✈ 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.

✈ Keeping Kosher in Nice, France

Contributed by: Abbie Rosenbaum-Braha | Last Travel Date: January 2008

Kosher Info: Nice is fairly small and just about all of the kosher places are reachable by foot from each other, the train station, and the Mediterranean. What was really great about Nice is that somehow, outside of Chabad, nobody spoke English or Hebrew, so I got to give French a spin.

• Chez Arthur (13 rue Auber) – This steakhouse offers good food in a nice ambiance. I was only disappointed to discover that if you missed the lunchtime plat du jour, the menu offers no French food.
• Restaurant Leshem Chamaym (22 rue Rossini) – This wonderful dairy restaurant is run by and attached to Chabad. It was a most pleasant surprise. The generously portioned food was delicious and the ambiance was great. The staff spoke Hebrew and English.
• Le Kinneret (37 av. Georges Clemenceau) – We ate here a few times becuase the food was French and delicious. It is the only place open during the hours of 2 pm and 7 pm when once cannot get a kosher meal (or any meal) in a restaurant in Europe. It is not actually a restaurant but a bakery and a take out place, but they do have 2 tables where we spent many hours smelling the wonderful aromas, enjoying our food and watching the locals.
• Supermarche K’GEL (18 rue Dante) – We shopped for kosher products here because it was right down the block from our hotel. They pointed us to a boulangerie down the block where we could purchase baguettes. This was the highlight of our trip.

Tourist Info: Nice is a fantastic getaway destination. The weather is sunny and warm about 350 days a year, the sea is truly azure and kosher dining is plentful. What we didn’t expect were Nice’s other attractions, beautiful gardens and villas, to be enjoyed in the warm breezy air. We particularly enjoyed the Villa Rothchild and its gardens just a short trip by bus up the coast. There are also many other gardens and villas open to the public in that area. Nice also offers a host of museums, catering to almost any interest. We visited the Matisse Museum, which is really only of interest if one is a Matisse fan and the Chaggal Museum which is of interset even if one is not a Chaggal fan. The museums are situated within a 20 minute walk – I recommend first heading to the Matisse, unless one much prefers walking uphill.

Jewish Info: (coming soon)