Nice Holiday Gift Guide
If you’re feeling nostalgic for Nice or know someone who is, here is your holiday gift guide to bring the Cote d’Azur a little closer.
- Update for Americans: To avoid the Trump tariff kerfuffle, scroll down for some fabulous France-themed gifts (most under $15) that you can get shipped within America, tariff-free…
New for 2025
Recently published, Rosa Jackson’s gorgeous 400-page homage to Nicoise cuisine will make you long for your next trip to Nice! It’s packed with stories, recipes, and mouth-watering photos, sells for around 40€, and is available locally at Nice’s two new English-language bookstores Around the World at 58 rue Geoffredo (tram stop Massena), Read the Room Bookshop and Café at 3 rue Papon (tram stop Republique), or worldwide on Amazon.
Stocking Stuffers
Local Nice artist Sylvie T prints her architectural watercolors on note pads, sketch books, gift cards, etc., but my favorites are the sets of 10 bookmarks with 10 different scenes of Nice (out of 24 possible) for just 12€, and obviously super lightweight for packing or mailing. 14 Rue Droite in Old Nice, tram stop Cathedrale.
A little sack of dark chocolate pebbles will be a sweet way to remember sunny days spent on Nice’s pebbled beaches, and are only 10.50€ from Le Galet Bleu in Old Nice at 29 rue Benoit Bunico (no e-store, but does speak English and does ship).
Outside of Old Nice, don’t miss the kaleidoscopic chocolate boutique at Maison Canel at 21 rue de France. Go for the chocolate covered toasted almond pebbles, but stay for the literal chocolate wonderland with everything from candied mimosas to unique chocolate gifts for every interest… You can also order online in English, and they ship worldwide.
Few things say country French like a colorful Provencal table cloth, napkin set, placemats, pillow covers, or fragrant lavender-filled sachets (which make awesome stocking stuffers btw). They also sell fabric bow-tied bread baskets (under 10€), which are easy to pack, and perfect for holding a lot of smaller items to assemble your own personalized made-in-Nice gift baskets. MCTissus has been running their little fabric boutique from a corner shop in Old Nice since 1942, and sends out online orders the same day. 1 rue du Pontin, tram stop Opera.
As long as you are in Old Nice, don’t miss Tresors Publics at 18 rue de la Prefecture. It is full of old-timey French doodads, vintage kitchen gadgets, and iconic items from all regions of France, like this stocking stuffer for French cheese-lovers: a Cheese Box with two rotating flanges, for storing your Camembert or Brie without totally stinking up your fridge. You won’t find this in America, and it’s under 10€.
Just down the same street you can find lots of Nice-themed jigsaw puzzles and posters at Wemood Nice 17 rue de la Prefecture in the Old Town. Otherwise PuzzleYOU has a whole page specializing in jigsaw puzzles on Nice, and you can even have one custom made from one of your trip photos! …And if that’s not enough, check out the Eric Garence Boutique at 14 blvd Jean Jaures for a colorful poster and mug selection… Or visit ArtNice for stocking-stuffers that riff on Nice’s emblematic blue chairs at 2 rue Droite in Old Nice (no e-site but takes postal orders by email).
Give a taste of the green fairy! Absenthe is the green-hued spirit that inspired Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani, Hemingway, Toulouse-Lautrec, and many others. Nowadays the active ingredient thujon is a fraction of the original dose, limited to 35mg/kg in the EU, and still illegal in the US and Canada. But if you live in the EU or UK, a tiny taster bottle with its special sugar-cube melting/flaming-spoon could be a very original stocking stuffer, and it’s less than 10€! In Old Nice, pick up a taster bottle at Cave Caprioglio at 16 rue de la Prefecture (right next to the awesome Tresors Publics, above).
Here’s a different kind of liquid sunshine from Nice: Pastis made by a priest. Father Gil Fiori Florini is a real renaissance man: he runs his local church, feeds the poor with a free restaurant in the basement, is an accomplished jazz musician, and is the founder of his own pastis factory… I kid you not. 3 rue de Oristis, tram stop Port, or buy it in any local wine store, like Cave Caprioglio in Old Nice (pictured). (Caveat for Americans: the US Postal Service doesn’t allow mailing alcohol, but it can be sent to the US via DHL.)
Want to create the most impressive cheese board ever? Give the blade a twirl on this European-style Cheese Curler/Shaver to make feathery cheese flourishes that literally melt in the mouth. It’s an obscure item but available worldwide. Works best with a cheese called Tête de Moine, monk’s head, named after its resemblance to the shaved head of a Benedictine monk, but any round hard cheese will do.
Make your own little Nice beach at home with a one-of-a-kind rug woven with with cushy felt ‘stones’… They are soft and warm and will remind you of sunny days on the beaches of Nice… but will be a lot easier to walk on with bare feet! Handmade in Austria by Martina Schuhmann, they can also be found on Etsy and other sites. Not cheap but very original.
More Gifts under 15€ that ship from where YOU are
With the US Tariff situation complicating shipping, here are some fabulous France-themed finds that you can get shipped from America:
Give a little French fashion savoir-faire for under 10€ with this indispensable guide How To Tie A Scarf 
McCormick’s all-natural Summer Truffle Salt from France is big on truffle flavor but light on the pocketbook at under 10€, and ships locally. Amazing on potatoes (esp. French fries!), pasta, risotto…
This Home Cappuccino Foamer/Frother is the bomb… just pour in some milk hot or cold (any kind, even skim milk works great!) and pump for maybe 30-seconds, and voila you have a thick foam to transform your morning coffee into a heavenly frothy cappuccino. …And with the money you’ll be saving on Starbucks, you can save up for your next trip to France…!
While you are savoring that cappuccino, pop some French Café Music into your player to complete the experience…
Other evocative French musical choices include anything by Yann Tierson (the composer for The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain) and Serge Gainsbourg.
Zazzle is California-based, but features designs from independent artists all over the world, which are then printed to order by Zazzle nearest where you are and then shipped locally. They have pages and pages of Nice gift ideas, just put Nice France plus any word into the search bar for literally hundreds of ideas! Here are some favorites: Old Nice couch pillow, vintage beach phone case, Negresco totebag, vintage travel poster mouse pad., and even a necktie! This website kind of blew me away!
Red Bubble is a similar custom reprint service that prints your order in your country, so quick shipping and no tariffs, and most posters are just 15-20€.
- Art lover? Vintage Art Gallery Publicity Posters
- Jazz aficionado? European Jazz Festival Posters
- Cinephile? Retro Cannes Film Festival Posters
- Racing fan? They’ll flip for a Monaco Grand Prix poster…
Speaking of art lovers, this big thick coffee table book Matisse: The Early Years in Nice is the bomb. Its from a major Matisse exhibition in Washington DC in the 80’s, and long out of print, but you can still find it in the US via online used booksellers, and often for less than $15. It’s a lavishly illustrated retrospective (in English!) from Matisse’s nearly 20 years in Old Nice, which was his most joyous and prolific period. Most of the artworks in this book were painted in his apartment at the top of Cours Saleya, where he lived with his family in a top-floor apartment with a view on the market on one side and the Mediterranean sea on the other.
- See related page: Getting VAT Tax Back, and Shipping Stuff Home
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