Riviera tourists skimp on lunch to afford nights out

French tourists on the Côte d’Azur are rethinking what they spend on food: many deliberately cut back at lunchtime to keep their budget for the evening. Nice-Matin published the report on 2 August 2026.

A sandwich instead of a restaurant

In Old Nice the queues form not at restaurant terraces but at the grocers and street-food stalls. Holidaymakers use the same tactics: compare the menus, take a sandwich, or skip the restaurant altogether. Théo, a student from Avignon, puts it plainly: “We save on meals so we can spend more on going out.”

How the budget adds up

A family from Lyon buys paninis at a bakery: lunch for four with drinks comes to about €45, where a restaurant would have cost more than €160. Nadia, a pensioner, picks places with good value for money from Google reviews — and finds them in Nice and in Menton alike.

What the prices look like

Some items startle even seasoned visitors: “A €30 salad is too much,” says Sophie from Lyon. A decent dish of the day, on the other hand, can be found for €16 if you read the menu first. Young couples such as Mathilde from Paris hold the line at €70 for lunch and watch the details — from the space between tables to whether coffee is on the bill.

We looked at how to keep costs down along the coast in “Cannes on a limited budget”. We have also written about Cannes’s row with the La Guérite restaurant.

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Photo: Edoardo Colombo / Pexels