Our Fabulous French Adventure Pt 1 Nice
 

Per your requests...<BR>OUR FABULOUS FRENCH ADVENTURE<BR>Our trip to France in September 2002 was wonderful! Great sightseeing, friendly people and fabulous food. We had planned our two week vacation back in March. The waiting was the hardest part, but this gave me plenty of time to search the Fodor’s and AOL travel boards to get our game plan. Thanks to all. <BR>Here’s what we did.<BR>5 nights in Nice at the Westminster Concord (www.concorde-hotels.com)<BR>Car Rental Auto Europe/Hertz<BR>4 nights in St Remy de Provence at Domaine de Valmouriane (www.valmouraine.com)<BR>Train from Aviginon<BR>5 nights in Paris at Artus Hotel in St. Germaine (www.artushotel.com)<BR>Tour Books – DK Eyewitness Provence &amp; the Cote D’Azur, DK Paris and Michelin Green Guide French Riviera and the Green Guide to Provence.<BR>Maps – Michelin #115 Cote d’Azur Alpes-Maritime and Michelin #246 Vallee du Rhone. <BR>FRIDAY PM<BR>Our vacation began on a Friday afternoon fighting traffic to Boston’s Logan airport. American Airlines to Heathrow was a treat. Lots of leg room and individual TV’s. We played with the TV’s for most of the quick six hour flight. We didn’t particularly like connecting through Heathrow. It was confusing and we ended up in a long line for a shuttle bus to transfer to a different terminal. We flew British Airways to Nice and arrived to a picture perfect morning, warm and sunny. <BR>SATURDAY<BR>The sea was truly Azur, as in Cote d’Azur. I never pictured this many palm trees. The taxi ride was about 20 minutes and cost 30 euros. Our room at the Westminster Concorde wasn’t ready so we went for a walk down the Promenade des Anglais. This is a terrific “people watching” stroll, one that we did many a day and night. Young and old, eating, laughing, biking, swimming, sitting and taking in the sights. We were in love with Nice already. We walked though a charming park and ended up in the pedestrian zone. More people, great shops, lots of restaurants. We saw people eating pizza at Cannes Pizza. It looked incredible. One regret, we never got back. Actually this was one of the only times we spent here, because all of our dinners were in the Old Town. We stopped and bought two, what we called “Big Beers”, 50 ml, at a small store. This is our favorite tip for beer drinkers, instead of sitting down at a bar or caf&eacute; and being charge 4 euros a piece for a “demi” 25 ml, we would buy a couple beers at a shop and sit on a lovely bench and enjoy. Speaking of demis, this was the only thing we didn’t like about France. Those silly little beers go down too quickly! We also purchased water for our room. We came to find that Evian was our preferred big bottle of water. Many of the other brands were very salty tasting.<BR>

Nice continued...<BR>We happily headed back to the hotel. Oui, you have a room with a balcony. The room, on the top floor, was no bigger than our walk in closet back home. The worse part was that the end of the bed, the only place to sit, had a metal end board so you couldn’t even sit down. Horrors! I was prepared for small but I would probably kill my husband or vise a versa, after five nights in this room. I asked the Bell Man if they had larger rooms, Oui Madam, this one is one of our smallest. Make sure you check your room before you bring the bags up. They explained that they were totally booked, but I persisted. They finally agreed to moving us to a junior suite, #108, for a slightly higher “discounted” rate. The room was perfect. High ceilings, two big window doors, one opened up onto a small balcony overlooking the outdoor bar. There was plenty of room for clothes, a sitting area, a large bathroom, two beds pushed together to equal a king, and two air conditioners. The Westminster is located right on the sea, with the Quai des Etats-Unis, the main road in between. This was the noisiest street ever! The windows had pull down shutters that helped us sleep at night. We took a very well deserved nap for three hours, showered and walked down the promenade to the Cours Saleya. This is where the flower market is held daily. Many Caf&eacute; and restaurants lined the area. This is also the front of the Old Town. We had dinner at Les Dent de La Mer, “The Teeth of the Sea” at 2, rue St Francois de Paule, at the beginning of the Cours Saleya. The atmosphere inside was great fun. You feel like you’re inside a sunken ship. The place was busy and the service was good, not great. The food was wonderful, fresh and simple. A nice elderly couple next to us suggested that we order a whole fish and that would be plenty. We started with a warm mixed seafood salad that we shared. Then we had a whole Lupi de Mer (sea bass) grilled with two sauces, one a butter lemon and the other a tomato basil. We asked them not to fillet the fish and to serve it whole. We like to pick on the bones. It was delicious and just right for two. They served it with a wonderful copper pan full of crisp roasted potatoes and tomatoes. Yummy. This was not a cheap meal. We were surprised that the fish cost 75 euros. The total meal with 2 demi beers each cost 110 euros, but we would definitely recommend Les Dent de La Mer for fresh fish. We wandered around the market to Fenocchio’s Ice Cream parlor. There are two in Old Town, one an indoor corner shop and the other a large outdoor shop. We went to the smaller indoor one, up from the market in Old Town. This became a nightly treat. Pignoli and Carmel, Amaretto and Tiramisu in big waffle cones. Heaven! What a perfect ending to our first day in Nice.

