Getting to the South of France

Bonjour from the South of France, my favorite place to be. Aside from the wonderfully mild climate, the beautiful colors, the delicious food and the abundance of art, it's the ideal area for travelers. You can find all sorts of accommodations in many price ranges, and the transportation system makes it easy to visit the many small villages as well as get around my favorite base of operations, Nice.

It was a beautiful afternoon in Nice.

I'm currently renting an apartment in the delightfully charming Vieux Nice (Old Nice), which dates back several hundred years. I found this little gem on www.homeaway.com and described the process of renting it in a previous post.

If you're interested in coming to Nice yourself, you are probably wondering how to get to your destination. It's actually very easy. If you're coming from another area of Europe, you can arrive by train at the station Nice Ville. From there, make a left when exiting the station and walk down a block to the tram, which makes many stops around town. Several buses run from the front of the station throughout the city. You can also pick up a cab in front of the station.

If you fly into Nice's airport on the edge of town, you can take a bus to several towns in the area as well as the buses that go to the train station and the bus station with several stops along the way. The cost is a mere 4€, and you can use the ticket for the rest of the day on the Nice tram and any Lignes d'Azur bus. If you don't want to deal with the bus, taxis cost 35-50€. Or if you're one of the many jetsetters who frequent this area, and you're heading to Monaco, you can hire a private helicopter.

Speaking of the bus, it's clean and reliable, making it the most convenient way to get around Nice and the surrounding villages. It's also remarkably cheap at only 1€ per ride, 4€ for a day pass or 15€ for a weekly pass. These passes are also valid on the Nice tram. Buy bus tickets from the driver, and buy tram tickets from the machines found at every tram stop.

Monthly passes are also available for 40€ at a Lignes d'Azure office if you are going to be in the area for more than a few weeks. For these passes, you have to bring a passport and a passport-sized photo as well as a photocopy of the passport, which you can make at the office. Why you need these items is a mystery to me because the clerk scans your passport, throws away your copy and returns the photo to you. I really wanted to ask the clerk why I had to go all the way back to my apartment for the extra photo, but I didn't want to make her mad at me, so I just kept saying merci to avoid engaging her in a conversation that could lead to a question that I was unable or unwilling to answer.

Now that I have my bus pass, I'm ready to venture out int the Sunny South. So why is a region that boasts 300 days of sun each year forecasting rain for the next six days?

5 Items You Need to Pack

Bring some plastic flatware so you can have a picnic.

You probably have a list of standard items that you pack when you’re taking a trip. Add these small items to save time and aggravation on your next journey.

Plastic flatware

When you have forks, spoons and knives, you can pick up some local bread, cheese and other goodies and have a picnic in a scenic area.

Corkscrew

What’s a picnic without some nice local wine? Just make sure you pack it in your checked luggage because corkscrews are forbidden in carry-on bags.

Grocery bags

Extra bags have several uses. You can place your dirty clothes in them to separate them from the clean clothes or use them as a beach bags or tote bags.

Medicine

You may feel fine when you leave home, but that doesn’t mean you won’t catch a cold or have an allergy attack or headache during your trip.  If you’re going to a foreign country, and you don’t speak the language, it can be a real hassle to get the medicine you need. Many countries keep any type of medication, even non-prescription, behind the counter, so you will have to explain what you need to the pharmacist. In addition, medication is different in other countries. When I went to France last year, I came down with a terrible cold, and I was frustrated to learn that there was no Ny-Quil in the entire country, and the strongest medicine available did nothing to ease my symptoms.

When you pack the cold medicine and pain reliever, be sure to throw in an extra supply of prescription medication in case your return home is delayed. Make sure you pack it in your carry-on luggage so you won’t have a problem if your checked bag is lost.

Small flashlight

As the daughter of a fireman, I learned to locate the emergency exit upon checking into a hotel and to make sure I have a flashlight in case of fire. My flashlight has also come in handy during a power failure. Sure, the light from a smartphone will help in a pinch, but if you run the phone's battery down, you will lose your phone service in addition to being stuck in the dark.   

Do you have a must-have travel item? Please share.

The Joke’s on Me

If you receive my blog posts by email, you probably thought it was a bit ironic that my last post talked about proofreading and using spell check when the post was full of typos. Although I followed my own advice and did just those things before posting, it seems that Mr. Google wanted to prove that he knows more than I do because he removed the spaces between several words after I clicked on the Publish button.

Despite all your planning, sometimes you just can’t control the way things turn out. So you make adjustments, offer an apology and move on. I just hope Mr. Google hasn’t put a hex on me.