Back in Nice, France Part 7 - More Restaurants in Nice

Here are three more of our favorites restaurants in Nice. 

Along the far side of the port away from downtown, there are about a dozen primarily seafood restaurants lined along the quai.   One of our favorites for good, fresh seafood is La Barque Bleu.  It calls itself an Italian and pizza restaurant, but we always go for the fresh fish.  It is a comfortable place with a nice outdoor area along the harbor.   They show you your fish before it is cooked and they serve it fileted with, usually, just some lemon and a few vegetables.   It’s a nice place to sit and watch boats motoring in and out of the harbor.  La Barque Bleu is located at 7 quai des Deux Emmanuuels (+33 4 93 55 39 74).   It’s the best fresh fish along the port.

In the heart of the old town is a very nice Italian restaurant, La Griglia.  It’s a small narrow place so it is easy to miss.  It is family run and has excellent fresh pasta and grilles meats and fish.  We’ve eaten here two or three times and it is always pretty empty, which is difficult to understand given the excellent Italian food served here.   Last time we were there, I had the baked whole daurade fish, which was served whole on a plate.  But it was very easy to filet.  The pasta with seafood is also delicious.  If you linger, they may offer you a little lemoncello!  La Griglia is located at 33 rue Pairoliere (+33 9 82 57 38 83).

Our arrival to Nice each year, is usually in the evening, so our first meal is traditionally at La Pizza Cresci along the pedestrian area just west of Place Massena.  It may not be the best pizza you’ve ever had, but it’s a fun place to hang out.  It’s always crowded.  In fact it can hard to get a table at peak eating times.  But you can’t wrong with the Pizza Margherita  (tomato and basil) or the Pizza Aubergines (eggplant slices) and a bottle of the house red.  La Pizza Cesci is at 34 rue Massena (+33 4 93 87 70 29, www.crescere.fr) .

Back in Nice, France Part 3 - Food

Over the years we have tried many different restaurants in Nice.   Every year a few have closed and a few more have opened.   Here are three of our favorites:

La Table Alziari is located deep in the old town area on a small side street.  The restaurant is family owned and, during the summer, most patrons sit outside where they squeeze in 8-10 tables.   Over the years, the menu has almost never changed.  Some of our favorite first courses include roasted red peppers in oil, the white bean salad, Provencal eggplant and the petits farcis (stuffed onions and zucchini).   While not on the menu, they almost always have deep fried courgette blossoms. They are among the most tender and light I have had in Nice.  The waiter (I believe a son-in-law of the owner) gave us the recipe for his batter!  For the second course, try the daube d’agneau (a traditional lamb stew served over pasta), the pasta with pesto sauce, or even the steak tartare and French fries.    The best dessert is the chocolate pie – a gooey mountain of chocolate in a flaky pie crust.  La Table Alziari is located at 4 rue Francois Zanin (+33 4 93 80 34 03).

Bistrot d’Antoine is a typical French bistrot with all the fuss and noise that you imagine.   It’s best to have a reservation, but sometimes you can just drop in and they will have a table for you.  On the first floor is the open kitchen behind a counter and about 10 tables.  The quieter upstairs holds about 8 tables.   For your first course, try the terrine de campagne (the house pate),  or the wonderful foie gras canard.  There is almost always a pasta and a risotto.  For your second course, the magret de canard (grilled duck breast), the filet de boeuf, and the lentils and sausage can’t be beat.   For a change, try the assiette de fromage or cheese platter in place of dessert.  Bistro d'Antoine is located at 27 rue de la Prefecture, a street just north of the Cours Saleya (+33 4 93 85 29 57).

Le Plongeoir is one of the most unique restaurants in Nice.   It sits just east of the port  area and is not really on the water, but in the water.   You walk across a small bridge over the water to a very open outdoor restaurant built on a rock about 50 feet off the land and about 20 feet above the water.   As would be expected, the menu is heavily laden with seafood dishes and also with a large array of salad options.   It’s a unique experience to be sure and on a beautiful sunny day, a great way to spend an afternoon.   Le Plongeoir is located at 60 blvd. Franck Pilatte (+33 4 93 26 53 02, www.leplongeoir.com).

Back in Nice, France Part 2 - Transportation

Nice, France is a port town with a population of about 350,000 people.  It is the fifth largest town in France.   We have been going to Nice most summers for the past 25 years, so have quite a bit of experience in getting around Nice and the surrounding Cote d’Azur area.  In the early days we always rented a car, primarily to get out of Nice to visit the surrounding towns up and down the coast.  But the car would also sit for days while we spent time touring Nice.  Parking could be very difficult to find even though there are quite a few underground parking garages scattered around town.  But parking wasn’t cheap, garages were often very crowded and the parking spaces were often very narrow and could be difficult to maneuver a car in to. 

