I do not know quite what made me determined to visit the south of France this summer. I mentioned it before Rosh Hashanah, then in December I “registered” for the Rick Steves guide for our in-office gift exchange, and got it. Planning this trip kind of anchored me through the winter and early spring, until it was close enough to actually start booking things. It feels a little hard to believe that we are now on the other side of it.
Because this was quite a long trip (10 days), I’m going to try and keep my recaps concise. But please don’t hesitate to ask away if there is any more information you would like. I’d love to help you plan a trip to the Riviera or Provence!
This post will be part 1, the Riviera leg of the trip. Here is what we did, with some notes:
Monday
- We landed in Nice ~6 pm (we left Sunday night, and had a short stopover in Lisbon where I got to use my EU passport for the first time to breeze through passport control).
- We took the airport tram to our hotel and checked in. We stayed in a pleasant, small hotel which was around the corner from Chabad and a short walk from the train station. We had one of those tiny balconies pictured, which was cute. Btw, the elevator is teeny-tiny, haha.
- Supper at Chabad dairy restaurant, Lechem Chamym. (The Chabad has a solid metal fence around it and we were always lucky to meet people going in or out who let us in, but I am not sure how people know the combination.)
- We were very tired, but pushed ourselves to walk to the Mediterranean, a fairly quick walk. We sat on the beach for a while, and walked along the promenade. The Nice beach has smooth round rocks, not sand. This was actually kind of nice for sitting.
- Then it was time to go to bed…
Tuesday
- We had breakfast at Le Kineret and bought sandwiches for lunch here, too. We went here for breakfast every day in Nice. It is a lovely bakery, they also make eggs and such, and have a takeout where we bought food for Shabbos.
- Next, we went to Eze Village. It was our first morning…Uber was simplest, although there is a bus from Nice as well. The truth is that when we were in France, it was quite hot, and we relied more on Uber than we might have in cooler weather when walking or figuring out public transportation are easier.
- Eze is a steep village on a mountain. There are no cars in the actual village. Jardin Exotique d’Èze is at the top (with entrance fee) which gives you access to the highest viewpoint for pictures of the village below and the sea. The garden is mostly succulents and it appeared that everyone is there for the pictures, not the garden (ourselves included). And we got beautiful pictures. The sky was very, very blue and the whole day, our pictures were so special. I am so grateful we got to kick off the trip like this – despite the fatigue and the heat!
- Eze is very charming but touristy and gets very crowded, as it is so small. We were there midmorning, but I would ideally aim to be there early morning or evening.
- We walked down through the village and bought more water at a grocery store, then Ubered to Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a villa and gardens on Cap Ferrat.
- The audio guide for the villa (and the villa) were interesting and worthwhile — but the gardens and the amazing views were the main event. We took so many beautiful pictures, and I also took notes on what I liked for the garden of my imagination: a bamboo grove! A water feature!
- I had had the idea that it would be nice to walk on trails along Cap Ferrat but it was simply too hot. Maybe next time!
- There is also another villa to visit nearby (there is a combined ticket option) called Villa Kerylos, in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. This is a recreation of an ancient Greek villa. We did not do this but I would be interested next time.
- We returned to Nice by Uber and ate a late lunch (we had toted our sandwiches around – insulated in my lunch bag along with frozen water bottles – but the heat had taken our appetites so we ate them when we returned to air conditioning).
- Spontaneously, we decided to go to Cannes for dinner. We took the train, which was under 40 minutes.
- In all transparency, our assessment is that Cannes is underwhelming and basically exists to host conventions. We are glad we stayed in Nice for the Riviera leg of our trip! We sat at the public (sandy) beach for a bit and I took pictures of Hotel Carlton from “To Catch a Thief.”
- We ate dinner at Casa Bianca and took the train back to Nice.
Wednesday
- I had breakfast at Le Kineret and took the bus to Monaco (my cousin joined me in Monaco later). I had to take the metro to the bus stop. It was a bit unclear how to pay for this bus, the first driver told me I needed to pay cash for a ticket so I didn’t get on, the next took credit card. It’s possible that there is an app for purchasing tickets but I did not figure out how to do that.
- This bus ride was also a spontaneous addition – I had intended to take the train – but read that the bus is far more scenic, so decided to go for it. This bus ride turned out to be one of the most standout experiences of this entire trip. There are three main roads from Nice to Monaco, in order of elevation – the Basse Corniche, Moyenne Corniche, and Grande Corniche. (We drove along part of the Moyenne Corniche to get from Nice to Eze). This bus runs along the Basse Corniche, which hugs the Mediterranean. My suggestion is to take the bus early and sit on the right side for the views – sparkling water, villas, boats, flowers…I was glued to the window and so, so happy. I would definitely do this ride again!
- I got off the bus in Monte Carlo and walked to the casino (just to see it!) It’s free to enter the atrium. Also, there are lotsss of designer boutiques and fancy cars in Monte Carlo, haha.
