Day 12- May 30

           Today we left Avignon to travel to Nice, a beach town in the south of France.  We didn’t leave until 11 am, so I got to sleep in for the first time on the whole trip, which was wonderful.  On the way to Nice we stopped for a company visit at L’Occitane.  L’Occitane is a company that makes all-natural products such as lotions, soaps, shampoos, and perfumes, and our group was able to tour the factory and learn about what goes into making these organic products.  After our visit we had time to shop in the on-site store, which was really fun to do after learning about the products, and I bought a few little things.

            After our visit, we all loaded back on the coaches to finish the three hours we had left of the drive to Nice.  Thankfully, I was able to sleep for a majority of that time, so when I woke up we were approaching beautiful Nice.  We pulled up to a swanky, pink beach-side hotel, only to find out that we would be staying there for the next four days!  We were so excited.  Our rooms are huge and really nice- we will be living in luxury for the next few days.

            The weather is warm and beautiful here, so we went to our rooms to change clothes before dinner.  For dinner Jessica, Hillary, and I went with our professors to a seafood place right down the street from our hotel.  I had salmon fettuccine, which was delicious, as expected.  It was fun to be able to interact with our professors in a smaller setting instead of in a group of 80 students like usual.

            After dinner, a group of us ended up down on the beach.  The beach here is not sandy, but is made up of millions of small-ish rocks.  We watched the end of the sunset and admired the lights of the city as it got darker.  It was so nice to just sit on the beach and listen to the waves, instead of rushing around a city and trying to see everything.  After mostly everyone left to go back to their rooms, I stayed down on the beach with two of the girls.  After another hour or so of talking, we decided to turn in for the night since we have an early orientation meeting tomorrow morning.