With sunglasses perched on their noses, six American tourists strolled along the Cours Saleya in Old Nice. There, the market overflows with tulips, lemons, olives and stuffed squid. "It's so nice to walk around and not have to drive everywhere," said Hayley Lowery, 50, from North Carolina, who's spending a week between Barcelona and Nice with her 20-year-old daughter. "What fascinates me here are the colors. I also came for the museums: Matisse, Chagall," added Emily Toomey, 32, a computer science researcher. In the shade of a baroque church and a 17th-century palace, the small group shared an oily socca, a local chickpea-based specialty. "And try these strawberries; they're delicious," suggested Rosa Jackson, their Canadian guide leading this tour dedicated to Niçoise gastronomy.
Food tours are a concept that Americans visiting Nice adore. Jackson has seen her number of clients soar over the past three years – nearly all of them are American. After the market, it's off to her cooking workshop, where her six guests don aprons to prepare an aioli, a pissaladière and a lavender crème brûlée before dining on-site: the package costs €210 per person. "Previously, American tourists stayed in Cannes or Monaco. Now, more of them are based in Nice, which has made significant efforts to attract them," said this former culinary journalist.
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