French Riviera, tell me more

Kristoph

Kristoph

Kristoph

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Joined
11 May 2007
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8,303
Hello,

Me and my girlfriend are off to Nice next month and I'm currently in the OCD planning stages. I'm not one for missing out on something special or unusual hidden down back streets or a bit of a walk away from the crowds.

In terms of 'around' Nice, the current itinerary is;
  • Cannes for a day for the film festival
  • Monaco on the Sunday for the GP
  • St. Tropez for a day

We're staying in the Mont Boron region in Nice and will have about 3 full days to explore Nice itself. So far I've been relying on Tripadvisor and the Independent '48 hours in...' guides. I may pick up a lonely planet guide the region before I go.

I went camping last year so this is a treat - and if anyone here has been to any of these places and something that you did stood out and didn't break the bank, I'd like to know.
 
Monaco was good. Do the tour bus thing if its on, it goes around most of the GP track. Have a drink in the cafe de paris overlooking the casino square.

Nice itself was very pretty but nothing stood out as a 'must do'. Have a wander around the old town and have some nice seafood. Go to the crazy ice cream place in the old town that does about a billion flavours.

Train to Italy is a nice day trip. St Tropez is supposed to be awkward to get to.
 
Youstolemyname said:
Monaco was good. Do the tour bus thing if its on, it goes around most of the GP track. Have a drink in the cafe de paris overlooking the casino square.

Nice itself was very pretty but nothing stood out as a 'must do'. Have a wander around the old town and have some nice seafood. Go to the crazy ice cream place in the old town that does about a billion flavours.

Train to Italy is a nice day trip. St Tropez is supposed to be awkward to get to.
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I don't know how much of Monaco will be accessible, we're arriving early and after the GP has finished we'll be wandering around. I presume most bars will be charging a premium on a race day.

Is this the ice cream place? http://www.arlequin-gelati.com/

For St. Tropez we're looking at hiring a car for a day.
 
Kristoph said:
didn't break the bank
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Good luck with that. Pretty much everything is hideously expensive. I reckon your girlfriend picked Nice because she wants to mix with the beautiful people, and has left you to worry about the money / itinerary and if it's actually any good or not :p.

Being a bit facetious of course; it's a beautiful area.
 
Antibes is quite nice... had some good seafood there, nice town... ridiculous yachts in the harbour - bigger than the ones in Monaco even... They've got a British pub there too if you want a break from the French for a while...
 
I've been seeing Antibes come up on Reddit travel threads, meant to have better beaches. Might end up spending very little time in Nice if I try and visit all these places!
 
Also if you or your GF is vegetarian perhaps pick somewhere else to go... when I went with a few colleagues a few years ago we had a vegitarian guy with us and I swear the waiters in restaurants looked as though they'd never heard of the concept before... Poor bloke was eating pasta basically every night when the rest of us were having freshly caught sea bass, duck, lamb tajine etc.. At one restaurant they even tried to charge him a similar price to our mains for his off menu bowl of pasta claiming it had a 'very expensive mushroom' with it...
 
dowie said:
Also if you or your GF is vegetarian perhaps pick somewhere else to go... when I went with a few colleagues a few years ago we had a vegitarian guy with us and I swear the waiters in restaurants looked as though they'd never heard of the concept before... Poor bloke was eating pasta basically every night when the rest of us were having freshly caught sea bass, duck, lamb tajine etc.. At one restaurant they even tried to charge him a similar price to our mains for his off menu bowl of pasta claiming it had a 'very expensive mushroom' with it...
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Quite right too. Vegetarian, honestly.
 
I was in Nice, Canges Suf Mur for a week back in February. The area is lovely, lots to do the best way to get around is by bus (find a bus station and buy a ticket for a week otherwise its 1.5 eur each way). The food is by far and away the best I've ever eaten. Just make sure you bring plenty of spending money with you.

I didn't particularly like Cannes there's some islands you can take a ferry to that are worth visiting but the town itself I didn't find all that interesting. Grasse is worth visiting, but my favourite town was Vance for me that's what south of France is all about (its a lot like St Ives in Cornwall) Monaco and Nice are yiu can do in day but be warned Monaco is super expensive.
 
We're both vegans actually.







Did I have you going? I'm all about the meat, gf is practically vegetarian if it wasn't for her love of seafood. I think we should be good.

Freddie1980 said:
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I'm going to cook a couple of nights and enjoy the view over Nice with a bottle of wine, but hopefully we'll go out for at least 3 or 4 evening meals. I don't know if it being a lot like St Ives is a good or bad thing, I went there nearly every year growing up and I'm trying to get away from England ;)
 
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I'd check the weather before you depart. The weather here in the south of France hasn't been all that dazzling lately.

Be lucky if it goes above 25 degrees C if the sun is out.
 
bazzabear said:
Staying near nice around GP time? I assume it cost you about 109 times as much as it would have any other time of the year?
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What I've paid for so far doesn't seem affected by the grand prix. Maybe food and drink will be when I get there, not sure.



As for weather, so long as its high teens and not raining, I'm happy!
 
I was being sarcastic :p

Had temps in the 20s in January...

Was 27 here in the sun today :D still it rains a fair bit until late may, then 30-40 degrees everyday until sept
 
Hah. I looked at average temperatures and I saw it was about 22(?) during May. I try not to get my hopes up too high ;) Mid twenties would be brilliant.

Hoping to get some good photos out there and get to grips with my brothers camera again.
 
May will be fine. We stayed in Nice in Mat last year and hopped on the train for the grand prix. If you don't have F1 tickets then avoid Monaco until a few days after the race. It'll just be a (de)construction site.
 
Got some cheap tickets for Le Rocher zone and will arrive at about 7am in Monaco! Haven't a clue what time I can get access to the area though.
 
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