The French Riviera Restaurants

In Nice and the larger towns of the Eastern Riviera, you can savor a salade niçoise or soupe de poisson (fish soup) on a sunny terrace at any time of day. The Niçois, in particular, celebrate snacking, and this city alone in France is famous for its street food. But don't bring high culinary expectations to the top people-watching venues, such as the Cours Saleya in Nice or the Vieux Port in Cannes, though it's a safe bet that the dry local rosé will be well chilled, and the food fresh, if not elaborate. As a rule, restaurants in the Old Towns of Nice, Cannes, or Antibes stick to traditional fare; the more inventive chefs tend to set up shop a little off the beaten path. You'll find these ambitious chefs in picture-perfect hill towns such as Mougins, while the smaller villages of the arrière-pays (backcountry) remain bastions of rustic traditional cooking. Here, you're unlikely to find a restaurant that will serve outside conventional mealtimes—entire towns indulge in the afternoon sieste.

Restaurants in the coastal resorts of the Western Riviera are expensive and often a risky investment, as they cater mostly to crowds en passage. St-Tropez prices can be higher than prices in Paris. It's a fine town for a (staggeringly expensive) fish feast, however, as it is home to one of the country's finest fish markets, just off the port. Inland, you'll tap into a culture of cozy auberges (inns) in hilltop villages and have a better chance of finding good home cooking for your money. You can also judge how hard a restaurant is trying to please by the children's menu, which in the better restaurants goes beyond the standard steak-haché (bunless hamburger) and frites, sometimes offering gourmet grub such as roast lamb with scalloped potatoes. In St-Tropez don't forget to try the tropézienne, a rich, pastry cream-filled brioche topped with grainy sugar that provides yet another example of the French Paradox when you see the flawless bodies sprawled on the beach. Around the Gorges du Verdon, a magnet for hikers and climbers, food becomes less of a priority—expect to find mostly pizzas, salads, and simple hikers' fare.

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