Nice to Nîmes with Kids: A Quick Beach Stop, a Cancelled Train, and Love at First Sight

Day seven of the trip, and our last days in Levanto were exactly the kind of slow we needed after the pace of Italy. But it was time to move again, and this next stretch — Levanto to Nice to Nîmes — would be two of our heaviest travel days back to back.

Before we left, Remi had one piece of unfinished business. She'd been carrying a postcard for her teacher since the first week, and that morning we helped her find the post office, buy a stamp, and mail it. She was pumped.

Three trains to Nice

We took three trains from Levanto to Nice, breaking what would otherwise be an eleven-hour travel day with an overnight stop. We'd booked an Ibis hotel right next to the train station for exactly that reason — one night, nothing fancy, just a place to sleep between trains.

Once we dropped our bags we walked into town to get a feel for the city, and eventually made it down to the beach. Remi, as usual, was straight in the water. Watching her splash and dive without a second thought is one of those small joys of this trip that never gets old. The beach was even rockier than the ones in northern Italy, which made the water feel unbelievably clear but awkward to walk on in bare feet.

Escargot, and what we call French onion soup

We wandered back into the old town for dinner and decided we had to try Niçoise cuisine while we had the chance. We ordered escargot, a Niçoise salad, and onion soup — which, as Dani pointed out, we only call French onion soup back home. It's just onion soup here.

Remi was brave enough to taste a snail. She picked it up on the little fork, inspected it, took a bite, and declared she was not a fan. But she tried it, which is all we ever ask.

A cold pool and two more trains

In the morning we tried the hotel pool, which was the whole reason we'd picked the Ibis in the first place. It was cold — cold enough that none of us lasted long — but Remi still got in, because she always gets in.

We made it back to the train station and started day two of the journey: two more trains to get us from Nice to Nîmes. The kids have been doing well on the trains, better than we expected. They watch videos, play with toys, and of course snacks are the best distraction of all. Remi's also been emailing her family and classmates through her teacher, which has been a fun way for her to stay connected.

A cancelled train and going with the flow

We made it to Marseille on the first leg, but the next connection was cancelled. No warning, just a platform announcement and a scramble to figure out the next option.

It's another good lesson for all of us in adapting — going with the flow when things happen we can't control, and showing the kids that a change in plans doesn't have to mean a bad day.

We grabbed drinks at a nearby cafe and waited about an hour to board the next train to Nîmes, our last stop of the day.

Nîmes, love at first sight

As soon as we stepped off the train in Nîmes, something felt different. The central station is airy and clean, full of Roman-styled arches that hint at the city's history. Outside, there's a wide tree-lined boulevard for pedestrians heading toward a large fountain, and we just stood there for a moment taking it in.

We didn't see much of Nice — one beach, one dinner — but it didn't grab us the way Nîmes did in the first five minutes. Nîmes feels like it's built for pedestrians: clean alleyways lined with shops, big squares full of dining patios, and only the occasional motorbike or street crossing to navigate. After Naples, Rome, and Nice, where pushing a stroller sometimes meant balancing on a sidewalk exactly that width and hoping not to run into a garbage bin, Nîmes was a relief.

Arriving in the evening while it's still light out is always our goal on travel days, for exactly this reason — we walked to our Airbnb carrying all our bags, just to help us get oriented. The kids were tired and so were we, but every new street confirmed the feeling: this was going to be a good stop.