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A classic South of France seaside resort: busy beaches, calm water, and pricey cocktails. Nice is on the French Riviera, but it's less pretentious than its neighbors, particularly Cannes. It's also a great deal more accessible to the average European tourist and flights are much more convenient, because the airport's right outside the city.It has a lot of the common Cote d'Azur elements, though. Casinos, bars, and sidewalk cafés are everywhere, and in the daytime, beaches are packed with sunbathers (many topless). For a day trip, take a nice drive north to Cap Ferrat a beautiful town on the cliffs or go southwest to Cannes.
Founded as a Greek outpost in the 4th century B.C., this Mediterranean port city shifted alliances among Italian, Provençal and Sardinian principalities before France annexed it in 1860. But it was the English gentry, coming to savor the elegant seafront and balmy climate, who first discovered Nice as a tourist destination, followed by artists like Matisse and Chagall. Now the city is France’s second most popular destination, seducing visitors who come to stroll the waterfront Promenade des Anglais, lounge on the pebbled beach of the Baie des Anges, shop at the fashionable boutiques and lose themselves among the Belle Époque mansions and open-air cafes of the old quarter.
The capital of the Riviera and the fifth largest town in France may be a bit faded compared with the glamour of neighboring Cannes, but it still maintains its dignity and poise. Nice has a vitality that survives when tourists pack their bags and go home. Nice has a population that nears 400,000, five times the size of Cannes, and it boasts a plethora of ruins, museums, boutiques, and a hearty cafe culture. Nice's old city clusters against Colline du Chateau, a romantic cliff fortified centuries before Christ. Cars are forbidden on the old city's winding, cobblestone streets that are so narrow their rooftops crowd out the sky. Cafes occupy weathered 17th- and 18th- century buildings and outdoor markets crowd the old town's streets and Venetian-style squares. Like most of the Riviera, Nice has a hopping nightlife and the old city stays up latest. Its streets and alleyways offer everything from traditional Ni?ois dining to jazz clubs to hip hop. The quality of light and color of the Riviera has drawn artists to its shores for centuries. Henri Matisse spent most of his life in Nice. The Mus?e Matisse houses a collection of work by the artist that illustrates the different stages of his career. Marc Chagall himself opened the Mus?e Chagall in Nice in 1972. The city's Mus?e d'Art Contemporain boasts an outstanding collection of French and international abstract art from the late '50s onward, including pop-art-popes such as Warhol and Lichtenstein. Above the city center, Cimiez was occupied by the Romans 2,000 years ago, when Nice was capital of the Roman province of Alps-Maritimae. Remnants of the Roman town can be seen, along with vestiges of the arena. The Mus?e d'Arch?ologie houses excavations of the Roman baths and other ancient archaeological finds. If you do think you can tear yourself away from Nice for a while, trains leave from the city for destinations all along the Mediterranean coast, making it a great base for daytrips.