The Unglamorous Girl’s Guide to the French Riviera

the rocky beach of Nice

I am really proud of the title of this post, because it's funny, but it's also painfully true. I'm not glamorous in the slightest. I don’t wear makeup, even when I have acne I really should cover up, my mom has to remind me to buy new clothes, and the only time I enjoy getting dressed up is for a job interview because my suit makes me feel like I’m a prosecutor on Law & Order. I wear one pair of sneakers until they fall apart, then I buy the exact same pair and the cycle begins again.

I tell you all of this to explain why I was kind of nervous to go to Nice. My French friend had told me I had to go to Nice in June, and I do like the ocean, so I figured “why not?” The only problem was that, in my mind, the French Riviera is the classiest, most glamorous place on earth, filled with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes and tanning in beautiful swimsuits on beautiful beaches.

To be fair, these impressions were almost 100% based on Gossip Girl and Emily in Paris. As a pale, tall, standoffish woman, I blend in really well in northern Europe, but I wasn’t sure how well I’d fare in the south of France. I’d read Buzzfeed listicles with horror stories about tacky Americans embarrassing themselves in front of Europeans. I was sure that was going to happen to me.

I’m here to tell you that absolutely no one cared.

Nice is a vacation town. There were Brits, Spaniards, Germans, Americans, and more, so there was no single style or single way of dressing—there were all kinds of people behaving in all kinds of different ways.

Place Masséna, Nice

Wherever you go in the world, especially if it’s a city, there will be all sorts of people who live in their own unique ways. So, as long as you don’t do anything crazy, like walking around naked or standing on a street corner screaming at passersby, there’s a good chance that no one will think you look out of place, and if they do, they probably won’t judge you for it. I’m not saying that how you dress while you travel doesn’t matter: for safety reasons, I try to avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to myself, so I don't wear revealing clothes or graphic t-shirts—especially t-shirts advertising sports teams or colleges—because they are a very American thing.

But, in reality, the best way to enjoy the French Riviera is in your way. If you don’t want to wear a bikini on the beach, don’t. If you don’t want to take pictures, or you want to take a million, it’s your choice. No matter who you are, you are good enough to visit anywhere. You don’t have to be a history buff to visit Rome or Athens, a surfer to visit Australia, or a model to visit Paris or Milan.

So, the unglamorous girl’s guide to the French Riviera isn’t really a guide at all: it’s a just a reminder that you can just be yourself, and that if you are respectful, careful, and curious, nowhere is off limits for you.