Riviera Pebbles Blog: Riviera Bucket List - Part 2

Posted on 12th Aug 2014 in Nice News

Champagne with your caviar sir? For budget bling read on...

In the movie Bucket List, Jack Nicholson ate a 'do-before-you-die' Michelin star meal in Eze. In a part two of our series we explain how to sail out of St Tropez like a billionaire…

6) Ride a stage of the Tour de France

Ah, le Tour! For three arduous weeks cyclists weave past France’s vineyards, lavender fields and chateaux. As these scenes are screened nightly in 190 countries across the globe, the desire to join the race is justifiably popular.

The Tour de France’s race route varies year-on-year. But it regularly passes through Nice (as it did in 2013), Monaco (as in 2009) and up the Col d’Eze (although you’ll need a Lance Armstrong dose of adrenalin to get up that hill). Simply print off this year’s route, rent a bike and get peddling. Nice Cycle Tours can also provide bespoke trips around this summer’s stages.

7) Sip a Bellini in Portofino

Portofino is Italy’s answer to St Tropez. The journey by train or car along the Italian Riviera is a photogenic swirl of bougainvillea, azure sea and rococo villas. Sipping €5 glasses of spumante on the floating portside pontoons is seriously swish.

But the A-list option is one of Antonio Beccalli's signature peach’n’prosecco Bellinis at the Hotel Splendido. This ultra-posh option puts even Nice Pebbles apartments in the shade (yes, really!) Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner once posed on the patio. Jamie Oliver spent his honeymoon eating pasta in La Terrazza restaurant.

8) Sail a yacht in St Tropez

St Tropez is the spiritual home of the superyacht. In July and August these floating palaces charter from between €100,000 and €1,000,000 per week. The nearest that most punters will get to a private sail is on an inflatable lilo off Plage Pampelonne.

But paupers can still putter out of St Tropez’s Vieux Port, albeit on something smaller. Octopussy rents 7-person Cap Camarat speedboats from €420 per day. For true budget bling do what thousands of guest workers do each morning: sail in on the €7.50 ferry from Ste-Maxime.

9) Eat a bouillabaisse in Marseille

Marseille's traditional dish is a devil to spell, let alone to make. Bouillabaisse’s required recipe includes scorpion fish, conger eel and a mix of urchins, spider crab or octopus, with whacking great doses of garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper. It must be eaten in Marseille’s Vieux Port with a jug of iced rosé – it simply doesn’t taste the same anywhere else.

Alas, only a handful of restaurants are licensed to serve this much-savoured city recipe. Eat with the locals in Chez Fonfon. Or hit L’Epuisette for the more refined Michelin-starred option.

10) Purchase a Picasso in Antibes

Picasso set up his easels in Antibes' Chateau Grimaldi in 1946. The panoramas he painted over the Cap d'Antibes are recognisable in posters across the globe. For €6 you can see where the Catalan worked, sculpted and played, as this waterside castle is now the Musée Picasso.

So, about owning a Picasso. We weren't talking about Le Rêve, which sold to casino magnate Steve Wynn for $155,000 in 2013. Spend your money in Antibes’ Marché Provençal street market instead, and grab a €10 print from the museum shop for your living room wall.

Missed Part 1 of out Riviera Bucket List? Click here.