SOF

Growing up, the South of France was one of those destinations you saw on your laptop pre-set background; not the place you actually visited. In my head, it was as if the South of France was reserved or blocked off, for the uber-wealthy and the societal elite. I had seen it in the movies and on Instagram and it looked so wildly beautiful… but not the kind of place an average study abroad student would choose to visit.

But when flights between London and Nice are 35 Euro… you book the flight and figure the rest out later.

We decided we would stay in Nice and then take the train to Monaco and Cannes for a day while we were there. We had an unexpectedly easy experience with our flights (no delays or hiccups), a weirdly easy time figuring out the public transit from the airport to the Airbnb, and an even easier time getting into our Airbnb. This never happens to us. There is always at least one of those three things that becomes a major challenge.

At this point, we are suspicious of this place. Things are going too well. Something must go wrong. Long story short, we did end up getting electrocuted by the shower in our Airbnb. Having spent about an hour debating if it was worth going to urgent care as our hands were still tingling, we decided against it out of fear for having to explain our issue in French. We spent most of our time in Cannes in the pouring rain. And we got suckered into spending $100 on two glasses of wine in Monaco because it is an experience, right?

But with all that being said, it was still an amazing trip. Experiencing SOF in April was lovely without the crowds and costs that come with peak season. As you can see, the beach clubs are very much open even in mid-spring.