We are planning three weeks on the French Riviera. I am looking for a recommendation for a home base,
I love old world charm, mid evil villages, and markets, we will probably have a car to see the surrounding countryside including grasse( hopefully some flowers will be blooming,) Menton, ville franche, eze…..
Thanks so much for any insight or recommendation
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5429 posts
There is no shortage of medieval towns on the Riviera. Eze would likely be top of the list, plus St Paul de Vence, Antibes, Villefranche sur Mer, and further inland, Tourettes sur Loup. If you have a car, then a gite or villa anywhere between Nice and Antibe should be central enough to easily day trip just about anywhere on the Cote d'Azur.
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
Also Vence (not a suggestion for a base--it's a significant bus ride from Nice, beyond St-Paul-de-Vence).
Posted by
11569 posts
Eze would be a more difficult as a base due to it’s location. Nice, Antibes, Villefranche., St- Jean Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu would all work well. Buses and trains make day trips easy.
Posted by
Gulf Coast, usa
1191 posts
We used Nice as a base and it worked out great. Tons of places east or west to visit via train. Nice itself is quite lovely, and it's location to all the place mentioned above was easy.
Posted by
Nice, France & San Francisco
712 posts
Eze is not a good place to base from as it is so tiny. Beautiful to visit, or stay for a couple of days, but not three weeks. Even nearby La Turbie has more.
You can easily visit most places using the train from a central location like Nice, and then rent a car for a week to take day trips (or even overnight/several days). It is actually easier to visit many of the coastal cities by train than navigating a car around, especially May to September. But if you do want to rent a single property for that amount of time, you could look around St. Paul de Vence and Vence, but try to stay walkable to the center (Vence has a historic center that is pedestrian only, with rentals on the outer ring that are walkable). You really don't want to have to get in a car and find parking when you just want a baguette in the morning or a snack.
You can also try to find a rental with parking in Antibes, Nice (lower Mont Boron), Villefranche-sur-Mer (don't stay to high up) while still walkable to services while easily driveable to a corniche or the A8 autoroute. Although it looks like it would have good access, the main coastal road between Antibes and Nice can get some heavy traffic, especially on the weekends, holidays and summer.