An Ode To Menton: Notes From the Edge of France

Moving to Menton has been a crazy journey (to say the least), most akin to a fever dream. Living in la perle de la France looks a little like this: swarmed by tourists in-season, and then left mostly empty for the rest of the year, minus the retirees, bored teens and of course a bustling couple of hundred Sciences Pistes. I wanted to write this little article, partly for myself, partly for Sciences Pistes (old and new) and partly for Menton. 

As we 2As prepare for our departure, I wonder what my biased memory will frame my time in Menton to be. Is living in the Côte D’Azur really as luxe as Instagram stories sell-it to be?  This is my little reflection to remember the highs and the lows while they're still fresh in my memory. Here are ten lessons (from the 100s) from Menton:

1.  Small town life

Living in a quaint little French town is cute and memorable. Small town gossip, also very real. With the windows open in an apartment overlooking Rue Longue, all sorts of news reverberates in the silence, and any tea you may be spilling will likely be overheard by your (probably also student) neighbors. As reflected in last month’s article on the romantic realities of this little town—the pool of young people in Menton is saturated—welcoming boredom, hence gossip, messy love triangles, and well, situationships you can’t escape when walking home from Carrefour. An additional plus is bumping into peers whose texts you haven’t responded to in days on your way to the gym… Love when that happens!

2. 5’ away

Small town life isn’t all bad. Especially for those living in the vielle ville, rolling out of bed and into class within minutes has never been easier. I haven’t taken for granted that it is not the norm to live three minutes from campus and at most a five to ten minute walk from your friends. It’ll be difficult transitioning to a long-distance friendship routine where time differences and Google Calendar invites replace the daily: “I’ll be there in 5!”

Also, I can’t skip the perks of proximity when it comes to our uni group chat—texting in the “Sciences Po Menton Communities 2024/2025” on Whatsapp to ask for virtually anything—to borrow a baking tray, a screwdriver, glue stick or someone to come over and kill a spider and actually getting a response? A rare and beautiful thing in my book.

3. Three countries in a day 

Being based in Menton comes with the bonus of casually crossing into another country after a 2km leisurely stroll by the beach in one direction and hopping on a train 10’ in the other direction into another. So, croissants in France, pizza in Italy and dinner in Monaco—100% doable. 

While cool, this reality also reveals deeper contradictions. Just a few hundred meters away from the glamor of Mirazur, you have borders that are open for some and violently closed for others—a harsh reminder of the uneven freedom of movement that defines the region.

4. Twelve km from ‘paradise’ to poverty

Working with Sciences Po Refugee Help has been an important wake up call to the harsh humanitarian crisis at the Franco-Italian border, bringing me close to scenes that don’t make it into travel blogs and insta stories. The border, just minutes away from Menton’s colorful skyline and overpriced restaurants, is the site of daily pushbacks, systemic neglect and abandoned hopes. 

Studying refugee law in parallel made things even more jarring. While political rhetoric in Europe often speaks in ideologically-charged extremes of ‘illegal’ immigrants, the reality is far more nuanced. Refugee camp closures post-COVID have resulted in even harsher conditions for people on the move, with many sleeping under bridges and relying on food from local organizations offering support. The securitization rhetoric of politics often distorts, what is at the core, a much more complex, human story. 

5. Multilingualism

Arabic, Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, English, Hebrew, Turkish—just a few of the languages you’ll hear on an average day while walking out of class. I’ve never been in a consistently multilingual and multicultural environment like that of Sciences Po Menton. Conversations blend between languages, cultural references overlap and slowly your world expands without you realizing it. If any place has taught me about different cultures, perspectives and ideas, it’s been this campus.  

6. 365 sunsets by the beach

Living by the beach is so cool. Simple. Bad days, post-midterm cries, or existential breakdowns are a whole lot more poetic when you're sitting by the beach, gazing at the glistening water of the Mediterranean with the sublime backdrop of the Italian mountains. Problems don’t disappear, but perhaps feel slightly more manageable with the sound of the ocean in the distance.

7. The French uni system is hardcore

Should I have been more mentally prepared coming to Sciences Po Menton? Probably. Transitioning from an Anglo-Saxon education system to a blend of the French system rigor and a more Western-interdisciplinary approach has been a process for sure. Unlike the typical Anglo-Saxon approach, attendance is strictly mandatory with little margin of error. No lecture recordings, limited extensions, and regular 8-10 hour work days that make the live, laugh, love mindset a little more challenging to embody. Has it made me more resilient, organized and better at working under (a lot of pressure)? Yes. Has my Google Calendar looked like an overflowing rainbow with minimal blanks? Also, yes. Would I do it again? 100% 

Being booked and busy is the Menton student default, but so is balancing multiple extracurriculars for fun, Thursday Retro nights, culture days and jam sessions! Work-hard play-hard as they say.

8. Fake it till you make it?

When I came to Menton I told myself that I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone, but not merely in the academic domain. I started performing (singing!) live for the first time, became the head of the music club and worked with so many talented musicians. I took tango classes, explored international security, met professionals and heads of states, made my case for the CROUS scholarship in broken French, and spoke on national TV through a student initiative that brought me back home to Cyprus (Babel!). My time here was one of many firsts—a place of gentle chaos and a small, often comforting community that welcomed my trials, failures, experimentation and growth.

9. The grass is always greener on the other side

If you go back to my first article of the semester (an interview with our director, Mr Halaoua) there’s a section where we discuss the ‘unlucky’ nature of not having as many opportunities as students based in Sciences Po Paris when talking about conferences, networking events, career fairs etc. His response was that the essence of the grass is always greener on the other side. Honestly, he wasn’t wrong. Sure there are the pros of being on a bigger campus in a capital, but every place has its pros and cons. At Menton I’ve attended a series of incredible events—conferences on Palestine, anti-Semitism, Gulf economies, international security, and more.

For all those dreaming of escaping the anonymity of the city, or the individualism plaguing modern capitalist metropoles, studying in a little French town isn’t all soft girl era and sunset journaling. Don’t get me wrong, it has been an absolute blessing to live here, however small town life has also felt limiting, constraining and a little boring at times.

Menton taught me that even the prettiest places hold an ugliness within them. Ultimately, it is up to us what we make of it.

10. French boulangeries are elite

With the recent I don’t wanna be French meme (insert Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’) taking the internet by storm, I want to focus on the unequivocally incredible things I’ll miss when I leave France. French boulangeries. The effortless chic of carrying a baguette in your tote. The joy of a fresh croissant in the morning. The delight of moules frites paired with a local white wine—pretty awesome if you ask me.

Say what you want, but this part of French life? Iconic. I’ll miss it dearly.

Menton, thank you for being the birth of my love-hate relationship with France, which as I depart is leaning more towards love <3 Cheers to Mitron’s supreme medialunas (top tip: go before 10:30am as they usually sell out), O Recife’s iconic coffees and Sciences Po’s insane schedule (and honorable  mentions to Narev’s for being the gym all of Sciences Po suddenly goes to when summer’s around the corner, Vulcano for bearing with our crowding outside for take-away pizza and of course, Demontis for bringing the most delicious ice-cream I have ever tried to this little town). It’s been an unforgettable ride. À bientôt!

Photo source: Maria Eirini Liodi