Have a ticket in first half of June, fly into Nice and fly out of Paris. 18 full days on the ground.

The plan was to visit Corsica for about a week, then fly to Marseille for about a week, then to Paris for a couple of days.

Corsica is really borked if you want to rent a car. Apparently they stocked their fleets with low-end electric cars like the Zoe and Fiat 500e. These are small cars, can accommodate maybe a carry on suitcase at most.

But the bigger problem is that the infrastructure for charging is non-existent. Some are tied to hotels, so if you're not a guest, you're out of luck. There are tons of angry reviews of Hertz and Sixt in Ajaccio airport, from people who were only offered EVs and refused refunds. Complaints about having to come back to the airport rental office to get charged and waiting in queue and waiting hours to get sufficient charge.

Price are higher than on the mainland as well.

So now I'm thinking of skipping Corsica and just traveling by land from Nice. I spent almost a week there last year, mostly in Nice and Villefranche sur Mer, with day trips to Ee and Monaco and Cap Martin.

Never been to Menton nor Ventimiglia or Sanremo. Been to the Italian Riviera di Levante, most points east of Genoa but never west of it. The furthest east I would go is probably like Savona.

The other alternative is go west from Nice. I've stayed in Cannes but it was a long time ago, visited Antibes only as day trips. I don't know if I'd drive all the way to Marseille though I believe it's at most 3 hours from Nice and less than that from Cannes.

So how do the Italian towns within an hour or 90 minutes drive from the border compare to Antibes, Cannes and maybe some other towns in that area?

Mainly interested in scenery, enjoying hopefully the glorious weather. Not so much museums, though I think I've been to the Picasso museum in Antibes a long time ago, because the goal is to minimize time spent indoors. Don't know if this area has anything like the Sentier des Douaniers but the probably have some coastal hikes.

You can do Cannes and Antibes. There is a Sentier de LIttoral around Cap d'Antibes that is quite popular. Cannes probably holds a little less appeal but you can day trip easily to places like St. Honorat Island. Another alternative is to head to the St. Tropez peninsula. It can be heavy in traffic to get there, but the stretch of towns from there to Hyeres (including Porquerolles island) can be expensive and crowded (immediately in St Tropez and Ramatuelle) but can also be very beautiful and less built-up. It is more of an outdoor, wine, sand and nature vibe.

There are a number of very nice villages and towns along that portion of the Italian Riviera (Riviera di Pontente). They are a little more low key and less glitzy, but still swell in the summer. Ventimiglia isn't nearly as nice/scenic as San Remo or a place like Bordighera (or Cervo or Finalborgo). The coastal drive is quite nice.

Don't overlook going into the hillsides. There are beautiful mountain/hill villages on both sides of the border (Dolcecqua, Apricale or Tende, Saorge), and inland from Nice (St. Paul de Vence, Tourettes-sur-Loup).

I thought you might be avoiding Corsica due to the recent outbreak in nationalism and (violent) protests.

Wow I wasn't aware separatist sentiments were so strong, 35% of Corsicans want independence from France.

Also this is probably pertinent for tourists wanting to visit Corsica:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...quell-protests

I can understand the resentment, a lot of tourist money generated on the island going to people who aren't Corsicans.

More of a reason to avoid since they have more important things than accommodating tourists. I sympathize with wanting more economic control and getting more of the money from tourism. But if they separate from France, that won't help them necessarily. As with Catalans, they may not be able to join the EU for a long time as a separate state.


Thanks for the tips about Riviera di Pontente and those St. Tropez towns. I visited once years ago but flying into Nice, it's not that appealing to travel all the way out there for just a day trip. But maybe worth a couple of days.

Apparently they stocked their fleets with low-end electric cars like the Zoe and Fiat 500e. These are small cars, can accommodate maybe a carry on suitcase at most.

The Fiat 500 can hold more, unless it has been downsized since this picture was taken:
https://flic.kr/p/fboDso

Well boot space isn't the main concern with EVs, it's charging infrastructure on an island.

But here is the 500e boot space:

https://www.drivingelectric.com/fiat/500/practicality

Now a typical compact car which you might get in France has more than double the capacity, without folding the back seats.

https://www.carbuyer.co.uk/renault/captur/practicality

There are so many amazing villages and sites on the Cote d'Azur, plus you could go north into the maritime Alps for a horse ride to the Vallee des Merveilles from Casterino. Get yourself a good guidebook!

