By Tara Martinelli

Where in the world is Tara? As my semester abroad comes to a close, I knew I had to fit in one more trip before heading back to the nine-to-five grind that will be my next three months. Every trip I have taken thus far has been filled with rushing to see as much as I can in the limited time I had. To be honest, I’ve often felt like I needed a vacation after my vacations. However, this weekend was different. This weekend I headed to Nice, France for some relaxation, some culture and, most importantly, a lot of sun.

I didn’t know much about Nice other than the weather was supposed to be beautiful. After dealing with unpredictable London weather for a few months, my body and soul needed some sunshine. So when two of my friends mentioned the word “beach,” I didn’t need to hear another word and booked my flight. Because it is so close to the end of quite an expensive semester, I had to strategically plan this trip. Unfortunately, part of this strategy involved booking a six a.m. flight from an airport that was over an hour bus ride from my flat. Yes, this means that my journey to Nice started at two a.m. and yes, I did look as exhausted as I felt. Scaring everyone whom I encountered, I boarded the plane and fell asleep immediately.

This was a major theme of my weekend, actually. Something I found amazing about this city was the lack of shame people had. I saw people falling asleep in every corner of this city; on the beach, on benches and even in restaurants. People take their relaxation very seriously in Nice. If you’re not chilled out, you’re doing life wrong. I think it’s the effect the sun has on the soul — it immediately mellows you out. These beaches, however, were a little different than expected. This could have been due to my lack of knowledge on the city or the fact that my friend Greg (amazing travel buddy) sent me a picture he found after Googling “nice beach” and didn’t foresee any potential conflict. Yeah, we’re all doing well over here. Anyway, the beaches are not full of soft white sand, but rather kind of large, smooth stones. The stones were fine to lay on with a towel but hurt like heck the minute you decided to walk on them. I definitely looked like I was being tortured from just walking to the water as I had to stop and take a breather after just a few steps.

Something else unique about these Nice beaches was the clothing policy. This policy can be boiled down to “You do you!” People were wearing anything from winter jackets and sweatpants to nothing but their birthday suit and everywhere in between. Don’t worry, Mom, I was a part of the population that decided for something in between. There were many things I took away from this, one being that body shaming truly did not seem as prevalent as I think it is in the U.S. Call me crazy, but if a 70-year-old woman was lying naked on a beach in Florida, people would be whispering about how indecent and offensive it was. More than anything, people would wonder how she, herself, could possibly feel comfortable enough to do that. But in France, the culture is different. People embrace the skin they’re in. Although different than I’m used to, I could appreciate the mentality.
Earlier in the semester, I visited Paris, which could not be more different from Nice.

Paris and Nice are both beautiful French cities, but the beauty differs. Nice has more of a natural and pure beauty to it. We ventured up a mountain to see this gorgeous waterfall that we noticed from the beach the day before. On our hike up, we took note of the ruins that had been untouched for hundreds of years. If I had to describe Nice to someone, I would say that it’s a cross between Paris and Rome. That’s another thing that surprised me about the city. It is less than an hour bus ride to get from Nice to Italy. I could feel the Italian influence all over the city. The food here is predominately Italian or at least has some Italian influence.

So much of Nice was surprising to me, but that’s what happens when you go somewhere with very little or no expectations. Everything was new and exciting for this reason. And now, after all the sun and relaxation, I’m totally going to kill all of my finals. Or at least I hope so.