.. with the blueness of the South of France. During three days D and I got to see Nice, Monaco and Cannes, taking advantage of the hot weather in the Mediterranean, away from the sudden drizzling grey of Paris we left behind.. I am so glad to be back at home in Paris now, but I think I left behind a piece of my heart in the blue blue waters down there!! 

Nice was turquoise blue. It was wonderful. The CouchSurfing hosts were wonderful. I have never relaxed so much in my life, under the scorching sun. I got burnt. It left inexplicably weird tan patterns on my skin. I did put on sunscreen, I was not foolish! But I may have been baking a little too long, and am regretting it a little.

My favourite part of Nice would have to be the Vieux Nice. The Italian influence on the orange and yellow buildings under the clear blue sky refreshed me with a coolness after the hot hours by the beach side.

Apparently Fenocchio is the best gelato in Nice, so of course we had to try it. The first time we had Ferrero Rocher choco and strawberry flavours; the second time, it was lavender and mango. Miam miam miam!

The view from the top was awesome~~ Are you looking at the pictures? How could you not fall in love?!

If Nice was turquoise blue, Monaco was azul blue. We visited the tiny country for a couple of hours, and I was glad because I had always wanted to come here. Not for the casinos, but more because of the beautiful royal family, haha. We did a tour of the part of the palace, and I lit a candle in the Cathedral in front of my patron Saint, Saint Rita of Cascia.

Second half of the day was spent in Cannes, where they had the International Film Festival on. The people were beautiful, many with microphones and cameras of all sizes, hoping to catch glimpses of celebrities. We saw a filming of a French TV show, and was even caught up in a small paparazzi cloud when someone, thought we actually don't know who, came out of a hotel. We were too far back behind and short to see, but it was fun to be taking part in taking photographs.. of the paparazzi.. lol.

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Off to the other side of Paris! Amsterdam! It's the city of canals and bikes. The bikes are scary when they speed past you. We didn't see many tulips, though we did visit a tiny tulip museum. We also went to the Anne Frank house, and it was awesome. I remember reading the book as a little girl, and it was still surreal to imagine what she must have gone through. 

On my actual birthday we went on an excursion just outside of Amsterdam to see the windmills. We got lost along the way, but hey, that's all part of the experience. Actually, everything about Amsterdam was all a bit of new experiences for us... ;p

The windmills were wonderful...

Of course there must be a cake on a birthday. Mine was square and chocolate. It was small, but it was enough, ;). By the time we were having dinner just afterwards, we were quite quite happy.