Introduction

• Having not had a holiday since early June my girlfriend and I were very excited to get some late summer sun in the Côte D’Azur (French Riviera) at the end of September.
• Having well timed flights meant we’d have 4 days in both Nice & Antibes. The Côte D’Azur was somewhere I’d heard excellent things about but, apart from a short break with my parents & sister in Menton more than 10 years ago – which included a half day in Monte Carlo, it was a region I had limited exposure to.
• We spent the first 4 days based in Nice, with a day visit to Saint-Jain-Cap-Ferrat and the second 4 days in Antibes, with a day visit to Juan-les-Pins.
• We chose the French Riviera not only because it was an unexplored region for us but also because the flights were inexpensive and the weather is usually still lovely in September.
• In the following piece I will share with you the 5 key things I learned and tips I have if you find yourself visiting Nice and/or Antibes anytime soon.

 

Nice

• Nice is France’s fifth most populous city and the second largest French city on the Mediterranean coast, which given we wanted a mix of sun, beach and ‘culture’ made it the ideal destination to kick off our break.
• Nice was extremely easy to navigate, in part due to the fact the central reference point is the sea and the Promenades des Anglais, this makes it almost impossible to get lost.
• Here are my 5 top takeaways and suggestions for Nice:
  • The beautiful Paloma Beach at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Wow, the view was absolutely incredible and it only took a 35minute bus from the centre of Nice to get there. This meant we were away from the crowded and pebbly beaches of Nice without a difficult journey. A beautiful beach in a beautiful setting, a must for anyone travelling to Nice.
  • The breath-taking beauty of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. The Villa Euphrussi de Rothschild is the reason we came across Paloma Beach and it was spectacular, especially the gardens. Located just outside Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat the incredible villa and gardens were designed and built for Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild in the early 20th Century. Whilst the Villa was very interesting – it was preserved very well too reflect how Béatrice and her family and friends lived there – the real beauty was in the gardens. There are 9 gardens ranging from Japanese to rose and Spanish, each is perfectly maintained and exquisite, a real find.
  • Oliviera Restaurant. A wonderful and small restaurant at the heart of Nice Old Town. As you can probably tell from the name it takes its olive oil very seriously, you can even buy it in bulk from the restaurant. The food in the restaurant was exquisite, the menu had a limited range (12 items in total) and was tapas style. The flavours they combined with extremely fresh produce was outstanding, and of course there was a special olive oil for each dish. I would whole heartedly recommend eating here. You can find out more about the restaurant and it’s oil selection here: http://oliviera.com/gb/content/6-restaurant
  • Staying in the Old Town. Nice Old Town also known as Vieux Nice was the best place to enjoy the early morning and evening, which makes it ideal to have your accommodation there. We stayed in an AirBNB and loved it, particularly the closeness of  the streets, the labyrinth feel to them and the way that ‘normal’ French life carries on within them even though they are a considerable tourist trap. Whether it’s popping out to grab croissants in the morning or watching the world go by with a bottle of wine in the evening, Vieux Nice is the place to be.
  • Walk alone the Promenade des Anglais.  Seemingly a very obvious tip, but definitely one I’d recommend doing. What I particularly liked about walking down the Promenade des Anglais was looking at the famous (now quite ugly & tacky) hotels which were once the poshest and most popular places. Seeing how human taste and expectations change over time was very interesting.

Antibes

• Nuzzled between Nice and Cannes, Antibes is a quaint town known for the luxury yachts which are always moored in the port. Antibes is also famous for the fact that Picasso spent 6months here in 1946 and as a tribute to the famous artist the castle has been converted into a Picasso Museum.
• Whilst we did visit the Musée Picasso it did not make it into my 5 top takeaways and suggestions, they are as follows:
  • Port Vauban. I am not usually a flashy yacht person but some of the boats in Antibes were breath taking. I also love the fact that despite being a place famous for rich men showing off there is still a healthy local fishermen culture. However it would be amiss of me not to mention that the Dilbar yacht (used to be Ona) does look like a 1980s toilet, if you are going to spend US$ 600 million on an incredible super yacht at minimum give it decent lick of paint.
  • Staying & eating in the old town. Similar to Nice, the old town was definitely my favourite area of Antibes. It is also something we were able to easily access because of AirBnB. I love their marketing slogan ‘wherever you go with Airbnb, you live there. Even if it’s just for a night,’ and it really felt that way in both Nice and Antibes. Living next to the locals, submerged in their lifestyle gives you are much nicer and more intimate experience of a town/city than being in a hotel.
  • Nomade. Nomade is the famous sculpture created by the contemporary Catalan artist Jaunne Plensa. It is also often referred to as the Man of Letters, as it is entirely made of letters (expect for Q), and perches at the edge of the port looking out to sea.
  • Walks along the coast. Walking along the coast, South, past Plage de la Sallis, was idyllic. The coast juts out rather  prominently at Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, which allows you to enjoy incredible views of the sea and coast in a peaceful manner.
  • Incredible ice cream. I’d heard excellent things about the homemade ice cream at Gelateria Del Porto (https://www.gelateriadelporto.com/) and it definitely did not disappoint. The  sorbets in particular were a favourite, but I don’t reckon there is a single disappointment in their large selection.

General Musings

• As well as specifics about each town also wanting to share some points and musings which I found to be general to the whole Côte D’Azur rather than particular to Nice or Antibes.
  • It is very expensive. We chose (naively) the French Riviera as we were looking for a fairly cheap holiday, after all the flights were barely over £100, we were wrong. The cost of eating out more than made up for the savings from cheaper flights. Going out for a nice but not spectacular meal was €50, paying €70 for the step up. We did reduce some of the cost by eating in a couple of nights, and doing so didn’t take away from our French experience at all, you can’t go wrong with a €4 bottle of French wine, stinking French blue cheese and cured meats!
  • Monte Carlo & Cannes. These are the other main towns within the French Riviera which are very famous, arguably more famous than Nice and definitely more so than Antibes. However I have visited Monte Carlo before and didn’t have any desire to do so again, I found it to be too ‘moneyed’ and tacky. We had planned to visit Cannes, however the weather was too good to justify giving up a day in the sun to look around the town most famous of the Cannes Film Festival.
  • Ease of Transport. I would argue that if you are looking to stay in or around the large towns within Côte D’Azur there is no need for you to hire a car. We travelled from Nice to Antibes by train (1hour), which ran on time and were very frequent, and the bus from Nice to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat was similar.

Conclusion

• Côte D’Azur is an absolutely stunning apart of the world and fortunately it is easy to avoid the over ‘moneyed’ and tacky parts. The weather was also extremely pleasant for the end of September, just don’t expect it to be cheap!
• If you are planning on heading down to the French Riviera I would strongly recommend visiting from Nices & Antibes, if you do then Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Villa Euphrussi de Rothschild are an absolute must.