✈ Nice, France
Contributed by: Michelle Szpilzinger | Last Visited: June 2010
Kosher Info: Nice has a small Jewish community and a few restaurants and kosher shops. There are two good and mostly (but not entirely) accurate sites that list kosher places in France. One is 123 Kosher and the other is Kosher in France. As with almost all of Europe, most places close during midday.
I have made a Google Map showing all of the restaurants and shops that I know about. The ones that don’t have numbers are ones I didn’t get a chance to check and make sure still exist. If you see a listing for something called “Anat” I can tell you firsthand that it either doesn’t exist or has moved to a different address that isn’t listed. I was also in the area where something called “Le Keter” would have been and didn’t see it.
There is a previous entry about Nice that gives a nice review of Chez Arthur, but even though it was right next door to our hotel, we didn’t get a chance to eat there. We did pick up croissants every day at Le Kineret. They also carry other breads, pastries, and takeout and have a small (meat) restaurant in the back.
We went to Le Leviathan for lunch on our first day in Nice and they informed us that they only had pizza at that time. This was fine as the pizza was delicious. A few days later we had dinner there and got tuna steaks and salmon fillets. All of it was excellent and very reasonably priced.
Lechem Chamaym is the Chabad restaurant and it’s also very good and reasonably priced. The pasta was excellent and they had crepe desserts. When we went there we also inquired about meals for Shabbat and they were able to set us up for both meals.
For those in need of ice cream, there is a Haagen Dazs cafe in a pedestrian zone on the corner of Rue Massena and Rue Magenta that has a freezer with packaged bars that have an OU.
The hotel we stayed in was Hotel Aria, right next door to Chez Arthur. We chose it because they use regular keys so there is no worry for Shabbat, though the front door is automatic. If you’re there for Shabbat just tell the staff and they will make sure to open the door for you manually to get in to the building. The hotel is in an older building and is not what one would call lavish, but if you just want someplace serviceable to sleep and don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the hotel, it’s fine. The rooms do have small fridges.
Tourist Info:Nice is a beautiful city with an Italian flare, having only joined France in 1860. The Old Town has the colorful buildings and narrow streets one would expect to see in any Italian city. The beach is beautiful (but rocky — no sand here) and anyone in Nice should take a relaxing stroll along the beachfront promenade called the Boulevard des Anglais. Be forewarned — this is the south of France, and some women do go topless on the beach. But if you stay on the promenade and don’t look down to the beach itself, you can avoid seeing anything you don’t want to. There is also an excellent Chagall Museum as well as a Matisse Museum, both easily reachable by bus. Near the Matisse Museum is an archaeology museum with some Roman ruins for Ancient Rome aficionados (although some of them are currently closed and can only be seen through the window of the museum.) For the kosher traveler, Nice makes an excellent base from which to explore the French Riviera as Monaco, Antibes, Cannes, Villefranche sur Mer, and other sites are only a short train or bus ride away.
Jewish Info: Nice has a small, quiet Jewish community. We didn’t really encounter much outside of Chabad and at the kosher shops and restaurants.
The hotel we stayed in was Hotel Aria, right next door to Chez Arthur. We chose it because they use regular keys so there is no worry for Shabbat, though the front door is automatic. If you’re there for Shabbat just tell the staff and they will make sure to open the door for you manually to get in to the building. The hotel is in an older building and is not what one would call lavish, but if you just want someplace serviceable to sleep and don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the hotel, it’s fine. The rooms do have small fridges.
Anyone needing Shabbat meals should contact Chabad.
If you want to stay in for Shabbat and have a place to keep and refrigerate food, the kosher groceries listed have deli, cheeses, wine, snacks, etc.
Kosher Info: All Jewish life in Venice is clustered inside the former Ghetto area of two compact squares – Campo di Ghetto Nuovo and Campo di Ghetto Vecchio. Here you can find two meat kosher restaurants: Gam-Gam, which is owned and operated by Chabad, and Le Balthazar with the adjacent new kosher hotel Giardino del Ghetto (same ownership) under the supervision of Chief Rabbi of Venice.
There are also two kosher bakeries – one was never open while we were there, and the other had a nice selection of breads and pastries, and sold kosher packaged products and wine. The bakery is apparently owned by non-Jews, since it was open on Shabbat, while displaying two kashrut certificates. Chabad also runs a small makolet, where you can buy some dry goods and dairy, but it does not have set operation hours, so you need to arrange with them to open it.
By all means, take some guided tour once in Venice to learn more about the rich and interesting history of the Venetian Republic. Both the Doge’s Palace “Secret Itineraries” tour (where they bring you to otherwise inaccessible floors of the palace) and the Clock Tower tour we took were very engaging and are highly recommended. The Doge’s Palace and the Clock Tower are both located on the famed Piazza San Marco together with the Basilica San Marco, the Campanille (bell tower) and several museums. Cafes with outside seating on the Piazza feature baroque and jazz music bands, and at night the square becomes a scene of “dueling orchestras”, when bands from different cafes take turns in showing off their virtuosity.
We didn’t know much about it, except that it’s a kosher supermarket. We decided to use our google maps to walk there and get a taste of Barcelona while we were at it. Great idea! It was easy to get to, a pleasant walk from our hotel in the city center, and ended up being a great experience. When we first walked in, we saw a small gourmet-ish kosher supermarket with particularly good meat and cheeses. We were really craving hot food, so we asked if they have a place to maybe warm up something we buy there. Next thing you know, they open up a door and we see that they have a small restaurant that they have created on the side. They had very fresh and tasty meat options that were ready to go on the grill. We chose the burgers (though the kababs looked very good as well) and the cook prepared our food with real pleasure. The few people who walked in and out were very friendly and welcoming as well. What really stuck out in my mind was that a man walked in with his children at one point and we got to talking with him. He told us that there are only 5-6 families in all of Barcelona that actually keep kosher. Very few people know about this establishment, which is truly a shame. The food is good, and if there are only a few kosher families in Barcelona, the only way for these guys to stay open is with the visits of kosher tourists. Anyway, I highly recommend this place. 
