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A few nights in Nice

Pauline

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We are spending 5 nights in Nice - leaving in a week. The agency Nice Pebbles offered me a free apartment! I am not sure why. I rented an apartment from them in 2010. I think they made this offer to people who booked with them before because I talked to someone else who got the same email from them. I used miles for the flight and we won't get a rental car, so this is almost a free trip.

(And I need a vacation after this move. It was all going well until my 70 boxes from the US arrived. I have been unpacking and organizing for nearly 3 weeks straight!)

Any recommendations for things to do, or restaurants, in Nice?

I think we will take the train to Antibes one day (@Chris told me one time she thought we would like Antibes). Or should we take the train in the other direction to Menton? I would like to see both places, but we won't have time for both (unless we skip Vence).

Another day I would like to take the bus to Vence to see the Rosaire Chapel (designed in the 1950s by Matisse). Has anyone seen this? Is it worth the day trip for this? We tried to see it on our 2010 trip but arrived in Vence by car, in the pouring rain, on market day, and there was not a single parking spot in town, so we left (no patience). The hours are limited - closed Friday and Sunday, limited hours the other days - so I will pay attention to that.

The other two days we will spend in Nice. I thought we might take the bus to Villefrance-sur-mer where @jonathan stayed a couple of years ago. Should we try to walk out on Cap Ferrat to see all the villas, or is this not the kind of area where you walk?

Nice Pebbles has good information on their site about visiting Nice.

I don't find any vegetarian restaurants in Nice (other than juice bars and salad bars). Last time I remember eating in a very good Italian restaurant.

I am hoping for a few days of sunshine and warmer weather. A chance for Steve to speak French. And some sitting in a cafe time!

Photo from 2010 of Nice Old Town.

nice-old-town-1845.jpg
 
Looking forward to hearing about your experience. We haven't been to Nice yet, but it is on my list.
 
I do really like Antibes, and I loved Eze (accent missing because I'm lazy) for the most spectacular view of the sea I've ever seen. We took the bus and returned by bus and train. I also really enjoyed the Rothschild mansion (Ephrussi de Rothschild) in Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

The bus to Vence will be a long ride. On one trip I took the bus to St. Paul-de-Vence, which is closer to Nice on the same route, and the bus ride was well over an hour. St. Paul is very touristy, but it's also a very beautiful village. Biot is on my list for my next trip, and I still haven't been to Menton. I found Villefranche underwhelming. It's pretty, and you get a good view of the cruise ships.

There are also the Matisse and Chagall museums, and the Picasso Museum in Antibes. The Fondation Maeght is one of my favorite art museums anywhere.

You couldn't possibly do all of this in 4 days. If I were you, I'd choose Antibes and Eze for daytrips.

Do you know where your free apartment is yet?
 
Congrats on the free apartment! I've just had an enjoyable 15' reading through my 2013 Villefranche notebook. Yes, the Picasso museum in Antibes is well worth a visit: the building, and the exhibition rooms, are very lovely and, of course, there's some great art on display. And I much enjoyed the Matisse museum, in the Nice suburb of Cimiez (an easy bus ride from the centre).

Yes, you certainly can walk from VSM to Cap St Ferrat, and I loved the Ephrussi Villa. The walk should be perfect at this time of the year (in August, I was very glad of my Tilley - purchased only a few months previously, in Toronto :dork: ). Walk along the footpath that follows the top of the beach, right the way to the end, then climb the steps up to Promenade des Marinières. Follow the little road (Av Bordes), past Villa Nellcote (Parigi can fill in the story here...) and turn down a little, slightly hidden footpath labelled Chemin des Moulins on the map. This takes you right down to Villa Ephrussi - though you have to go round by the road for the final bit to get to the entrance.

If you feel like more walking after the Villa (as I did), you can walk down to the footpath that runs up the eastern side of the Cap, which leads (past David Niven's one-time villa, rather more visible than Nellcote) up to Beaulieu, where you could catch a bus or train back to Nice.

(Good time to be escaping from the UK: it might be sunny, but it's cold! P and I have one more week of work, then we're off to Ostuni for a week.)
 
It is not cold today! We just got back from walking in the holloway at Symondsbury - sunny and warm. But this is a nice time of year to get a warmer break.

Okay, the Matisse Church in Vence is off the list. Thanks Chris. We don't want to do such a long bus ride. Instead we will take the bus to Eze as you recommended. I have heard it is a beautiful town.

We went to the Matisse Museum in Nice on our last trip and enjoyed it, plus the Roman ruins beside it. We will go to the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

Jonathan, thanks for the Cap St Ferrat details. That sounds like a good excursion. We will do that.

We don't know which apartment we are getting but will know on Wednesday.

The only glitch with it all is that we turn our clocks forward next weekend and we drive to Heathrow Sunday morning - so on our body clock are heading out an hour earlier than I had planned (we are not morning people). This is our first time doing such a short trip from here - 5 nights.
 