- I next walked to Monaco-Ville, where the Prince’s Palace and Old Town are located. There is a local bus which would have probably been a good idea to take as the walk is very, very hilly with many steps. There is no Uber in Monaco.
- The Old Town of Monaco-Ville is very small and charming to walk around. I saw a sign at the post office that said you could bring your passport to the townhall (Mairie) for a stamp – cute! I also took a picture of the bulletin board of marriage announcements posted outside the townhall.
- I watched the changing of the guard at the palace. This was a short event (10 minutes or so) and fun to watch.
- Right after this, my cousin joined me. We visited the Palace. I mostly enjoyed this for the current exhibit about the wedding festivities of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. Otherwise, I might have skipped. There is an audio guide for the state rooms that you visit.
- We had lunch in an area off the plaza looking over the port. Then we went to the Oceanographic Museum – this was nice and I enjoyed it for the change of pace, but it is, after all, an aquarium in Monaco.
- We took the train back towards Nice and stopped at Villefranche-sur-Mer to walk around a bit. I had been pretty eager to visit but didn’t find it quite as charming as some other places (Thursday’s villages, coming up). It does seem to be a beloved place to visit, though.
- We continued on the train back to Nice and had dinner at Lechem Chamym.
Thursday
- I had breakfast at Le Kineret and Ubered to St-Paul-de-Vence (using La Colombe d’Or as the destination). In retrospect, the train to Cagnes-sur-Mer with bus connection to St. Paul would have been easier than I realized. The bus is right at the station. (At minimum I would recommend the train to Cagnes, as I sat in a lot of road traffic between Nice and Cagnes).
- St-Paul-de-Vence is a very charming village which I had read gets very crowded with tourists so I went early and got there around 9:30, while it was quiet. I loved this! An art gallery caught my eye, and I ended up walking in and buying a small painting (which I then had to tote around the rest of the day, and between cities, and the way home, but I think it was worth it!) There is a well-regarded modern art museum, Fondation Maeght, at the edge of the village, but I did not visit.
- Next, I Ubered to Haut-de-Cagnes (using using Château-musée Grimaldi as the destination). This village was not in the guidebook but I came across it online. There were almost no tourists and it is a real lived-in village. It was so quiet and beautiful. I walked around for a while. Finally, I walked down (down, down, down) to Cagnes-sur-Mer and took the…
- Train to Juan-les-Pins. This is a beach town right next to Antibes with several kosher food options. I met my cousin at Kozy, a bakery, for lunch.
- From there we Ubered to Antibes (there is a local bus as well). We intended to visit the Picasso Museum but…it was closed because Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni were meeting there! Instead, we walked around the old town, which was charming, and went on a Ferris Wheel at the port.
- Finally, we went back to Juan-les-Pins to L’aquarium for supper, where I had sushi for a change (we had been eating a lot of pizza and pasta), and took the train back to Nice.
- We went to the beach and walked along the promenade at sunset.
Friday
- I went out early to walk around Vieux (Old) Nice. The daily market was just opening in Cours Saleya. I used the Rick Steves guide to find some interesting shops – they were still closed, but I peered through windows.
- I met my cousin back at Le Kineret, we had breakfast and bought Shabbos food. We had them double bag and staple the bag closed so we could store it in the hotel fridge. We bought a few more items, including grape juice (only had full-sized bottles) at La Makolet Epicerie Casher. We had brought paper goods from home.
- Then, we Ubered to the Matisse Museum. We enjoyed this, but I would say it’s probably not a must as it is on the small side. There was a special exhibit on Yves St Laurent.
- From Matisse, I walked about 20 minutes to the Chagall Museum. It’s a nice, quiet neighborhood. The Chagall Museum is mostly based around a series of very large biblically-themed paintings that Chagall created specifically for the museum. I realized pretty quickly that that was not for me, but there were two temporary exhibits I really enjoyed (one was on Chagall’s designs for Firebird, a ballet with the NYCB that my cousin and I had seen). That being said, I would check ahead to see if there is something specific you want to see here.
- Then, we met back at the hotel for Shabbos prep and Erev Shabbos pictures which I only took because my cousin was with me – but they are nice!
- We went to Friday night davening and had our meal with Chabad (prepaid). There was a very large crowd, we ate outdoors on long tables and it was so nice! Lots of chatting between tourists from all over.
Shabbos
- We davened and had kiddush with Chabad. This was a very generous kiddush with plenty to eat, we almost didn’t need our Shabbos food. We ended up leaving our grape juice bottle at Chabad after Shabbos because we never opened it. (It was 12 Tammuz, so this kiddush might have been more lavish than the typical.)
- We went back to our hotel, had (some of) our food, read, napped, had shalosh seudos…The A/C had actually conked out overnight, but the hotel put a fan in our room and eventually the A/C started working again – bH!
- After mincha, we walked to the water for a bit and went to Chabad for maariv/havdalah.
Sunday
- Finally, we checked out, had breakfast at Le Kineret, and…took the train to Marseille.
To be continued!
(Photo credit: Valentina Rossoni/Pexels)