Nice continued...<BR>SUNDAY<BR>I originally thought we would get up early and take the Pine Cone Train. I decided that it would be more fun to walk around and get lost in Nice. We never took the train. Now we have a great reason to return to Nice. We found a Caf&eacute; for breakfast, croissants for Mike and a ham and cheese Panini for me. We walked down the pedestrian area. It was so quite. It was Sunday morning. We wandered around the back streets and loved looking into the busy bakeries and pasta shops. We ended up at Notre Dame Harbor. This is a picture perfect, colorful working harbor. It is large enough to hold cruise ships, pleasure boats and many fishing boats. There was every size of boat/ships possible. We hopped a free ride on the harbor shuttle bus to the other side where we walked out onto the jetty. It was a gorgeous day. We walked around the bend of the road and were rewarded with a panorama view of Nice. Four young lads were jumping off the cliff into the aqua sea. From there we took the elevator up to the Chateau which is actually a high hill overlooking Nice where there once stood a fortress. Now it is a lovely park full of kids of all ages, playing soccer. Even the dogs were playing soccer! We wandered around the old ruins. There were lots of cool mosaics everywhere. We worked our way down the side of the hill, past a large waterfall and made our way down to the Cours Saleya. The market was just finishing up for the day (around noon). I took many colorful pictures of olives, mushrooms, fruits, artichokes, spices, and flowers. What fun! We got lost in the alleyways of Old Town and finally ended up at Chez Renee, 2 rue Miralhetti, on the corner of rue Paroliere. This place is a landmark, well known for Socca. The place was mobbed. You stand in line and place your order of stuffed vegies, fried zucchini flowers, fried small fish (we felt like we were eating bait), lots of other things and socca. It was all very overwhelming. My husband claims (excuse my French) “Socca Sucks”. I liked it. It’s fried crispy dough of chickpea flour, that they cook in a giant saucer, rather bland, but different. There are wooden tables along the alleyway and a bar next door with tables to enjoy your unique Nice lunch. We were now totally engulfed into the heart of Nice.<BR>