Free accommodation with Nice Pebbles!!! Honestly?! Do you know which apartment. As you may remember we stayed in Nice a couple of years ago(well maybe it was 3 or 4) renting from Nice Pebbles. I loved Nice. Walking along the Promenade, Garibaldi Square by the Port, both markets. You should have good weather. There are several good museums as well as a botanical garden. There are also a couple of good health food stores. I'm pretty sure you can find vegetarian options.
Lovely walk along the cliffs to Villefranche. Unlike Chris above I loved the walk to Villefranche and found Antibes rather ordinary. Great transport as we didn't have a car.
Enjoy

PS As I'm not on FB I feel I'm missing out on learning all about your new home. :(
 
Wow!

This sounds pretty great. I can only second the various suggestions re: Fondation Maeght, Matisse Musee, and the Picasso Museum in Antibes... and strongly second the recommendations of the Ephrussi-Rothschild Villa (and gardens). Have you read "The Hare with the Amber Eyes"?... that family.
I also was thinking to recommend the Matisse Chapel, but when I was there a couple of years ago, I stayed for a week in Antibes as a base and we had cars. So your decision to avoid an hour-long bus trip is understandable. It's beautiful, but small, so it's a quick visit compared to the length of the bus trip.
I loved Vallouris... the Musee National de Picasso is there, with a chapel attached that he painted. The town has wonderful ceramics shops, galleries, etc. But again, it looks close to Antibes, but maybe not so easy on the bus.

Four days is not enough! But since it's a "free" trip, you'll have to go again sometime.

Enjoy
Karen

PS: Now you've all got me thinking that maybe I should extend my trip from Avignon in June, and go further east instead of back to Paris so soon... will post a question about that, since there are so many great responders here.
 
Pauline, I don't know how hard it is to get there by public transportation, but I was very moved by our visit to the Matisse Chapel in Vence several years ago. What I wrote in my trip report was: "You don't need to be religious to be transfixed by the spiritual experience Matisse created here. This little chapel in Vence was so perfect in its purity of space, light, and line that it took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes." But we were there way off season in December, and I think it would not have been at all the same experience if crowded by tourists. We also visited Eze on Christmas Day, and had it practically to ourselves. But I can imagine how crowded those narrow streets would be in high season.

I agree with Chris that the Fondation Maeght is wonderful. But I will also say that we were kind of disappointed when we were there in 2014 (compared to our first visit in 2005). It was at least partly because we were there on a rainy day, and you really need nice weather to enjoy the outdoor sculptures. But we were put off by the fact that it seemed to be badly maintained, with a lot of plastic covering art works because the ceiling was dripping. And many of the works we enjoyed on our first visit weren't on display the second time around. You may not be able to visit anyway, since it's probably hard to get there by public transportation.

The wonderful recent enhancement to Nice is the Promenade du Paillon, a greenspace walkway that is sort of an extension of the Promenade des Anglais. It runs right through the center of Nice and is an example of the kind of thing the French do so well in their parks. Here's a link to one of my Flickr photo albums with several pictures to give you an idea.

Nice does have a lot of Italian restaurants where you may be able to find vegetarian options, or at least ask them to prepare pasta or pizza with no meat. One very reasonable Italian place we enjoyed in the Old Town was La Taca d'Oli. Another was Ville Sienne. Here's another place we really liked, which does have at least one vegetarian dish every day: LeVingt4. They were so nice there, and I'm sure would prepare something to your specifications. Here's another photo album with pictures of some of our meals in Nice.
 
I've stayed in Antibes on several trips.

Antibes can easily be a half-day unless you want to go to the beach or bus/hike out to Cap d'Antibes.

Must-do: Provençal Market (find the Soba!), Picasso Museum, lunch in Old Town. There's no shortage of Italian restaurants, you'll trip over them, in Antibes. In fact, it's difficult to find something other than Italian!

I'm another to highly recommend Villa Ephrussi and if you started there (by bus), to see it in the morning, then walk downhill (probably 30+ minutes, under 3km) to Villefrance-sur-mer for lunch (passing Nellcote), it would be a good outing.
 
We canceled this trip!

I got everything booked a month ago and just had to wait until closer to the date to choose the apartment. They suggested an apartment yesterday and I liked it and said okay. But today they said there was a heating problem with the apartment and they would put us in another one. They sent the link and I didn't like the look of it - boring, modern and near where we stayed last time. They made the booking without waiting for my reply. So, I canceled.

They also emailed a few confusing statements about the check in time which made me think we were not going to make their deadline based on our flight. I started out dealing with one person, then two other people were emailing me today. A little too close to the day we were leaving to be working out where we were staying and when we could arrive. We were supposed to arrive Sunday.

I was able to cancel our flight with a small fee because I had booked with miles.

Thanks everyone for all the great information! I hope someone else going to Nice can use this thread. We will probably do a trip there another time.
 
Socca is basically the same thing as farinata in Italy, if that helps. Both are delicious!

Too bad you had to cancel the trip, Pauline, but I hope you can go to Nice another time. I love that area, but definitely try to go off season. I understand it can be a real zoo in summer.
 
Sorry to hear this. I've had to cancel a few trips in the past couple of years for a small fee and was relieved that I made that choice. Things just didn't feel right. You made the right decision. Lots of opportunities ahead. Enjoy your new home and think about adopting a kitty (maybe?)
 

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