I felt Nice was faux-high-class nasty yuck. I did like Marseille which felt more like a port-town to me. I think France is best travelled to small towns (< 5000 people), but perhaps that is just because I like travelling to small towns in most countries.
Curious how Nice is now - is it still filled with Russian oligarchs and "oligarch-adjacent" since the Ukraine war?
I was there years ago, went to a nice restaurant, there was a table there where it looked like the dudes were just trying to buy more and more expensive bottles of wine for show.
Wouldn't it be amazing if this actually was a secret. If some huge conspiracy had manipulated maps, satellite photos, roads and so on. Then CNN blew the whole thing wide open. That'd be an article worth reading!
Obviously, if you compare it to Nice, it's not that hard.
Avoid Narbonne during summer. I'd say avoid France altogether in summer. It's nice from mid may to the 10th of July and from the last week of august until mid october. If you like river sports, mid-april starts to be nice.
Unless you go to Brittany, Normandy or Haut de France. We have really nice museums there, there is not that much people, mostly retired Brits.
Isn't the Côte Bleue a bigger secret? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Côte_Bleue doesn't even have a real Wikipedia page. Of course the stress there is on coastal, for anything bigger you would need to go to Marseille.
By the way, regardless of the exact place the best way to enjoy the mediterranean coast is to dial your habits/schedule. I can literally see the mediterranean sea from the office I am writing that comment and only have to cross the street to enjoy some beach time. By 11am the beaches are just packed. What I usually do during summer time is go to the beach/sea before work and 2h before sunset when most tourists are leaving the beach to take a shower and dress up before going for dinner.
When I go doing standup paddle between 7 and 9am the beach is the cleanest and empty.
They may be considered secrets internationnally but they aren't really. All the mediterranean coast is packed with tourists every summer. The difference only is on the individual restrictions in urbanization, natural parks/parking space limits that makes that some areas are better preserved/less practical to visit.
I enjoyed Nice. I also enjoyed the towns around it. I even enjoyed Monaco which seems like an unpopular opinion. Not sure why it’s one or the other. I’d also recommend Corsica if you make your way down there. Now THAT’S a secret (for Americans).
Corsica has partly violent fights for independence. I think if you are not up to a 100% touristy program and speak the language of the "occupying force" you can feel the tensions. Not an ideal holiday destination, unfortunately.
If you don't like Corsica for some social climate reasons, Sardinia (in Italy) is really close, equally as beautiful and there are much less tourists (except the north part).
I haven't been there, hesitating mainly because of the political situation. But if you tell me it's very crowded maybe I can move from hesitating to a negative decision. I might have looked more into the mountains by bike, that did not seem crowded to me when I looked last time (probably years before Covid). But the public infrastructure for a cyclist who might want to have a rest some day and do something else did not look convincing either. And then there were some very unspecific reservations my French teacher had about the people in the mountains. No idea whether they have any foundation, but just looking at Street View did not tell me this looks all very welcoming.
Sardinia is certainly on my list. I understand they still have some intersting small railways, too.
I think that's a bit unfair. I went for my honeymoon and found the people there more than welcoming to two very-basic-french-speaking Americans. We drove around and explored the island totally independently.
Not an expert on the matter, but I don't think there is any aggression against tourists. It's more against French officials and then against each others because of disagreements about whether and how to act for independence. For a completely touristy program you might not notice until something bad happens just that day (unlikely).
But more knowledge means more pain. If you don't know about it you might not learn until maybe you study the local newpapers (which I like to do if I am in a new place) and start wondering about some things not well explained. And I tend to react very sensitively to such things. I visited Spain as small schoolkid during Franco's dictatorship. I staid in a family I knew from before and was taken care of perfectly. Still seeing the Guardia Civil (paramilitary troops being especially loyal to the dictator) every day made me feel somehow unspecificly uncomfortable. It took me several years to even learn what dictatorship or democracy even mean. I had the same feeling later when travelling in the GDR or visiting Belfast (for work) just months after peace. If there is a reason to go there I make a rational risk assessment. If I just want to go there to explore and enjoy the place, I'd rather skip. I guess good for them if other tourists place the bar a bit lower.
I think it has changed a lot during the last 2 decades. Nowadays most younger people are able and willing to speak enough English to deal with typical tourist concerns just fine. For people over 50 it might still be different unless they are 100% proud of offering good service to tourists.
I am not an expert on the matter because I always try to practice my French when being there. So those who are not willing or able to communicate in English I would never notice. Sometimes it happens that some I could understand decently well in French switch to English and I get difficulties to understand what they are trying to say. Not disturbingly often I'd say.
There are nice places in the vicinity, like Cap Ferrat, but people going there mostly avoid Nice.