Nice continued...<BR>On our way back we met a man and his son at a candy stand. The older man was roasting almonds with brown sugar. We bought a large bag for the ladies at the front desk of our hotel, as a thank you for getting us the better room. I took a great picture of the dad and son and the son asked me to mail them a copy. I was pleased to send it on. After our heavy duty lunch we felt a nice nap was in order. Every night as the sun set, we would enjoy a cold beer or drink on our little balcony overlooking the sea. It was fun watching the people below us having their Kir cocktails at our hotel bar. Dinner tonight was at L’Escalinada on rue Droite in Old Town. We had a perfect table outside (we reserved on the way back from Chez Renee). This was one of our favorite meals of our entire two week trip. The service was excellent! We started with a complimentary Kir cocktail, then a huge platter of grilled octopus salad with mesclun greens, lightly battered tiny squid with little heads (we love seafood) also on top of salad greens. We washed this down with a nice large carafe of vin blanc. I loved sitting outside on this little old alley. Many a dog came by for a sniff and then moved on to bigger and better smells. We shared two entrees, one rabbit with pistou (pesto) on top of homemade pasta. Wow! The second dish was a veal breast, stuffed with ground veal meat, rice, swiss chard, hard boiled egg and lots more. It was beautiful. This was served with wonderful tiny fresh saut&eacute;ed vegetables. We indulged in another small carafe of vin blanc. They served us a complementary “fire burning” glass of Grappa. The entire meal was 60 euros. We meandered back through the city, through a huge park with lively dancing fountains. We thought we’d try our luck at the Casino. My husband was turned away because he had on leather sandals. Back to the hotel (right near the Casino) to change shoes, bad move. 160 euros vanished in a quick 15 minutes at the Black Jack table. We watched French Roulette for a while then went into the slot area and played. No luck. FYI – make sure you bring your passport and note that they charge 15 euros per person to get in to the table area, which by the way, was very quite and not a lot of action. Oh well. Let’s go back and have a cold beer on our pretty little porch overlooking two lovely palm trees and the sea.

Nice continued...<BR>MONDAY <BR>Another perfect weather day, high 70’s. Today is “pick up the car day”. We found our future breakfast place, right up the street from our hotel, off rue Meyerbeer, Florentine Patisserie, 47 rue de France. This is part of the fun of France, finding your own little places for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We popped into a bar on rue Meyerbeer to ask directions to a restaurant someone mentioned on the Fodor board. A giant golden retriever bounced up behind the bar. Bonjour Monsieur Le Chien! I love Europe. The suggested restaurant was out of business, but I’m glad we looked for it so I could meet my new golden haired friend. We booked our car from Auto Europe. I guess they must use many companies, our was with Hertz at the train station, a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We picked up our stylish silver Peugeot 406 and were off. We found our way easily out of Nice to the Moyenne Corniche, the middle road from Nice to Menton. There are three roads, the high, the middle and the low (sea) road. We chose the middle. What a fabulous road. We drove the Amalfi Coast last year and loved it. This is as spectacular without the white knuckled fear. The Amalfi Coast road is very small and very windy. This one had enough room for two cars, coming and going. If you have a choice, do both! The pull-offs were perfect with many great Kodak moments. We headed to Eze. A lot of people claim this hill top town is too touristy, but being first time visitors we loved it. Perhaps being there mid September, when it wasn’t crowded made it more enjoyable. It took us 5 minutes or so to get a parking place at the bottom of the town. The nicest man gave us his already paid for parking ticket. Everyone has been so polite, helpful and funny so far. Where is that sullen French person, not here! We climbed up to Eze. On our way into the center of the village we met a large group of Asian tourists. They asked us if we could take their picture. It was such a great picture, that after I took theirs with their camera, I told my husband to get in the middle of the group and I took a picture with my camera. It’s the best picture of our trip. Everyone was surprised and smiling, including Michael.<BR>

Nice continued...<BR>Our favorite surprise was the exotic cactus garden at the very top of the village. We bumped into a few people who mumbled 2 euros, why pay? Oh my, this was the best part of Eze. The sun was hot and poking through the clouds that hung on top of this hilltop village. The cactus garden was unworldly. So cool! On the very top were the ruins of an old fortress. The view looking down on the Corniche Inferieure (sea road) was amazing. We meandered down the back roads of this medieval village, past a back room of a restaurant where two young, very handsome young men were baking bread. The aroma was intoxicating. Even in the tourist areas, life is so simple. Down at the bottom and very thirsty, we found a little fruit and vegetable market. We bought a large bottle of water and downed it. We also purchased two big beers. Watch out, these happened to be Amsterdam something or other and were 8% alcohol. Whoa, we seemed to have vegged out for a half and hour or so just looking up at the village. After an enjoyable rest, we drove on towards Monaco. We decided to keep going to Menton, the last town in France before Italy. It was a quick drive, about 22 km from Eze. Michael wanted to be a race car driver, however, I reminded him of what happened to Grace Kelly. Menton was great. We parked our car and made our first driving mistake. No one told us about the centrally located parking meters where you need to buy a ticket and put it on your dash board. Needless to say we got a parking ticket. Anyway, Menton is a great town. It has a nice pedestrian walking area that must be lovely at night with the strings of lights hanging above. Menton has a beautiful coast line winding over towards Italy. We ended up buying two sandwiches from a street shop, one Pan Bagnet (tuna) and the other was Copa Ham with fresh Mozzarella and two more big beers. We walked down to the sea and found a perfect picnic place next to an old fortress. The day was magnificent! We just sat there and absorbed the entire world around us. We even climbed into one of the self-cleaning toilets and took our picture in the mirror. Silly tourists!

