Bastille Day weekend

Another weekend of fun has come and gone! This weekend was super special because Saturday was the national French holiday, Bastille Day, that takes place every July 14th.  Bastille Day is basically the French equivalent of the Americans' 4th of July - it celebrates the anniversary of the storming of the old French prison, the Bastille, that occurred during the French Revolution.  Before I came to France, I had heard that Bastille Day is a huge celebration in France, but in St. Laurent, I didn't experience as much celebrating as I was expecting.  Nevertheless, it was still a great day! We basically had the entire day to do whatever we wanted with our family, so we went to Nice for the day! We took a bus into Nice at around 11:45 and got there around noon.  We shopped for a bit, grabbed some lunch, and then headed over to our new favorite ice cream shop in the "vielle ville" (old village), Fenocchio.  Fenocchio has 94 different ice cream flavors, including the classics like chocolate and vanilla, plus some crazy ones like cactus, chewing gum, and avocado! It is absolutely delicious! We then had some more time and decided to do a bit more shopping, so we headed to Galerie Lafayette, where a couple of my friends bought some really cute dresses! We headed back home for a delicious celebration dinner of the classic French crêpes: ham and cheese ones for dinner, followed by Nutella ones for dessert! We were planning to go see fireworks after our meal, but by the time we were ready to go, it was really late and we all just wanted to hang out, so my roommate and I slept over at our neighbor's apartment, which 3 other Abbey Road girls are staying in.  We had a really great time and the entire day was so relaxing and fun! This morning we headed to meet the rest of the St. Laurent group to take the bus to Monaco.  We were a bit more touristy today and headed to the Palais Princier, as well as the aquarium.  The palace was absolutely beautiful and I learned a lot from the audio tour, and the aquarium had some pretty cool fish! Then we headed to the small village of Eze, where we took a tour of the Fragonard parfumerie.  It was so cool to see where and how they make all the different types of perfumes! We had some free time in the village afterwards, during which I wandered around.  Eze was so adorable! We then returned to St. Laurent, where I am now sitting on my bed before dinner.  We also got the schedule for the next week today, which was so exciting! In the plans for this week is a trip to San Remo, Italy (!!!), dinner at a sailing club in St. Laurent, and the movies! I'm so excited, and I'll be sure to update with lots of pictures later in the week.  For now, au revoir!

Cute clown fish at the aquarium!

Beautiful view from the top of the aquarium!

Me!