Nice

Promenade des Anglais

seafront

A seven-kilometre-long waterfront along the Baie des Anges, with two lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, blue chairs facing the sea, and belle époque hotels behind. It was built in 1820 for British winter visitors who needed somewhere for an afternoon stroll, and locals gave it its name.

Tip: The blue chairs are free and can be moved around — it's the only place on the Riviera where you can sit by the sea without spending anything. Before eight in the morning the promenade is empty and belongs to runners; between six and eight in the evening the light is best and the crowds are largest.

Admission:

free

Time needed:

2 h

Old Town and Cours Saleya

Vieux Nice

Vieux Nice is a tangle of narrow lanes with ochre and red façades, washing lines overhead, and baroque churches unlike anything else in France. At its centre is Cours Saleya, where flowers and vegetables are sold six days a week, replaced by antiques on Mondays.

Tip: The market winds down around half past one, after which the stalls fold up and the square turns into restaurant terraces with a noticeably worse price-to-quality ratio. Shop and eat here in the morning. The lanes of Vieux Nice fill with cruise-ship crowds around midday and are empty before ten.

Admission:

free

Time needed:

half a day

Castle Hill

Colline du Château

between Vieux Nice and the harbour

A ninety-metre hill between the old town and the harbour, once the site of a medieval castle until Louis XIV had it razed in 1706. What remains is a park with an artificial waterfall, a cemetery, and the best view over the whole bay and the orange rooftops of Vieux Nice.

Tip: A free lift goes up from the seafront end of the old town next to Ponchettes beach — most people don't know about it and climb three hundred steps instead. The waterfall at the top is the coolest spot in the city at midday heat, and the park closes at sunset.

Admission:

free

Time needed:

2 h

Matisse Museum

Musée Matisse

Cimiez

A collection housed in a seventeenth-century Genoese villa on the hill of Cimiez, where Matisse spent the last thirty-seven years of his life. It holds over six hundred of his works, mainly drawings, late-period paper cut-outs, and personal items he bequeathed to the city.

Tip: The museum sits in an olive grove that hosts a jazz festival in July, right next to Roman excavations and a monastery with Matisse's grave — easy to combine into one afternoon. Bus number 5 gets here from the centre in fifteen minutes; on foot it's a steep climb.

Admission:

from €10

Time needed:

2 h

Marc Chagall National Museum

Cimiez

A museum built in 1973 specifically to house Chagall's Biblical Message cycle — seventeen large-format canvases the painter donated to the state, plus stained glass and a mosaic reflected in a pool in the garden. Chagall himself attended the opening and approved the layout of the rooms.

Tip: This is the best-curated museum in the city and takes just an hour and a half — there are only three rooms. It sits between the centre and Cimiez, a fifteen-minute uphill walk from the station. On the first Sunday of the month, entry to state museums is free, and it gets busy accordingly.

Admission:

from €10

Time needed:

1.5 h

Place Masséna

centre

The main square, with red Genoese-style façades, a checkerboard pavement, and seven illuminated statues seated on columns that change colour at night. A tram line runs through it, and it forms a natural divide between the old town and the nineteenth-century new district.

Tip: It connects to Promenade du Paillon, a green strip running over what was once a covered river, with a mirror-like water feature and jets — in hot weather children run through it all day, and it's free. In December a Christmas market sets up here, and in February the carnival floats pass through.

Admission:

free

Time needed:

1 h

Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral

near the station

The largest Orthodox cathedral outside Russia, completed in 1912 on the spot where Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich died. It was built by Tsar Nicholas II for the Russian community that wintered in Nice, and has six onion domes covered in coloured tiles and an iconostasis of silver and enamel.

Tip: Photography isn't allowed inside and this is enforced; shoulders and knees must be covered. It's a twenty-minute walk west of the station, off the tourist trails, so it stays quiet even in August. The Russian cemetery with émigré graves is a bit further, in Caucade.

Admission:

from €5

Time needed:

1 h

Cimiez and the Roman Excavations

Cimiez

A hill above the city where the Roman town of Cemenelum once stood — baths, an amphitheatre for five thousand spectators, and an archaeological museum survive. Next door is a Franciscan monastery with paintings by Ludovico Brea, a rose garden with valley views, and a cemetery where Matisse and Dufy are both buried.

Tip: The excavations are free to enter through the museum garden and are nearly empty at midday. The monastery garden is the best spot in Nice for sunset, since it sits high and opens to the west, and stays open until around eight in summer.

Admission:

museum from €10, garden free

Time needed:

2–3 h

Mont Boron and Coco Beach

east of the harbour

A wooded hill east of the harbour with trails between pines and agaves, the sixteenth-century Fort du Mont Alban at the summit, and views of Nice on one side and Villefranche on the other. Below it lies Coco Beach, a rocky swimming spot with neither sand nor pebbles.

Tip: Coco Beach is a way into the sea straight off rocks and concrete platforms, with no sunbeds and no services — locals come here for the cleanest water in the city. Bus number 14 goes up the hill, the ridge loop takes an hour and a half, and it's best done early in the morning since there's no shade.

Admission:

free

Time needed:

3 h