Nice Airport has two terminals. In general the long-established airlines, such as Air France and British Airways, use the original terminal (now Terminal One) and the low-cost carriers the newer Terminal Two. Both terminals have desks for the main car hire firms but in almost every case, the rental car has to be physically picked up after the paperwork has been processed from adjacent to the row of car hire huts behind the main car park outside Terminal Two. Terminal One car hire desks close much earlier, around 2000, when all processing is transferred to the Terminal Two car hire huts. It is advisable to confirm advance bookings by an exchange of email with the car rental firm and establish where you need to present your reservation number.passport,driving licence,and the credit card when it was first used to book the vehicle.The main driver and the additional driver have to be there together.Due to delays in collecting hire cars,it is best for the main driver to rush to the car rental area and be the first in the Que and let the passengers collect the luggage.Most car hire firms will remain open for a delayed flight from the UK, provided that you have a prearranged confirmed booking.
The terminals are connected by a free shuttle bus service, which runs continuously from outside the terminals between about 0600 and 2300, and take about 8 minutes to complete the journey (there is one intermediate stop between the terminals, so do not get off there by mistake).
Before you leave the airport, try to get some change in Euros, less than 1 Euro, for use at an automatic toll booth on the motorway. This will save you time. Remember to drive on the RIGHT!
From terminal one-On leaving the airport, follow the exit signs for the A8 direction ‘Antibes’. At the third roundabout, the entry slip road on to A8 is easily missed: it is sharp right uphill just before an underpass (this passes beneath the A8 itself for cars heading towards Monte Carlo and is of course the wrong direction!).
From Terminal 2-Carry on to first round about from Rental car hut and follow sign for Auto route A8 directions Antibes and Marseilles to “T” junction, turn left, pass a petrol stations to the next round about ,take second exit marked A8 to Antibes and Cannes. Once on auto route exit on junction 47 an follow above instructions (as from Terminal 1)
Follow signs for ‘Antibes’ and ‘Cannes’ for six kilometres (10 miles).
Then take EXIT 47 towards Villeneuve-Loubet. You need to keep a sharp lookout for this, because if you miss it, it is a long way back.
At the ‘payage’ (toll booth), pay by throwing the correct coins (or more than the charge, currently 60 cents – no change given) into the coin basket. This basket will be on the driver’s side of the vehicle, i.e. the left, for a French hire car. The traffic light indicating you can proceed will change to green automatically.
Immediately at a roundabout TURN RIGHT at the first exit, signposted D2 towards ‘Villeneuve-Loubet’ and ‘Grasse’. Remember you are now on a normal 2-way road – drive on the RIGHT!
The town centre of ‘Villeneuve-Loubet’ will shortly be off to the right but do not follow it: you are looking for the D2085 towards Grasse.
After two kilometres on D2, at the next roundabout (which of course you have to proceed around in an anticlockwise direction!) take the SECOND EXIT, signposted ‘Roquefort-les-Pins’. You are now on the D2085 towards Grasse.
Keep following the ‘Route de Valbonne’, uphill on a winding road through a pine forest.
You will soon come to the signpost at the entry into the village of ‘Roquefort-les-Pins’, where your villa is located, normal journey time 20 minutes, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Nice Airport. It may take you a little longer as you are not familiar with the car or the route.
It is important to appreciate here that you are, in effect, going to drive almost the whole way through the village to the other end.
Almost at once, you will pass a pharmacy on your right, with a little slip road drive in, then, still going uphill, the Auberge du Colombier hotel/restaurant on your left. If it is getting dark, you can count on this being lit up. The hotel car park is an ideal place for a rendezvous if you already have friends or relatives at the villa, and they can come and meet you to show you the way.
But it is, in any event, quite easy to find the villa for yourself.
Carry on through the village – you will notice a huge sign for a boulangerie, also on your left – and a petrol station but you are not passing through the main shopping section. At the end of the village is yet another roundabout, the sixth from the Airport car rental area if you are counting.
At this roundabout, take the THIRD EXIT, at 11 o’clock so to speak, signposted D204 ‘Valbonne’.
You are now convinced you have left the village but don’t worry, you haven’t.
At the next, seventh and final roundabout, you are looking for a street sign at the THIRD EXIT, at 7 o’clock on the clock face (do not continue towards ‘Valbonne’). This the ‘Chemin des Trois Feuillets’.
You are now entering a quite smart, rather rural, residential area and again, you will begin to doubt yourself, and fear you have gone wrong somewhere. You haven’t.
Just keep going forward, more or less straight, for over a mile. There are several little turnings left and right but just ignore them. Eventually you will come to a point where the road forks and you will see a signpost at the fork which reads ‘Domaine Trois Feuillets Lottisement’. Keep right and your villa is the very first house (if you miss it there’s an easy turning circle straight ahead), the first on the left, behind high stone walls with electric iron gates. That’s it!
The code for the automatic gate will be given to you before arrival. Insert this code on the key pay and then press the extreme right hand above the name tags, top one is for the main gate and the bottom one is for the side gate.
If you need a supermarket a little later on, go back to the last roundabout, and instead of taking the last exit (the way you came in), go straight over the roundabout and the supermarket is at the next junction, on the right hand side.
