Backpacker's Hostel Chez Patrick Nice

We started the day by getting lost on the way to the hostel, what else is new. But really it wasn't our fault, the sign for the place was hidden and it was kinda a weird area in the city. A nice man asked if we were lost and told us to go to the pink lady for the hostel. That's right, pink lady. We noticed the sign as we were crossing the street but by that time this lady came out, all in pink, and directed us in to her restaurant slash lounge slash possible ***** house. Yes. This was where w...

After a hard few days wandering the streets and exporing the sights of Nimes and Avignon I was looking forward to relaxing on the beaches of the riviera. I had planned to stay in Marseilles, but upon arrival and not actually having booked a hostel, realising it was a long way away from the centre of town and the fact I planned to leave the next day anyway, I decied to continue on to Cannes. Cannes home of the international film festival (in May) and bronzed, old and rich french people is a re...

I arrived in Nice in the afternoon, after a long haul of trains and a bus. Glad that I was somewhere and not stranded on the border, I wove my way through the chaos of Nice construction and found my hostel. Backpackers Chez Patrick is a very nice place run by Patrick, of course. With just a little help from his cute little daughter, who is very skilled at performing cartwheels, I found, as she entertained me while papa did the paperwork. Since I had already been to Nice before, I didnīt do an...

To update on the last blog entry, we made it to Nice. Our train was late and we had a long journey on a hot train with a naked baby running around begging for money, but we finally got there. Our hostel was very cozy, with a six bed dorm and two showers for the whole hostel. And of course, upon exploring the hostel, I walked in on a girl showering. It was her own fault, she should have locked the door.

So we got to Nice and decided to eat pizza for dinner. We found a very authentic pl...

Our trip from Avignon to Nice involved the idea that we were going to stay one night in Marseille. Once we arrived in Marseille though...we soon scrapped that idea. After trying to find a place to stay in areas which Lonely Planet describes as dodgey (yet don't give any other options for hostels in the area) we soon decided to leave our packs at the train station, get an afternoon ticket to Nice, see the docks at Marseille and keep moving on. The most entertaining thing for me in Marseille wa...

We had difficulty at first in finding a hostel. Good old Chez Patrick's was full to the brim so we had to walk down the road to what turned out to be a better hostel. Nice was as or more expensive than Paris so we again relied on the friendly prices of Monoprix and a lot of baguettes to get by. We hiked around, exploring an old ruined fort above a cliff looking out to sea and sucked up some of the view before relaxing under a tree in a nearby park for a few hours. Down by the coast there's no...