothschild mansion in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. It looked iconic with the setting), a black leather short sleeve jacket (which we left in Nice because it was very south of France chic), a pastel purple button down dress with sparkly buttons (that I plan on getting tailored; the length looks a bit dowdy), a sparkly multi-color sweater (I had to bring this home because it’s so joyful, I own nothing like it and it quite literally makes me smile), and a pair of dangly pastel sparkly earrings (we never wear dangly earrings—hoop gals— but these caught our eye).

At the consignment shop we got the pair of cat-eye sunglasses, a vintage Emilio Pucci blue and purple scarf (which we gave to one of our best friends for Christmas, S/O I hope she’s rocking it), this amazing black beaded tie up skirt, which we plan on wearing as a swimsuit coverup (très chic— and no, it’s not cringe when we do a mélange of French and English because we actually SPEAK French. This isn’t Emily in Paris.), a vintage Gucci dress to resell on my Vestiare site, and finally, a brown patterned silk button down dress (my personal favorite, back home in LA with me. Of course I wore it the night after I purchased it to dinner and spilled tequila soda all over it. Sidebar: T soda is the best drink to spill on your outfits—no stains). The shop owner loved us so much she threw in this free straw hat that Sarah was admiring. We also might have told her we were famous fashion bloggers from LA— back us up y’all.

5. Happy Hour

Or not happy hour— we don’t care what time it is. The proper time to get an Aperol Spritz is ALL the time.

We would go home after thrift shopping, throw on some makeup, change, and grab our family to head out. It’s time to DRANK.

In our Nice food article, we discussed the best happy hour spots, so chances are we hit Wayne’s Bar, La Lupita, or Da Giulia for drinks and some light apps. My personal favorite is Da Giulia because it has more of a French vibe, despite it literally being called “From Giulia” in Italian. I don’t know who Giulia is but I thank her for her service. So, it is an Italian restaurant but same vibe as French; they just have good pizza. Wayne’s bar is Irish and English, and La Lupita is Mexican food (so the Aperol Spritz were NOT chef’s kiss, and I base most of my restaurant opinions on how good their Aperol Spritz is. Just kidding, that would be reckless. I also judge them on the hotness of their servers. Just kidding again. That would be rude.)

Wayne’s Bar, obviously. There was live music almost every night.

La Lupita. Pro tip: do yourself a favor and order a Michelada to drink. Also, this sweater is a vintage Gucci my dad had. Go dad! Fashion icon.

6. Dinner

Finally, you guessed it. It’s dinner time. This is the perfect time to stroll down Cours Saleya (where they hold the Marché Aux Fleurs during the day), and choose from the plethora of restaurant options. Our favorite was Le Safari. It was quintessentially French, so much so that I almost choked on the cigarette smoke of the guy sitting next to us.

Le Safari. I immediately regretted this outfit choice after.

7. TV TIME

One of our favorite parts about doing family trips is the quality time we share. Usually, during the day we all venture out on our own (except for Sarah and myself — we do not separate). Our parents usually go run errands or go for walks and explore the city while we and our brother go shopping or have a lazy 2pm spritz.

Night is when we come back together (unless my brother gets stuck at Wayne’s bar and joins us a few hours later, thank god Wayne’s bar is literally a one minute walk from our apartment because I assure you he does not speak French). We have Netflix at our apartment in Nice, thanks to Jenna who is signed in. If you read this, thank you Jenna! My brother left some of his favorite movies and TV shows on your list for you to enjoy as a thank you gift.

Hope you enjoyed following us along on our day through the beautiful Nice.

If you are interested in staying at our apartment in Nice and experiencing some of the above or all of the above, click here for booking. I promise our place is beyond beautiful in the most perfect location. I swear I’m not trying to sell it to you, it sells itself.

Our property manager, Dermot Mulhall, will handle all apartment preparations for you. He has a wealth of knowledge of the area. He will give you wonderful restaurant and bar recommendations in addition to recommendations for Nice and surrounding cities. You check out his website here.