✈ 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.

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✈ Cannes, France

Contributed by: Michelle Szpilzinger | Last Visited: June 2010

Kosher Info: This is a Google Map I made of kosher places. There are two kosher restaurants in Cannes.

Le Tovel is a very nice meat restaurant run by Chabad that has indoor and outdoor seating and is just a few blocks inland from the beach. My friend ordered lamb and I ordered a steak. Both were excellent. We did not see them, but other friends who have been there say the restaurant has menus in Hebrew. (We only saw the French ones.)

Kitchen is just down the street from Le Tovel. It serves French cuisine and has what looked like a very good (but somewhat more limited) menu.

The kosher grocery listed was closed when we went there (at about 2pm) and I have no idea what their hours are. We took a peak inside and saw the usual kosher packaged products and snacks but couldn’t tell if they had refrigerated products. We were not able to check to see if the butcher store exists or what they have.

There is a Haagen Dazs on La Croisette across from the festival hall with packaged bars that have an OU.

Tourist Info: Cannes’s claim to fame is the yearly Cannes Film Festival which runs in May. If you go during festival time, you might want to book a year in advance and expect huge crowds. In early June it’s a lovely, pleasant place to visit and you can walk the red carpet (or blue carpet when we were there) of the Palais des Festivals and pretend to be a movie star yourself. Just outside the festival hall is a Hollywood Walk of Fame style row of handprints from many international movie stars.

Those interested in history will want to climb up to Le Suquet, Cannes’s historic core, but most just come to shop and browse at the fancy designer stores and hotels along Boulevard de La Croisette, Cannes’s beachfront promenade. You can also take a ferry to Ile St. Marguerite, a pleasant island nearby with nice views, parks, and the fort and building that once held the famous “Man in the Iron Mask.”

Jewish Info: We were not in Cannes for Shabbat, but you can probably contact Chabad for meals and resources. We did see a fairly large Synagogue near the train station, but it was closed when we were there.

Tags: cannes film festival, chabad cannes, chabad france, french chabad, french kosher, jewish cannes, jewish cannes film festival, jewish france, kosher cannes, kosher cannes film festival, kosher france

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