If you follow me on Instagram you know that I was recently in the south of France over the weekend to celebrate my 26th birthday. Let’s just say it was completely amazing- and a great spot for my first time in France. In all honesty, I don’t have as many pictures as I normally would on vacation because I made a conscious effort to disconnect and leave my phone in the hotel room the entire time. I decided right from the start that I would only check-in with my parents periodically (when we went back to the room) and not scramble for wifi at every restaurant and coffee house.
So, looks like I will just have to get really descriptive with my verbiage in order to paint a picture in your mind — old fashioned way, I don’t mind!
If you’re following me and reading my blog, you know that fitness is the name of my game and staying fit is a part of who I am as a person. So, let’s start with the food 🙂 First of all, I am vegan. But, if I go somewhere  where vegan options means eating bread, bread and more carbs (i.e. in France) – I take a vegan break.  I won’t talk about every single morsel. Just some of the highlights.
The first night we ate at one of the most amazing restaurants called Le Marquis that was honestly one of the best restaurants I have been to in my life. I had mashed potatoes and cod with greens. Yes, it was full of butter, full of flavor and I literally said “mmmmm” every single time I took a bite. Like seriously, I have been to a lot of nice, fancy, gourmet restaurants in my time and this one was definitely close to the top.
Here’s a pic of me AFTER I devoured it. This is my “where did the food go” face! :p Pardon the orange tint, there was a heat lamp near our table.
Another food item worth mentioning was the crepe. I had never had one before this trip! I didn’t get a photo of it, but it was giant (I split it with my boyfriend) and filled with bananas and dark chocolate. It was a lot less sweet than I imagined, which is good because I am not much of a sweets person.
Another great thing about being there on the weekend was all the markets. I loaded up on tons of oranges, bananas, grapefruits & cherries! The oranges were completely juicy and delicious I had like 2 or 3 per day!!
Oh, and I had gelato one time… Mmmm, chocolate brownie & cafe.
Okay, enough about the food….let’s move onto the FITNESS!! Because, you know me, I always incorporate fitness and workouts into my vacations NO MATTER WHAT!
Walking, steps, more walking, one foot in front of the other…
First and foremost, the walking…. we walked ALL OVER the place tracking 20-30k steps per day on my Runtastic Orbit.
My favorite place to walk in Nice was through the old town. There were so many small shops & markets to look at – like this one which was FULL of herbs and spices. Mmmm smelt so amazing. I didn’t buy anything (we packed light) but it was still really fun to go through all of the small streets and really “get lost” in the old town.
We also took a bus from Nice to Monte Carlo and walked even more!! It was especially exciting for my boyfriend (who is a huge car fanatic) to walk the streets where the F1 cars drive during the race. So many amazing yachts, expensive shops and great hills to walk!
We also walked up the to the Palais Princier de Monaco. I love seeing the castles and palaces in any city that I travel to (presuming they have one). I guess that’s just the inner princess is me….so I like to think .
I even stopped and did a side plank on the palace wall! Pretty scary but also pretty awesome. My form could use improvement, but as there was a vicious drop to my death behind me– I think I did pretty well.
Bike ride
I try to rent bikes and ride around wherever I go. It gives you the opportunity to see a lot without being confined in a bus. It was perfect because the weather was great and there was a really long bike trail right next to the beach. I recommend you do this ANYWHERE you go- do it!
12 minute Hotel Room Workout
Perform each exercise for 1 minute, go for 3 rounds without stopping!!
Single leg squat – Left
Single leg squat – Right
Standing oblique cruches
Plank side taps
Outdoor Leg/Stair Workout
You can pretty much find stairs ANYWHERE you travel to. If the weather is nice, use them! Here is the leg workout I did.
Warm up: Run up and down the stairs 3x
Workout Part I: Start at the top of the stairs
Round I-
10 narrow squats
10 squats
10 plie squats
10 lunges (each leg)
Run down and up the stairs
Round II-
15 narrow squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular)
15 squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular)
15 plie squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular)
15 lunges (each leg; 5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular)
Run down the stairs/run half-way back up/run down/run all the way back up
Round III-
20 narrow squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular, 5 jumping)
20 squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular, 5 jumping)
20 plie squats (5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular, 5 jumping)
20 lunges (each leg;Â 5 regular, 5 jumping, 5 regular, 5 jumping)
Run down the stairs/run one-third way back up/run down/run two-thirds way back up/run down/run all the way back up
-REST-
Workout Part II: You only need one step for this part
Start with your right foot on the step
10 Squat-to-side leg raise
10 pulsing lunges
Repeat 3x with little to no rest in between
Then, switch to your left foot on the step and do the same thing.
Finish off with 3 sets of calf raises until failure!!
Yeah— I am still feeling that leg workout 2 days later!
Hope this blog posting inspired you to go to the south of France AND stay fit and sweaty while on vacation!