WEird! We were planning on returning to the Beau Rivage pre-cruise this October, but it is closed for "remodeling" (which seems strange since it seemed to be in great shape last September). We're staying at the Chateau Eza in Eze instead, but that doesn't meet your old town Nice requirement.

In Athens we're staying at the Athens Hilton which is centrally located (if you can figure out where the center of Athens is!). At least you can easily check availability there through hilton.com. Great deal this year on Hilton points (25k/night), but the category has gone up and it is now 35k/night if you go that route.