Day 1: Nice, France

Just a week before Christmas, we booked an apartment off of airbnb in Nice, France.  Bryce had some vacation days and we thought, why not?  It was very last minute and we felt like we were back in our early 20s being spontaneous and exciting (with two kids and gobs of child gear that comes with each one, naturally).

It was a really fun trip and a very untraditional Christmas for us.  The weather was gorgeous, sunny and high 60s F every day.

We arrived at the apartment in the evening, so we just went to the store, ate dinner, and got situated in the new place.

With our two early risers, Bryce and I are becoming "morning people" which didn't have us complaining when we got to watch the sunrise every day with this view.

We ended up loving the two bedroom apartment outside of the city center because it included a parking space, it was quiet, it was 100 meters from a big grocery store, and it was close to a bus stop.

Maddie's room, which could be partitioned off with sliding doors.

It was a really cute place.  Maddie played with that phone every day.  And tried to lay on top of that glass coffee table every day.

The next day, we put both kids in the backpacks and set out to explore the area.  What started as a walk ended up in a full 5 hour hike all the way in and around Nice.  Our apartment was right on the water about 2 miles from downtown Nice.  We found a staircase near our apartment that went right down to the water connecting onto a trail that went towards the Nice port.  Then we grabbed sandwiches, ate on the beach, and walked what seemed like miles trying to find our bus to get home.

Downtown Nice is right near their heads in this picture.

The Mediterranean was so beautiful.

There were a lot of people sun bathing and even swimming even though it was in the 50s-60s F.

The Nice Port is so colorful and had humungous yachts that had our jaws dropping.

Pony rides on the "boardwalk"

We made it home with sore feet for early bedtimes.  Even though exhausted, it was great to see so much of the area-hooray for kid backpacks!