Hi Lynne,<BR><BR>Nice sounds amazing. But your hotel does not. Where did you see that you thought looked great? We're planning a summer trip there but can't afford the Martinez but would still like a nice pool, beach, and not a dump. Thanks

As per whose request? It's nice to know that fodors will publish an online book for free.

Nice continued...<BR>The toll road, A8, back seemed to be the right thing. Zoom, zoom, zoom, we were back in Nice in no time. This was our first experience parking in Nice. We found a place right next to the hotel, oh happy day. You need to feed the meter until it registers the next day. From 6:00 pm to 7:00 am (I think) is free. Make sure to place your ticket on your dash. We bought a bottle of Limoncello, in honor of Menton, the lemon capital of the French Riviera. We made sure we had time for a short nap before dinner. We were late getting out and didn’t have reservations. We tried two places recommended only to find them totally booked. Who knew? While we stopped in we made reservations for our next two nights. Restaurants are many in Nice, but remember, most are very small. We made reservations for La Merenda, 4 rue de la Terrasse, for the next night and Restaurant Acchiardo, 38 rue Droite for Wednesday. Now what to do for dinner tonight? We ended up at Lou Pistou, 4 rue de la Terrasse, right next door to La Merenda. This turned out to be a lovely night. This is a teeny tiny restaurant run by Isabelle and Michael, the husband was the chef and the lovely lady ran the front of the restaurant. This was pure and fresh food at its best. We had an awesome arugula salad with shaved Parmesan Reggiano, an omelet with swiss chard and cheese, then a classic dish of white beans and pork sausage in a stew reduction of tomato yumminess. The other dish we shared was a grilled steak topped with garlic, olive oil and crushed anchovies, served with crispy roasted potatoes. It sounds bizarre but it was fabulous. We had two bottles of local vin blanc, total bill 60 euros. Back on our veranda, we enjoyed a tasty glass of Limoncello. We were in heaven. <BR>TUESDAY<BR>We had a great breakfast at our little place, a fine quiche with tomatoes and mozzarella. We are starting to be much more observant. All of our senses are heightened. The colors of a garden balcony, a car driving by with a barking dog hanging out, the smell of fresh baked bread, France is so sensual. Speaking of dogs, I have never seen so many dogs, in my life. Everyone seems to own one or two and they are usually are very small. I’m a large dog fan. Large dogs seem to be a minority here and tend to get pushed around by their smaller version. Little dogs rule and poop quite a bit. Beware! Always watch where you are stepping! So moving on, next door to our breakfast place is a wonderful Italian gourmet shop, Sapori Italiani, 7 rue Meyerbeer, angle 47, rue de France. We had enjoyed our spontaneous lunch yesterday in Menton, we thought that packing a picnic lunch would be just right. We bought Prosciutto, Salame, Italian Fontina, a perfect wedge of French Brie and stuffed olives with anchovies and Parmesan cheese. We marched to the local bakery and bought a large baguette for .60 cents. I placed it under my arm proudly.

