What It’s Like Doing a Delicious Food Tour in Nice, France
In this post, I’m sharing exactly what this food tour in Nice is like, a teaser for the types of food you’ll be trying, and other things to know before you go. Let’s dive in!
Why Do a Food Tour in Nice?
Generally speaking, I love doing food tours – they are such a fun experience to have while traveling. You get to try the local cuisine, meet new people, and explore the city. I’ve done many food tours in cities around the world, and it’s always been a delightful time.
And Nice is certainly no exception! Nice has a thriving food scene, with many cuisine specialties unique to the city and region.
So, on my latest Nice trip, I decided to do a food tour and immerse myself in Niçoise food. I went on this food tour featuring Provencal specialties, and even though I’ve visited Provence multiple times, I was still exposed to many new foods.
And y’all. This experience was just so. dang. fun. We tried tons of food and had a really pleasant time – the hours passed quickly!
I did this Provencal Food Tour with Wine Tasting and it was absolutely phenomenal. We tasted so many different foods, treats, snacks, drinks, and regional specialties while learning a little bit about Nice’s history. Plus, the guide was just delightful. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Why This is a Great Food Tour
You’ll spend your time in the Old Town section of Nice – which is home to a delightful number of cafes, restaurants, markets, and vendors. The streets are just ridiculously charming in Old Town!
The guide, Marion, is friendly, happy, and very engaging. She shares a lot of interesting background about Nice, and how its history influenced the cuisine the city enjoys today. By the end of the tour, we all felt like we were friends just hanging out and having a good time together, which is the best kind of vibe.
You’ll try a huge variety of dishes, treats, fruits and vegetables, meats and cheese, plus local coffee, beer, and 2 wines that are the guide’s personal favorites are also included in the tour.
If you can, I’d recommend doing this food tour towards the beginning of your stay in Nice instead of right at the end, so you can come back for your favorite meals and take advantage of any recommendations you get from the guide.
What Types of Food You’ll Taste
On this food tour in Nice, we sampled such a wide range of foods and treats. I’ve been to France 10 times now and visited Nice 3 times, and there were still things that were new and different to me.
We started out at one of the most historic and beautiful candy shops in Nice, learning about French Christmas traditions and sampling some of the candied nuts and fruits that are traditionally eaten around the holidays.
Then we went to the Marché aux Fleurs, the sprawling fruit and vegetable market that’s open every day in Nice. We walked up and down the market for a long time, stopping at many different stands to try their interesting and delicious wares.
And it certainly isn’t just produce that is sold here – we tried everything from olives to candied flowers to a delicious tapenade. We picked up fresh dates, grapes, and tomatoes to go with a selection of five local cheeses and three dried meats, and enjoyed a charcuterie board right in the market.
We tried a sweet pastry made with a very surprising vegetable, and little vegetables stuffed with a sausage mixture, as well as pissaladière, a classic Nice specialty.
After leaving the market, we stopped in at one of the best socca shops in Nice. Socca, a thin, crispy “pancake” made from chickpea flour, is probably the most distinctive dish in Nicoise cuisine. We also got to actually go into the shop and watch up close as they made and baked the socca – a truly fascinating process!
One particularly interesting part of the day was our stop at an olive oil shop. Provence is known for producing olive oil, and we got to sample three different kinds of olive oil, noting their different flavors.
The first two olive oils were quite good, but also similar to olive oils I’ve had before. The third one, though, had a very distinct and unique flavor, and was produced in a special Provencal style.
This is also where we tried a surprisingly delicious lemon-flavored vinegar, from lemons grown in Menton, a village just 30 minutes from Nice. I brought back a bottle of this lemon vinegar for my mom and she LOVED it. She uses it as an olive oil + vinegar dressing for her salads.
We ended the tour in front of a wine store in Nice, where we got to try two different wines (a white and a rosé) and eat a few more hot finger foods.
Ready to book? Reserve your spot here!
Some Other Helpful Info
>>It should go without saying, but definitely come hungry to this tour! The tours generally start at 9:30am, and unless you’re waking up at 6am, I’d plan to skip breakfast and also have this count as your lunch.
>>I loved that this was in a small group setting, which made it feel homey and intimate. I love chatting with other travelers when doing tours like this, and so I’d recommend you also plan to be chatty with the other participants.
>>If you really like something that you taste, it’s easy to purchase some right there to bring home. Obviously, you can’t bring home a hot, cooked dish, but several people bought bottles of wine, the lemon flavored vinegar, and some of the candies.
>>Because this is a small group tour (with a maximum of 15 participants), I’d recommend not waiting until the last minute to book.
>>Be aware that the tour doesn’t operate during November, December, and January (as the city just sees very few tourists during this season), runs three days a week during February and March, and runs five days a week during the rest of the year.
>>I’m not the only one who has enjoyed this culinary experience – the tour has over 400 5-star reviews on Viator.
The Wrap Up – Is A Nice Food Tour Worth It?
I think at this point it’s obvious that I had a great time doing this experience in Nice. I know that there’s so much to do in Nice and places to visit in the French Riviera – more than you can do during one single trip, so you have to make choices about how to spend your time.
However, I do think that it’s totally worth your time and money to do this experience – it really was a highlight of my time in Nice.
