Wintering over in Nice, France

[chuckr]

Greetings to all from sunny hot but hurricane free Trinidad
we sail a 2001 jeanneau ds40 and she has longed to see her home country - so we thought what the heck we will sail her across the pond in may of 2013 arriving in the south of france around late september
our current thoughts are to winterover in Nice and then continue our journey around the med in the spring --
we will be going back to the usa to visit family in Oct but can not spend to long as they can only put up with us for so long - so we should be back in November --
Beside the Schengen Agreement - which we will have to figure out how to deal with -
has anyone wintered over in Nice? Any thought or recommendations would be appreciated.
And we are not the rich americans -- we are full time cruisers and have been out going on 6 years now
thanks to all and cheers
just our thoughts and opinions
chuck patty and svsoulmates
in trinidad for hurricane season

[joydc]

Nice is not bad; Spain, Valencia will be cheaper.

[SunDevil]

I was there in July 2009 and it is a 'Nice' place to visit. If I could have taken a photo in to the East from the top of this hill, it would be Villefranche-sur-Mer and there are some places to anchor there.

I would recommend cruising around the South of France and spending time in other parts of the Southern French Mediterranean as well to see what is out there. Different people will like different things, they will all have different experiences, and meet different people... But, not that I have any problems with Nice except for the beach is made of rocks, I liked the Montpellier area a lot.

I'm not sure what the weather is like there in the winter though. I imagine it is like Florida.

[johnandtessa]

As for weather, that part of the Med seems to get a lot of very nasty wind. We decided to stay away from that part due to the weather and what we heard about cost. We have cruised from Portugal to Greece and things get more expensive (on average) as you move north and east.

[goboatingnow]

The big issue is can you get a berth. The port of nice itself is very crowded Try Baie des Anges, Vaughan in Antibes or beaulieu.

Nice is a lovely pac, very accessible with an airport cheap public transport good rail connections and very affable population good train links to Italy too. I've spent a lot of time there and I'd reccomend it. The weather is generally ok over the winter and won't really concern you as you'll be tucked up in a Marina. You can get some cool weather coming down from the and even the odd snow shower in winter !


While berthing is expensive ( though a good bot cheaper in the winter) France itself is not a particularly expensive place. Public transport is very cheap, the best food ingredients , available cheaply, take the train to the markets in ventimillia, and buy great pasta and booze for half nothing. Don't forget to try the Socca

All in all a nice place.

Dave