A final update, for anyone considering this option in future:
My trip to the south of France was necessarily brief - high-speed autoroute dash to Geneva a couple of weeks ago, collect g/f from airport then amble down through Alps to Nice. Left the bike at LHDE in Nice, then flew back to the UK for a couple of weeks. Flew back down yesterday morning, 25 min walk to LHDE, collected the bike, and then straight back to UK via a brief detour to look at the Eiffel tower. (Came back on the Dieppe-Newhaven ferry, which was rubbish - but that's another story).
Anyway - the recommendation from Albacore was absolutely spot-on. Les Haras Des Eternelles is a specialist car storage and guardianage facility in Saint Laurent du Var, which is a suburb immediately west of (and walkable from) Nice airport. The managing director is Alex and the office is run by Annick. Both Alex and Annick have excellent English if your language skills are a bit rubbish (like mine).
The facility is a very secure underground car park; most of the cars in there have custom covers - it's that sort of place. There were four bikes in there yesterday - all BMW's, and all Brit registered. For me, I just wanted secure parking close to the airport - for which they are perfect. However, they will also do extra stuff if you need, like valeting, servicing etc - these are subcontact services, which they manage rather than carry out themselves. They can also trickle-charge your battery, and can even collect/deliver you to/from the airport (although this is chargeable on a par with Nice taxi rates, which are frightening).
Anyway - 10/10 for Les Haras Des Eternelles, if you're looking for secure bike storage in Nice then this is the place to go:
http://www.lhde.fr/
Contact: Annick on +33 493 567 907 or email
[email protected]
No connection etc, just a very satisfied customer. I'll using them again.
Cheers
Jimmy