Thursday 29th March

We arrived in Nice by plane mid-afternoon and caught the bus into the town centre. Our host met us at the apartment and let us in. Once we were settled in went for a walk along the promenade to Colline du Château. From the top, there are spectacular views, and the hill is landscaped with lovely gardens, including an artificial waterfall. Afterwards, we wandered through the Old Town and picked up some handmade ravioli Nicoise with pesto sauce to cook back at the apartment. Dessert was gelato from a shop near our apartment. We were aiming for an early night after our long flight.

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FRIDAY 30th MARCH

Today we woke up and went for a run along the promenade. S and I ran together and met G towards the end of our run.

After a shower, we headed back to the promenade at 10 a.m. for our Taste of Nice food tour. When we met the guide, Kate, she already had some Tourte de Blette, a sweet Swiss chard tart, for us to try while we waited for everyone to get there. Our first stop was at Maison Auer. The shop was a riot of decorations and sweet treats, with chocolates and candied fruit making our mouths water.

Next up was wine on tap. Bring your own container and refill. We tried the red wine. Followed by a visit to Olio Donato where we learnt all about truffles. They grow under hazelnut trees so the family also had yummy hazelnut products. We tried various truffle products and took home a couple of jars of their chocolate hazelnut spread.

Next we rode the tram to Liberation Market. We had time to browse through the fresh food stalls and tried some goats cheese and socca (a kind of pancake made with chickpea flour) …

and have a slice of pissaladière with a glass of pastis at Le Riviera Cave. While our daughter wasn’t keen on the wine she did like the pastis as she is a fan of aniseed.

After our wander it was time for lunch. Lunch?? Yes we headed into a local restaurant for lunch. It was a day of firsts for our daughter—first alcohol and first coffee (she had a milky one after lunch). You would think we’d be stuffed full by now, but we rose to the challenge and finished off with a gelato at our final stop. We had a great group of people on the tour with us who were keen to make the most of the day and didn’t need to be anywhere afterwards so we finally wrapped up after 4 pm on what was supposed to be a four hour tour.

We strolled for a bit longer around Vieux Nice and enjoyed the fountains before heading back to the apartment for a rest.

In the evening we walked back to Vieux Nice to see the first four stations of the via crucis (it was Good Friday) before heading out to dinner. Yes, we did eat more that day!

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SATURDAY 31st MARCH

Today was our day in the mountains. If we had more time we would have like to catch the train to the end of the line as the engineering is supposed to be fantastic but buses were replacing the trains on the last half of the line anyway and we would have needed more time than a day-trip provided. We caught the train to Fontan Soarge then walked up the road to the village of Soarge, perched on a ridge.

The road ended at the town square where there was a small market in progress. We bought a traditional Easter brioche, Mouna, and shared it as we started on our hike. We headed straight up through the town and out towards the Chapelle Ste-Croix.

We walked for about an hour or so, admiring the mountain views, the chapel and the Marion shrines cut into the rock beside the path. With the mountain scenery I felt like I was in one of our Ravensburger puzzles. Once back at the village we explored for a little and then had lunch at a small Osteria.

Mid-afternoon we caught the train back to Nice. Had a good dinner and packed our bags ready to catch the train the next morning. We had a lovely taste of Nice and I’d be happy to come back and explore further.

Do you do food tours when you travel? Do old historical villages enchant you or are you used to all the old things?