The Riviera eats two ways. There is the cuisine niçoise of the markets — socca, pissaladière, salade niçoise made properly, with no potato — and there is the grand terrace, hung over the sea, where the view is half the bill. Both are worth your time; neither should be hurried.
I. The perched tables
At Èze, La Chèvre d’Or serves lunch on a terrace that falls four hundred metres to the water. At Saint-Paul-de-Vence, La Colombe d’Or sets you among Légers and Mirós and a famous trolley of hors-d’œuvre. At Menton, Mirazur cooks down its own terraced gardens above the bay.
“On the Riviera, lunch is a view you happen to eat through.”
II. The old town, standing up
In Nice, eat the way the city does: socca hot off the copper pan at the Cours Saleya market, a slice of pissaladière, a glass of Bellet from the hills behind the airport. It costs almost nothing and tells you more about the coast than any tasting menu.