For the past 15 years or so, we have been relying almost exclusively on public transportation to get around Nice but also to get to other towns in the area.  Nice has a great, large port with ferries shuttling passengers to towns up and down the coast as well as to Monaco and various ports on the island of Corsica.   Nice also has a great, recently renovated train station just north of the downtown area (about a 15 minute walk from Place Massena).  Nice is part of the extensive, mostly on-time French railroad with trains going to most towns along the coast, as well as inland locations.  The Nice bus system is also very extensive with local buses criss-crossing the town and taking tourists to near by towns, many of which are not accessible by train.  An ancient central bus station was torn down about 5 years ago and now bus stations have been scattered all over town.   You can also sit on the beach all-day long and watch planes bring in sun-worshippers to the relatively-modern airport located just to the west end of the town. 

In recent years, Nice has begun to focus on getting people around town.  In 2007, Nice inaugurated its second-generation tram system (a first-generation system operated in Nice and a few surrounding towns from 1879-1953).   This new tramway is a 5.5 mile above ground single line system that carries over 90,000 people a day along a route from the northwest through downtown to the east.  Trams run about every 4 minutes via an electrified overhead cable system.   A second line is currently under construction and will carry passengers along a 7-mile route from the port in the east part of town to past the airport in the west.   The 20-station line is scheduled to begin opening in 2018 with the last stations opening in 2019.  Many of the stations in this new line are above ground, but as the line passes through the downtown area, the stations will be located underground.   Also, I remember seeing, a few years ago, a prototype tram car positioned on the median of the Promenade des Anglais as perhaps a future system along the sea, but nothing has come of that line since. 

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Back in Nice, France Part 1

We have been taking summer vacations in Nice, France for over 20 years now.  This summer is no different, though this year we are spending six weeks in Nice, the longest time ever.   Growing up in South Florida, I have always had a desire to be near the water and Nice is the perfect place to get plenty of sun and hang out around the beach.

Nice is the 5th largest town in France with close to 350,000 people.  It is the largest city on the French Mediterranean coast after Marseilles.    The climate is great – we have been here for one week and the temperature has remained in mid-70s.   It’s likely to get hotter in July and even hotter in August but a warm coastal breeze makes it bearable.   There is also plenty of sun in this part of France – artists including van Gogh and Matisse have been rumored to have commented on how conducive the bright sunshine is in this part of the world for their painting.

The food in this part of the world is pretty good too.   Nice has been part of Italy at least two times in its past.    In around 1860, it finally became part of France permanently following a referendum.   So, Nice has a lot of Italian influence in its architecture, its food and its culture.  Nice also has a large North Africa influence being just across the Mediterranean from Algeria, among other countries.   France’s history with Algeria also has influence the culture of Nice. 

Nice and the surrounding area has also been the home of many artists.  Vincent van Gogh painted in Arles and there is museum dedicated to his work in St. Remy, about 350 miles west of Nice.   Paul Cezanne was born in and died in Aix-in-Provence, a good-sized town about 100 miles west of Nice.   A museum containing some of his paintings, Musee Granet, and his studio, are both open to the public in Aix.   Pablo Picasso worked in Antibes, about 10 miles west of Nice, and there is a beautiful museum dedicated to his work there with a wonderful view of the Mediterranean.   There is a museum devoted to the works of Ferdinand Leger in Biot, about 5 miles west of Nice.  Nice has art museums dedicated to the works of Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall.   Nice also has many other art museums including the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Musee des Beaux-Arts, and the Musee de la Photographie Charles Negre. 

Nice had been modernizing its transportation system over the past ten years or so.   In 2007, a five and half mile light rail tram that runs generally from the north part of town through the downtown area and to the eastern neighborhoods.   Another tram line is being built now that will run from the port area jut east of downtown to the airport in the wet part of town with a number of stops accessible to downtown neighborhoods. 

I will post more about food and transportation in future posts over the next 6 weeks.  Nice is primarily a city for tourists wanting to worship the sun.   The many restaurants and activities all cater to these tourists.   I’ll post more about food and things to do here over the next few weeks also. 

My last night in Nice will be the first anniversary of the July 14, 2016 when a truck driven through a Bastille Day celebration, killing 87 people.  I will post more about that as that anniversary gets closer.