We hopped into our Peugeot and head off on the Corniche Inferieure (sea road) to St Jean Cap Ferret. Our destination was the Villa and Gardens at Ephrussi de Rothschild. This was one of the many of places I had check out before we went, but Isabelle from Lou Pistou Restaurant had highly recommended a visit, making it our sightseeing choice for the morning. One thing about planning ahead, make sure you’re prepared for not being able to do half as much as you planned to do. This was especially true in Provence. Back to the Ephrussi de Rothschild estate, this was fabulous. We’ve tour many a grand home, and many were big but not livable. We really wanted to live in this one! Beatrice had a lovely home. The bedroom was so open and full of light, how lovely. She had little couches for her dogs (must have been small pouches). The gardens are incredible. Michael said at one point, “I feel like I’m in the movie, The Lord of the Rings”. It was a beautiful maze of seven different gardens, French, Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, Provencal, a Cactus Garden, a Rosery and a Lapidary (sculptures) garden. We explored this special reserve and all the time taking in the breathtaking view of the Mediterranean Sea. This was so peaceful, who knew that Monaco, our next destination would be so crazy! Horror Land, better known as Monaco was not our favorite place on the French Riviera. It’s not Monaco’s fault, more so ours. We drove into the tightly packed city and thought we could find a lovely bench by the sea to enjoy our picnic. We parked in the first harbor of Monte-Carlo and walked and walked and walked around to the waters edge and never found a bench. We found a Bentley and a Porsche dealer however. It was very hot and the car fumes were brutal. It is quite a city to see, but not very tourist friendly. I told Michael we should go to the “Rock” where the Palace was. After parking and a tight elevator ride, we made our way through throngs of tourists to the Palace. Just below was a lovely park with benches and an incredible view of Monaco. Helicopters were coming and going, landing on the tops of the buildings of the rich and famous. We sat amongst the flowers and enjoyed a true French picnic. We toured the Grimaldi Palace with an audio headphone guide. We both enjoyed this tour. Why were their beds so small? If I was a Prince I have a huge bed! We also toured the Musee Napoleonien that was devoted to any and everything about Napoleon.

Nice continued...<BR>Well now we have visited the two smallest sovereign states, the Vatican and Monaco. Getting down the “Rock” was worse than getting up. There were hundreds of tourists pushing to get into a few tiny elevators. We shared ours with a slobbery, very unhappy Great Dane named Storm. I don’t blame him. I wasn’t very happy either. We honked our horn as we left Monaco, thrilled that we were back in France. We drove back the same way on the sea rode. It was lovely. We had reservations at Merenda, 4 rue de la Terrasse. You must reserve in person. This restaurant only has a hand-full of tables. The chef used to work as the head chef at the Hotel Negresco. He left the hustle and bustle and started his own restaurant to spend more time with his family. The food is typical Nicoise fair, simple and tasty. The most amusing part of the dining experience was watching the people show up for the 7:00 PM reservations (or 9:00 PM two seatings only). Everyone came in and was seated on small stools. Not until everyone arrived were the orders taken. It was like a communal dining experience. We started with stuffed sardines and fresh pasta pistou. Then the classic Daube de Boeuf and Stock Fish stew. The host brought me a small taste of the stew to make sure I would like it. It is made with salt cod and tends to be rather “fishy” tasting. I approved. After dinner we requested a cheese course. They served us a beautiful warm Banon Goat cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves. Heaven. Dinner with two local bottles of white wine was 85 euros. We skipped dessert and headed to Fenocchio’s for Pistachio and Sabayon ice cream. Rome still rules when it comes to gelato, but Fenocchio’s comes in a very close second. On our walk back home, we saw a car in Old town that had somehow keyed an electronic mechanism to lower what looked like a permanent roadblock. We waited patiently for it to rise out of the ground blocking cars from the small street. It doesn’t take much to amuse us. <BR>WEDNESDAY<BR>We had a great omelet at our little breakfast place and then headed northwest of Nice to the little village of St Paul de Vence. Driving is France is easy, but be prepared for lots of rotaries. I’ve decided you can’t take a left in France. Every intersection has a rotary forcing you to take rights at all times. The day was picture perfect, again. We’ve been so lucky with the weather. As with Eze, there weren’t throngs of tourists, so we loved poking around, looking into the art shops. We met a lovely local women, who headed us toward the ramparts on the back streets where no tourist ventured. Parking was easy and inexpensive.<BR>

