I will be traveling with a friend on a Rick Steves tour - Loire to the South of France from 9/2/24 to 9/14/24. My friend must return at the end of the tour on 9/14, but I would like to stay a while longer in the area. The tour ends in Nice. I was thinking it might be nice to find a small Bed & Breakfast in a surrounding town for several days after the tour. I will not have a car. So a place that has a market nearby in walking distance would be good. I would like a location where I can walk around old town streets, find markets, etc. I was also thinking finding a French cooking class in the area would be fun. I am a 73 year old woman in relatively healthy shape. I would like a place where I would feel safe staying alone. My price range for a room would be around 150-175 Euros/night +/- a little. The RS tour will take me through Arles, where we will sleep two nights. Then we head to Nice for the last two nights. I've never been to this part of France, so don't know what areas are the most "quaint", lovely, etc. I'm looking for suggestions for places to stay, resources for cooking class, tour guide, transportation, etc. I was thinking to fly back to the US out of Nice.
Thanks so much for any ideas!
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7802 posts
I tried to sign up for a cooking class in Nice with Les Petits Farcis, but the timing didn’t work for my schedule.
If cooking classes don’t work out for you, I recommend this food tour I did my first full day there: Food tours continue to be one of the best values for me to learn about local food, local history, a city’s culture, and having an activity where English is spoken when I’m traveling solo. Oh, and fantastic food! Two couples & I joined Nadia from “Nice Food & Wine Tours” as we walked through some streets I had wandered the day I arrived, and now I could appreciate so much more of Nice’s history and food culture! Nadia took us to several shops, the Market and we finished with a sit-down meal of local specialties. She was passionate about serving us the best and sharing Nice with us. This was four hours well spent!
Don’t miss the gorgeous Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild villa & extraordinary gardens. I started in the gardens as soon as it opened, so I could take many photos without people in them. The villa is gorgeous, and the gardens are spectacular!
My third day was focused on one of those special spots - where website research trails during the winter led me to a town I wanted to be sure to see in person. Menton, called the Pearl of France, is the last town on the Riviera before the border with Italy. A book I purchased a month before my trip made me even more excited to explore Menton, "Travels through the French Riviera" - An Artist's Guide to the Storied Coastline from Menton to Saint-Tropez, by Virginia Johnson. If you go, be sure to walk out to the part of the city where the colors of building are golds, terracotta, etc. You will definitely notice a difference when you see it - wonderful!
I just rode the train over to Menton and took the bus back to stop in Monaco for awhile before returning to Nice.
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2640 posts
We did that same food tour about 10 years ago and it was very good!