I've visited the Alpes Maritimes, mostly as day trips though.

Yeah I can look into that as well.

It wasn't the Alpes Maritimes but I spent time in Gorges du Verdon and the Luberon last year.

Corsican separatism is an old story. In the 80s, it could be dangerous for a French person from the mainland to purchase a home on Corsica. Bombings too place. Tourists are welcome of course, but they don't want their land gobbled up by the French. Yes, homegrown terrorism exists in Europe, be it Basque separatists or skinheads in Germany, or Corsica.

I looked at Europcar in Bonifaccio, and they seem to have plenty of cars of all types for early June....

This is what I see on the Europcars site.




I can search on AutoEurope but then it shows over $1000 for 8-day rental for Europcar.

Maybe it will change in a month or so.

But may have to make decisions and bookings around then.

Has anyone cross the border on day trips?

Do you have to stop or does traffic bunch up?

I booked a car rental because they seemed headed higher.

they say extra charge for crossing the border. Not a lot of money compared to the rental total but anyone encounter this before, with the border so close from these areas?

Renting in France, will return it in France. But they charge €5 a day to drive into Italy, up to a maximum €20.

does this seem normal?

I have seen this for other countries, taking a rental car from Greece and driving to Bulgaria, for example. Or extra charge to drive into Poland. Even then, I believe it was a one-time fee. The one time I drove from France to Italy we went with a leasing program, so it did not apply.

OK, I was looking at some restaurants in Sanremo.

One of the top restaurants, according to TA, is a burger place.

Their menu features varieties of burgers with either Piedmontese or Florentine beef. I believe the prices were the same.

Anyone know the differences? Florentine is mostly associated with steaks. So maybe either is overkill for burgers, though it's nice they're using Italian beef as opposed to say Argentine or Brazilian beef.

On your rental car questions, I've driven into Italy many times from Nice. There are sometimes restrictions but I've not faced a charge. One restriction was on how far south I could go. There really hasn't been much of a delay, either, but I've not tried since the pre-COVID (as there were some restrictions in place).

I can't comment on your burger choice, but I'd rather just go for a local steak or local fare.

Rental car company told me it would be €5 a day so it would cost me an additional €20.

Yeah the main advantage of a burger is it's cheaper but more importantly, if outdoor seating isn't available, then I'd rather take away, because of pandemic considerations.

I just returned from Portugal and there were a lot of nice tavernas in Lisbon and Porto but they were literally like caves in old buildings, with tight seating. Or they were on narrow streets so they didn't have room for tables outdoors.

Trying to stick to outdoor dining might mean sitting by a noisy street with a lot of car traffic. Or sitting in a popular square with a lot of foot traffic and overpriced, underwhelming restaurants who've paid to have outdoor space in these popular areas.

I've stayed one night in a small hotel where they had signs in the room saying you can't have full meals in there. So I didn't take out there and it was too small anyways.

Sanremo does have several places in the waterfront with outdoor dining so I guess it will be okay.

As for appreciating the local fare, looks like a lot of places will have some pricey primi, like I saw one menu for a primo with lobster that was €50!

I'd prefer to have a simple pasta dish and get a separate secondo with meat or fish than a pasta dish with seafood which are over €20. Can't imagine too many people are having a loaded-up primo and a secondo as well.

I totally get the issue with popular squares and pedestrian zones with underwhelming restaurants. However, there should be no lack of outdoor osterias and delicious takeaway options (besides burgers) to suit. Probably a lot more common than in Lisbon.

Hope you're right.

But has anyone gotten pasta or a secondo dish as takeout in Italy?

Maybe the pandemic got them to offer such options.

Seems like pizza and panini are more likely.

Hell I wouldn't mind those cones of fried calamari and other seafood that you can get in Venice and some other cities.

We enjoyed staying in Noli, east of Genoa. Medieval quarter, nice beach and promenade.

is Covid still a thing? I thought we were learning to live with it...

Not worth dining indoors.

I dined at a restaurant with some tables outside on some wide sidewalks and giant sliding doors which were open so I sat just inside near the open doors.

I returned a couple of days later. Was a bit cooler outside and there had been thunder showers during the day so they closed the doors. I dined there anyways because it was getting late and I didn’t want to go farther to find places with outdoor dining. Actually some places had people waiting at lunch time so for dinner the wait would probably be worse.

But generally I’d take away a sandwich rather than sit inside a crowded restaurant.