Nice continued...<BR>From the town we drove the short distance to the Fondation Maeght, one of Europe’s finest modern art museums. Tip, drive up the hill past the parking lot. There is another lot up top that will save you a hike. We parked in the first lot with everybody else and walked. At the top we were distressed to see plenty of parking places. Oh well, live and learn. This is a really fun place. Much of the art is displayed outside in with the Umbrella Pines. From here we headed to Gordon via the Gorges du Loup. This twisty turning road was incredible. The ride through the woods and small towns went up and down cliffs and gorges, next to streams. Michael loved it. It was a little scary. The turn to Gourdon came up quickly on the left, without a good sign and we weren’t sure which way it was pointing. We stopped and asked a gentlemen if this was the way to Gourdon. “Gourdon?” Michael asked. “Gourdon?” the man replied. “Gourdon “Michael repeated. “Gourdon?” the man replied. This went on for what seemed 5 minutes. Finally we pointed, ”Gourdon?” up the hill. Oui he said “Gourdon!!!” To this day we still laugh at the word Gourdon. Well the picture perfect perched village of Gourdon was in the clouds and it was chilly. We were used to the warm weather at sea level. Bring a sweater to Gourdon, even if it’s 80 when you leave in the morning. We walked around this small hilltop village. Unfortunately because of the clouds we missed the “spectacular view”. But the view we saw that day, from the precipitous edge, looking down the valley to the sea was very strange, almost surreal. The low hanging clouds made it very eerie! We had a lovely picnic in the town square. The ride down was great. There was a perfect turn off that afforded a great picture of the hilltop town from below. We drove down to the glass blowing town of Biot. We stopped at the first glass blowing place on the right as we came into town, which was manned by two men, two dogs and a cat. I asked it the dogs ever burnt their tails with all of that hot molten glass hanging around. Non madam. The young man allowed a small French girl to come through and blow the molten glass. She was thrilled. After she blew a big ball, the young man cut it off and it crashed to the ground in pieces. The sound scared me. I can’t imagine that ever happening in the United States. The glass shop was beautiful. We also went to Le Verrerie de Biot factory. This one was much larger. They had an amazing museum there. “No photo’s please”.

Nice End...<BR>We headed back to Nice in rush hour traffic. We hopped on the A8 and were there in no time. We were also blessed with a parking stop right next to the hotel! We ate at Restaurant Acchiardo, 38 rue Droite. This was our last meal in Nice and one of our favorites. The house carafes of wine were 4.80 euros and it was terrific. We started with Raviolis stuffed with swiss chard, topped with a delicious gorgonzola sauce. Then a cold seafood salad, that was too much for two people. For dinner we shared a veal cutlet stuffed with ham and cheese then breaded and topped with a Provencal sauce and a scorpion fish with a Provencal sauce. Dinner was served with either pasta or salad. We choose two very fresh mixed greens salads. The meal with two bottles of vin, came to 43 euros. Incredible! We had to make one last visit to Fenocchio’s for stratitelli, cappuccino and peche ice cream. I had no idea where we put it. We were so full. We had a wonderful time in Nice. We have thought about renting a place in Provence or Tuscany for a few months when we retire. Now Nice has gone to the top of the list. It is a wonderful seaside town, full of great restaurants, plenty of day trips, and very sweet people. We will definitely go back someday. Time for bed, a new adventure awaits us tomorrow. We’re off to St Remy de Provence.

Dear ?, I posted earlier that this was long and that I would e-mail it by request only. If you look back the replies I got they all said to post it on the board. I received a wealth of information from the boards and my favorite has always been trip reports. If your not interested, please don't read it.

Lynne, I'm really enjoying your French trip report. You've gone into such detail.

Mel, we liked the Westminster after we changed rooms. I did try the Hotel Perouse because of board requests but it was booked.

Lynne, I love your trip report, but the lack of paragraphs is driving me crazy!!

Lynne:<BR><BR>Thanks for posting your trip report. Trip reports are one of the best things posted on this board so ignore any detractors. I'm looking forward to seeing more. We're staying at Eze in May after coming from St. Remy (Chateau des Alpilles) and I can use much of your report for a guide because you seem to have the same interests as my wife and I. We are also staying at the Artus in Paris so I look forward to seeing what your experience there was like. Keep it coming and thanks for sharing!

Loving the report, Lynne! It sounds like you had so much fun!<BR>

Lynne - <BR><BR>We're going to Nice, in February. I'm enjoying your trip guide; thanks.