If Paris is on your itinerary, the Côte d'Azur is closer than you might think — roughly 90 minutes by air from Charles de Gaulle or Orly to Nice, or four to five and a half hours on SNCF's high-speed trains. For travellers already flying across the Atlantic or through Europe, tacking a few Riviera days onto a France trip is easy, and the local bus and rail network makes hopping between towns cheap and simple.
Start in Nice, widely treated as the Riviera's capital. The classic routine is a walk along the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais on the Baie des Anges, then a wander through Old Nice down to Cours Saleya, the city's famous flower market. A smarter move: the city runs a free greeter programme, pairing visitors with locals who share their personal favourite spots, food and hangouts.
Eating well in Nice means eating Niçois. Look for restaurants carrying the Cuisine Nissarde label, awarded each year to kitchens that stick to local products and traditional recipes. The essentials: socca, a hot chickpea-flour flatbread; ravioli à la daube, filled with slow-stewed meat in red wine; the original salade Niçoise; and pan bagnat, basically the same salad packed into a roll for eating on the go.
Monaco is only 30 minutes from Nice by train, and the principality — smaller than New York's Central Park, at under one square mile — rewards more than a casino selfie. Skip the Formula 1 crowds and explore La Condamine, where locals shop and eat around Place d'Armes, then climb to the Rocher de Monaco for the old town and the Prince's Palace. Green thumbs get two strong options: the Exotic Garden, reopened after six years of renovations, clinging to a cliffside with 1,000 species of cacti and succulents, and the Princess Grace Rose Garden with over 450 rose varieties. Monaco's newest quarter, Mareterra, is a pedestrian-friendly, eco-conscious waterfront district with galleries, boutiques and bars — the right place to order a Monaco Spritz, built on the local citrus liqueur L'Orangerie.
Leave room for the hill villages too. Medieval Èze is known for its historic perfumeries, Saint-Paul de Vence is often called the coast's prettiest village, and Biot is the region's glassmaking centre.
Who's this for? Anyone combining business in Paris with leisure time, or travellers who want Mediterranean warmth without the hassle of a separate trip. The Riviera suits both fast movers — Nice and Monaco in a long weekend — and slow travellers who'd rather string together village stops by train. Just note the trade-offs: flying is fastest, driving from Paris takes a full nine and a half hours, and summer crowds on the coast are real. Shoulder season is your friend.
