Useful Link

The following links are helpful in finding the ins and outs of both property purchase and life in Nice. Read on for mortgage, financial advice, rental, airline, hotel, lifestyle, media and plenty of practical sites. Please mention TotallyRiviera when contacting the following parties.

French Mortgages

The Spectrum Group Leading English-speaking mortgage broker and financial adviser with offices in Sophia Antipolis, Villefranche sur Mer and across Europe. Our main contact Peter Brooke works across the Cote d'Azur and has saved countless TotallyRiviera clients money on their purchase abroad Visit website

Barclays France Information-packed website from one of the UK's largest banks. Downloadable buying guides and lifestyle guides Visit website

credit foncier totally riviera nice france Credit Foncier formerly Entenial The English-language website of France's largest mortgage lender. Credit Foncier is more like a British building society and specializes in real estate and asset financing. TotallyRiviera have several personal contacts at the Nice branch Visit website

UCB Mortgages formerly Abbey National France Informative website with excellent downloads from the French arm of one of Britain's largest lenders Visit website

GE Capital Mortgages Comprehensive details about purchasing and buying-to-let in France, with further details on interest-only loans Visit website

Financial, legal and purchasing advice

Mortgage Payment Calculator A handy on-line calculator that works like a spreadsheet. Put what you think you can borrow into the calculator and see your repayments and terms. Visit website

Buying Currency at competitive prices You can save up to seven thousands pounds on an average sized transaction from Pounds to Euros buy NOT using your High Street bank. Specialist Foreign Exchange companies buy and sell at "City Institution" prices. They are cheaper because they are dealing in millions and millions of currency a day on the global markets. Visit website

French Taxes an authoritative overview of the French taxation system by Simon Huxford an English solicitor with Gordon S Blair Law Offices. Includes a section on wealth tax, inheritance tax and capital gains tax. Visit website

Purchasing Information An article by Carole Bayliss of Mortgagefrance.com explaining in detail the rules and regulations regarding purchasing in France. Visit website

PA and translation services Linda Johansson and Emelie Hullegard provide a professional PA service ranging from administration and travel itinerary arrangement through to catering and logistics. Their firm also specialises in translation in English, French, Spanish, German and Swedish. Rates start at ?25 per hour. Visit website

Notaires Fees If your French is up to it, this site can be used for estimating the fees associated with French mortgages (frais de notaire etc.) This site above all others seems to provide very accurate figures for what can be a very complicated set of mathematical rules. Visit website

Removals

Britserv is a small family run removals company that takes great pride in its customer care and fulfilling it customer’s needs and deadlines. Whether it’s a plant pot or an entire house Britserv specialises in removals from the UK to France and from France to the UK. They take great care and a number of their trucks are small enough to access the windy streets of some of the Rivera’s old towns and cities. Britserv can be contacted on 0033(0)2 99 98 31 Visit Website.

Rental Websites

Nice Apartments British-run property rental service with nine luxury properties to rent in the city Visit website

Holiday Rentals Europe's largest holiday rentals site where foreign purchasers post rental advertisements. A good website for checking rental incomes in Nice Visit website

Nice Paradise Website of a fine rental property on rue Alexandre Mari, 30 seconds from the Opera house and Promenade Visit website

Airlines

EasyJet Consistently the cheapest airline flying to and from Nice. Flights to seven UK airport including Gatwick, Luton, Belfast and Newcastle, plus daily takeoffs for Paris, Geneva, Berlin and others. Visit website

Sky Scanner A favourite website of our clients. Type in two destinations and Sky Scanner will search the cheapest flights that month on easyJet, BMI, Jet2 and countless others. Visit website

British Airways Flights to Nice from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham Visit website

BMI One of the best airlines into Nice together with its subsidiary of BMIbaby. Also flies from Birmingham and Nottingham East Midlands airport Visit website

Jet2 Low fares airline with direct links from Leeds and Manchester Visit website

Fly Globespan Scotland's low cost airline. Inexpensive flights from both Glasgow and Edinburgh Visit website

Nice Airport A guide to Nice airport including a pictorial map of the terminals and bus stops, phone numbers of all the airlines operating from the airport, parking areas and prices and many more details, contact names and numbers.Visit website

EUJet One of the UK's newest budget airlines flying to Nice from Kent's Manston airport Visit website

Hotels in and around Nice

Expedia Well stocked search of Nice's hotels from the Negresco downwards. Special offers frequently available Visit website

Wotif.com A last-minute website with a selection of discounted Nice accommodation available in the next 14 days Visit website

Villa la Tour Boutique without intending to be, this charming Old Town hotel is a favourite among our visitors to Nice Visit website

Le Manoir de L'Etang Stylish, chic and relaxing. This is one of the most elegant small manor house hotels on the Riviera. The Le Manoir de L'Etang is set in four hectares of land and is an oasis tucked away from the bustle of the coast just behind Cannes. The Manoir also has a superb restaurant. Visit website

Hotel Suisse Luxury hotel with a homely feel on the edge of the Old Town. Fine views over the Bay des Anges Visit website

Hotel Beau Rivage A haven of modernism with a private beach. One of the best located hotels in Nice right on the Promenade des Anglais Visit website

Hi Hotel The Riviera's finest design hotel with boutique rooms constructed by local artists. Pool, gardens and cosmopolitan bar Visit website

Hotel Albert 1er Good value and superbly located landmark hotel. Pay extra for a room with a balcony and sea view Visit website

Riviera Media

Toggle Internet and web design Toggle is one of the best and most proactive small London based web design companies we have come across - in fact they designed and delivered our blog site in about 4 days. For an honest appraisal of your web needs with out the the usual big talk in a foreign language click here to visit there website.

Angloinfo The English-language resource for the French Riviera. Find tradesmen, buy and sell or search for activities Visit website

Network Riviera Hugely successful networking and socialising website for the French Riviera Visit website

Riviera Reporter Densely packed online newspaper with scores of links about life on the Cote d'Azur Visit website

Riviera Times One of several Riviera English-language newspapers. Plenty of classified ads Visit website

Lifestyle

Nice Tourisme Practical guide for every visit to Nice from the town's tourist board Visit website

Old Nice Directory for services in the Vieux Nice area of the city Visit website

All About Nice Popular and regularly updated website from a Liverpool family who have a second home in Nice Visit website

Les Petits Farcis Cookery tours of Nice's markets and boutique stores with guidebook author Rosa Jackson Visit website

Phobe is an artist from the Old Town of Nice who is gathering quite a reputation for her figurative male and female forms. After exhibitions in Paris and London her work has starting rising in value but at the moment is still good value. That is set to change as her reputation grows. Prices for her oil on canvas work starts at 450.00 euros. You can find her at 13 rue Droite, 06300, Vieux Nice. Tel 00 33 6 77 79 26 31 visit website

Yahoo Nice Incredibly detailed listings of things to do and places to stay in Nice Visit website

Practical Links

Removal services. Brian codd will move small loads at very competitive prices to the South of France. As well as normal removals Brian is a specialist Antiques remover so he does take extra care with your valuables. He can be contacted on UK Mobile - 07919 445330, UK Land line - 01952 416335 and at coddies@blueyonder.co.uk

Nice Weather Five day weather forecasts from the BBC Visit website

Language Translator Google's helpful French to English translator Visit website

Currency Convertor Professional currency conversion Visit website

Nice Airport English version with real-time arrival and departure times Visit website

AngloPhone book An English Yellow Pages directory for tradesmen and services on the French Riviera Visit website

Pages Jaunes Easy to use French Yellow Pages Visit website

SNCF French trains website for trips along the coast and further afield Visit website