We have recently been fortunate to spend a weekend away in the sunny shores of Nice! It was a great experience both for the d2 team to get to know each other a bit better as well as  to recharge our batteries after a busy year.

Arriving just in time for tea (and happy hour!) we spent the first evening in one of Nice’s many backstreet restaurants trying an array of delicious foods and wines and showing off our (lack of) French speaking skills.

Saturday morning was spent on the pebble beach swimming in the warm turquoise sea and having a picnic (with aid of Jon’s expired credit card to spread the cheese), whilst Rob insisted on doing his best Daniel Craig as Bond impression coming out of the sea.

Stepping out of the sun, we then proceeded to explore the high walled avenues of the Old Town, a labyrinth of narrow streets containing with every type of shop you can think of and rustic apartments looking down from above.

Eventually we all found ourselves back on the coast watching a fiery orange sun disappear behind the horizon.  Before the light began to fade, we noticed an ominous formation of dark clouds setting in and before we knew it, we were running for cover into another restaurant back in the Old Town.

Most of the group took this time to try Nice’s specialty, the Nicoise salad, while others tried locally caught sea bream or pasta dishes.

After our meal, we took the opportunity to mix it up with some of the locals in the surrounding bars and repeatedly found ourselves in the odd position of speaking to someone in French only for them to respond in English.

Awakening to find much of the town closed for Sunday, we climbed to the top of the Chateaux, dodging rollerbladers and segway tours to reach a man-made waterfall that overlooked the entire bay, a panoramic view that seemed to stretch for infinity over the South of France and beyond. Amazingly, we could still see the ocean floor from this high up.

And so, we found ourselves back at the airport and soon on our flight back to Manchester, contented and refreshed, ready to get back to work the next day.