Nice Travel Forum

I will be in Mougins in the last week in March and I will be renting a car; do I need an International Driver's License to drive in France or can my California driver's license do? Should I drive to Monaco? Is parking the pits? What about Nice, is parking horrendous? Are there nice small towns, villages and vineyards in this area that is not too far to drive? Help!!!!

You possibly do not need a International licence. Do get one as they are more comfortably recognized by the various highway police you may encounter. If you can make their life easier then they may return the compliment.
I think Nice and Monaco will be difficult to park. To help you a lot just take a GPS with Europe maps and it will offer you parking areas and guide you there.

About 30 kms out of Nice there are some spectacular mountain villages eg Coaraze.
I suggest you Google the various regional tourist offices and see what is attractive to you.

From an American in France, you do not need the IDL, but is good to have for one simple reason, if you commit a serious infraction in France on the road, the police can take away your license and your rental car, if you give your California license you wont have it back when you return maybe, but if you give your IDL, no problem you still have yours home license to go back on. Its just precaution, and prevention is better than protection ::)

Driving to Monaco is nice along beautiful scenery, and Nice too along the coast . However parking is always difficult and expensive in France. many small towns along the way of course, you can figure out the trip on viamichelin.com or Mappy.fr and will tell you roads, time est, and tolls/gas expenses as well as where speed radars are.

take a look then if you want more of a particular town ,come back for more .