Editor’s Note: The Mississippi State women’s basketball team is on the final leg of a trip that has taken it to Belgium and to France. Senior guard Kendra Grant reports today from the French Riviera.
Greeting Bulldog fans from the French Riviera and Nice! I know how you’re wanting to say it, but it’s actually pronounced Neece.
It has been quite the trip. It’s something I never thought I would have experienced, but it has been one of the best trips of my life. It’s hard to believe that we are in our final days here.
Tuesday we left Lyon and bussed about five hours to Nice. Lyon was another great historic city. Some of my teammates and myself actually got out and shopped a little bit. I bought some stuff from H&M, which is good because I don’t get to go there very often. I guess H&M is pretty popular with our team.
We got back to the hotel from our game around midnight, so a number of us stayed up pretty much all night. I maybe slept for an hour, so the whole bus ride to Nice was pretty much sleeping.
Our driver, Jos, was required to stop about halfway, so we pulled into a convenience store that also served pizza and a lot of pastries. It was not like the stores we have at home really.
After we got back on the road Mr. and Mrs. Ishee and Mr. and Mrs. Jones, two couples who joined us on the trip, decided to come up with French bingo for us to play. The way it worked was we each got a card and wrote down some of the sights we had seen as well as some French phrases we had learned.
We played four games, and JJ (Jerica James), Chinwe (Okorie), Martha (Alwal) and YaYa (Smith) won. When you won you had to go up front and say the names that got you bingo. They tried hard, but Chinwe was good at it since she can speak French. It really was a lot of fun and a good way to pass the final couple of hours until we arrived in Nice.
Some of us went back to sleep following bingo, and I heard some of the other players start to wake up. When I did I saw the view and the ocean off in the distance. Nice is actually on the Mediterranean Sea. Seeing all the boats and the water and the houses up on the mountains was absolutely beautiful.
We got to the hotel, Le Meridien, checked into our rooms and immediately went down to the beach. These beaches were definitely not what I expected. They were actually rocks instead of sand, which made it really hard to walk on. Although it was not easy to walk on, we made the best of it and had a lot of fun.
The beach was crazy. There is not much beach before you get to the water, and there was so many people out there that it was hard to get down to the water without stepping on someone.
We went out in the water, but I didn’t go too far because I’m not that good of a swimmer. The water was cold, but once you got in you kind of got used to it.
We swam for a while and then had to go get ready for our team dinner. We went right around the corner from our hotel to this great little restaurant, and the dinner was amazing. It was my second time to get lasagna, but this one was really good. The meal included dessert, so I had another first on this trip and got creme brule. It was really good because the creme under the crust was actually Toblerone chocolate.
After dinner some of the team went walking around. There are so many shops and restaurants. All of the places we have been have their unique differences, but they are alike in so many ways. The streets were crazy because there was so many people down there eating at the different restaurants and just having a good time.
I plan to get a good night’s sleep because tomorrow is going to be another great day. We are going to a perfume factory, something none of us have ever done. I’m excited to mix a couple things together and see what I get. We are also going to visit Monaco and Monte Carlo, which will be a great experience because of its rich history of cars and all.
Well, I hope you’re enjoying the blog, and be sure to keep checking back to read about the final days of our trip to France.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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