Nice – Mini

The culinary geography of Nice and its surrounding region is best understood at speed, from behind the wheel of something worthy of the landscape. The Moyenne Corniche carves through limestone cliffs and hilltop villages at an elevation that puts the Mediterranean at a permanent, glittering remove, a route that connects not just towns but entire flavor profiles.

Mini's cheeky, nimble character makes light work of the old quarter's narrower lanes near the socca stalls. Rent or hire a Mini with Zeus Prestige and it arrives exactly as booked, practical for weaving through Nice's tighter streets without losing any charm.

Bellet, the tiny AOC wine appellation tucked into the hills above the city, produces Rolle whites and Braquet reds in quantities so small they rarely leave the region. Seek them out at estate cellars before descending back into the city's old quarter, where socca, chickpea flour, olive oil, wood fire, is as honest a dish as European street food gets. Dinner, inevitably, pulls toward the Promenade des Anglais and the domed, Belle Epoque presence of the Hotel Negresco, where the wine list reads like a cartography of southern France. Nicoise cuisine has its own strict grammar: anchovies, black olives, no cooked vegetables in the salade.

Browse the full Cabriolets collection available in Nice for more like it.