Thoughts on Nice

It was an exciting discovery for us especially because we had done no prior research on Calvi restaurants.

We wanted to eat local, rustic, tasty food and U Fornu had met our expectations brilliantly.

Their menu offered an adequate choice of dishes. We had a wholesome vegetable soup, a gourmet wild boar stew with ratatouille followed by quality pastry and good local wine.

Two meals at about 50 Euro is excellent value for money.

It was nice sitting under a pergola on a busy, fine September evening.
A welcoming, well organized and attentive service in an enjoyable atmosphere, is how we will remember U Fornu.

RESTAURANT U FORNU
Impasse Bertoni
off Boulevard Wilson
20260 CALVI 20
CORSE - FRANCE
Telephone: 04 95 65 27 60

After about 4 years of hard work at long last Nice’s Tram will be up and running starting from 24th November 2007. The full completion and inauguration of Place Garibaldi, one of the trams stops servicing Nice’s old town, will be taking place around February 2008. This imposing 18th century square, the second largest in Nice, will be mostly pedestrianised. Forty-two Abizia trees will be planted to help restore beauty and tranquility.

For more information visit: http://www.niceazur.co.uk/Tram_discoveries.html

The young chef Anthony Riou, made his experience in the best restaurants of the French Riviera including the Negresco, La Voie d'Or and Byblos before starting up his own restaurant about 5 years ago.

His set menu consists of 8 inventive tapas dishes made with fresh local ingredients, designed to excite your taste buds. Each dish is full of creativity, flair, imagination with an eye for detail. The wine list is excellent.

Every time we visit Nice, we make sure we book our table at Sapore, confident of their consistently high standards.

The service is attentive but not intrusive and always with a smile. The ambience is somewhat avant-garde, slightly minimalist as the space is at a premium.

Price for the set menu is around 25 Euro per person which I consider to be good value for money.

Only cash is accepted and advance booking is a must. Closed Sunday and Monday


RESTAURANT SAPORE
19, Rue Bonaparte
06300 Nice


Tel : 04 92 04 22 09
Nice Harbour District

The bus transfer from the modern and functional Nice Airport to Nice's city centre is short and easy. The waiting time between buses is only 15 minutes or so, the drive is comfortable and offers a pleasant view over the stunning Promenade de Anglais. All the stops are well marked and the price of 4 Euros is good value for money. What I am unhappy about is Nice's decrepit bus terminal.

Built back in the sixties it boasted a refreshing terraced garden and shops around its perimeter. Over the years the roof gardens were partially closed and the upstairs shops were covered in graffiti, all closed down and boarded up. The bus terminal suffers from neglect, very poor lighting, and is particularly dangerous for travellers once they step out of the bus.

High passenger platforms at the same height of the bus stop are fine, but crossing even a single bus lane to reach another platform of the main terminal building is rather challenging, especially if you have to lift your luggage onto the next platform. This is very inconvenient for disabled and elderly people due to the lengthy detours before it's possible to reach a more accessible platform. Busses also drive rather fast between lanes and one has to be very careful before crossing.

At last you manage to reach the arrival/departure lounge, which doubles up as a ticket office and information centre. "Lovely," you think, "here comes help!" Wrong. All the staff I talked to (in French) were unhelpful, abrupt and uninterested. If you ask them for a map of Nice, forget it, they will send you to the nearest official information centre, which is about one mile away.

At last you rejoice from escaping the retched building and you can't wait to cross Boulevard Jean Jaures to venture towards the buzzing old city. Pity though, your path is yet again barred by road works paving the way for the new tramway! No problem though, work will end in 2007.

Happy 2006!

A new year brings a new website. For those who have visited before, we hope you like the improvements and additions we have made to the site. My daughter spent some time learning the basics of CSS to make the site more accessible, and our website statistics are confirming this.

For those who are new, welcome.

As always, any comments or suggestions are most appreciated.

Thanks,
Alberto

Hello,

I am planning to create a database of good restaurants and brasseries in Nice.

Basic dishes made with quality, freshly cooked and well presented food, an attentive service with a smile, a spotless restaurant, kitchen (if you can see it the better), toilets and of course good value for money.

Price in the region of of € 50 or less per couple for a satisfying meal.

Although there are numerous websites to choose from, in principle, there should be no need for yet another database. However, I have found that
really good all round restaurants are difficult to come by and that genuinely spontaneous and unattached referrals are always the very best source.

So far we have only highlighted a few restaurants in our website precisely because several eateries we found by chance or via the internet failed to impress us.

If you would like to contribute with your own suggestions, we would be prepared to include them in our website for the benefit of our guests and anyone
who comes across Niceazur.co.uk

Thanks

Alberto