We have a nice 11 day trip planned to Provence, Nice, Florence and Paris. With respect to Nice, we are driving from Aix -en Provence on Easter Sunday to Nice. We are thinking 2 or 3 towns/villages to see along the way and further past Nice. We are thinking Grasse -perfume factory, but probably not open on Easter, Eze -hear wonderful things, Menton -very cool to sit in a cafe and enjoy. Perhaps a drive through monaco? We really aren't looking for Nice touristy stuff as we are just staying the night before we take the train to Florence and we just want to enjoy local culture. Any comments on these towns -any relaxing restaurants?

A drive through Monaco is not very practical. Parking the auto and using Monaco buses and/or walking works well.

Forget Monaco, Eze is worth the stop forlunch at the top for the view. Nice, in the old town is fun walking around and maybe stop at a café that serves the famous inexpensive socca(a chickpea like pancake) but there are also stands so you can eat as you walk along.

Eze is awesome and just a local bus ride from Nice. I wouldn't pass it up, not a chance. It's situated on a hill, bit of a climb up, and then you enter a garden of cactuses and statues for beautiful views of the sea and moutains. Gorgeous. Aix on Provence is a great little town, I liked it, but the best place to see is Marseilles which is 30 minutes away from there. I recommend staying in aix-en-provence since there is little crime and it's an nice place at night. Marseille is bigger and has some crime, but the sea is beautiful there. I recommend taking the boat to the island that you can get at the local dock.

Nice is gorgeous as well, beautiful. Just know that the beach is rocky not sandy. They have a great park on a hill that overlooks the whole city. very pretty. I think you're going to have a great time.

Monaco, I would recommend, when are you ever going to go to such a small rich country? It's the 2nd smallest in the world, the vatican coming first. I met a person from there and it sounds great, I wish i would have went.

Ciao

Theresa

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THE spectacular cote d'azur experience is the drive over the corniches between nice and Monaco. There are three corniches: the basse (lower), the moyenne (middle) and the grand (superior). The corniches are halfway interconnected by small roads with hairpin curves. You have to drive there and enjoy the grand vistas!

Eze is just in the middle between Nice and Monaco - a typical old village with spectacular views. But IMO just worth a 15 minute-stop. See also La Turbie, a great Roman monument on the grand corniche.

>Forget Monaco<

Of course you must visit Monaco. There are many things to see: Fin-de-siecle architecture, including the Casino and the Hotel de Paris, the principal palace (open to visit) in Monte-Carlo, the Oceanographic Institute (the former director was Jacques Cousteau), and a cactus garden on the cliffs over the sea.

I also recommend a visit to Cap Ferrat. Beautiful scenery, the Cote's best (and most hidden) beaches, and the pompous Villa Rothschild.

The total drive makes a full and very memorable day.

Plenty of fin-de-siecle architecture in Nice. If the OP just wants to drive through Monaco, better to skip it.

And I didn't find the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild pompous. Precious maybe but definitely not pompous.

Are you driving from Aix to Nice, then just staying one night in Nice? In that case I would only drive to Eze, have lunch there, then return to Nice, walk around the old town and have dinner there, somewhere on the Cours Saleya perhaps. Or go to Villefranche and Cap Ferrat instead of Eze.

My husband and I frequently hop down to Nice on easyJet but he never had any desire to go to Monaco. We often take the bus or train to Menton and walk back to Roquebrune along the sentier littoral. It's a gorgeous walk.

So one time I flew down from Switzerland in March for 15.95 CHF RT to buy olive soap and decided to take the train to Monaco and wander about the town. I came upon the palace about a half hour before the changing of the guard. And lo and behold, from a balcony up above who stood up to go inside but Prince Rainier and Princess Caroline and her children. Just a regular day sunning themselves and having lunch. That was a bit of a thrill for me.