A Nice Day in Nice

By Meredith Rideout

Everyday is a nice day in Nice! Nice, France, to be clear. Nice is known as the Queen of Côte d’Azur (The French Riviera), and it offers the perfect blend of a seaside resort and a cosmopolitan city. This beautiful city is located in the South of France and is the second largest tourist city in France, only after Paris.

The exterior colors of buildings in Nice are all different shades of orange, pink and yellow to reflect the sunset.

Nice has a long history dating back to the ancient Greeks and has been a popular tourist destination since the 18th century. Nice offers captivating architectural structures, clear blue waters, fanciful market centers and delectable cuisine. It is the perfect vacation spot for beachgoers or art history buffs.

El Negresco Hotel is located in the heart of Nice and it is a famous landmark seen on many mugs and shirts in local tourist shops in the area.

How do you get the most out of your time in Nice? Nice has so much to offer in such a small city. Here are some of the top-notch attractions that you need to check out while visiting Nice, France. Keep reading to discover the key to having a nice day in Nice.

Cours Saleya Market

Cours Saleya market is located at the heart of Old Town and always attracts crowds of locals. The market is filled with striped awnings to cover products and bright colors from the bouquets of flowers and baskets of fresh produce.

Antoine Richard, a Nice local, described his first experience visiting the flower market, “It was like all of these bright colors were speaking to my soul, asking me to take them home and fill my house with their brilliant yellows and pinks.” The scents of citrus and sunflowers surround locals and tourists as they snap pictures of the colorful displays in the market.

Thanks to the railroads, carloads of cut flowers were shipped from Nice to cities across France and Europe every day for almost 100 years.

In 1897, Nice opened the first wholesale cut flower market in the world. The growers in the hills would bring down their cut flowers every morning for the wholesale buyers to make their purchases. The flower market and the fruit and vegetable market hold the name, Marché aux Fleurs. These markets are open every Tuesday to Sunday morning.

On Mondays, the market takes a break from selling its usual produce and flowers and instead converts to a flea market to display antiques.

Place Garibaldi

One of Nice’s greatest landmarks is Garibaldi Square. The Square was built in 1773 and is today the oldest of the main squares in Nice. At the time the Square was built, Nice belonged to Italy. The architecture of the Square is still much more Italian in style than French.

The original name of the square was Piazza Vittorio and was known as, “A small piece of Italy in Nice.”

Today, tourists can relax in the shade of the trees or under the arcades in the Square. They can also take a stroll past the monument of Giuseppe Garibaldi that was built at the end of the 18th century. Many tourists pay little attention to Garibaldi Square when they see the rows of renovated tenement houses that surround the area.

These neat rows of tenement houses adjacent to the square give off the impression that “something is not there.” After taking a closer look, you would notice that all of the decorations on the buildings are painted on, and not real in the slightest. This illusionist painting technique is called trompe l’oeil and is a rare example of the use of this effect in a public space in Europe.

In this example of trompe l’oeil, the windows and shutters are real, while the pediments, door frames and their shadows are painted.

Place Massena

Place Massena is the city’s largest square and the primary gathering place for events and seasonal festivals. This cultural hub displays 17th-century architecture like the grand fountain that bears an Apollo statue.

The unveiling of the 7-meter high and 7-ton white marble statue of Apollo occurred in 1956.

Tourists can buy endless amounts of souvenirs on Avenue Jean Médecin, the main shopping street in Nice that is adjacent to Place Massena. The square has also been known to change its outward appearance depending on the rising and setting sun. Be sure to check out the Square at numerous times during the day to see the lighting change.

Castle Hill

You want to see the best view of Nice? Take a quick hike or short elevator ride to the top of the Castle Hill of Nice. The hill is above Old Town and is almost impossible to miss, with it being 92 meters above sea level.

The Castle gets its official French name Colline du Chateau due to the remains of a larger castle which once stood there in the early 1700s.

Once you reach the top of Castle Hill, you will encounter a lovely viewpoint that lets you see the entire Côte d’Azur. This is the perfect place to go for sunset. You can view the oranges and pinks of the sky reflecting on the crystal blue ocean waters. The lights of restaurants and bars gleaming through the sunset painted buildings of the city show the bustling nightlife of Nice. Viewing Nice from the top of Castle Hill is truly an unforgettable experience.

Castle Hill dominates the city and divides the seaside part of Nice into two parts: the eastern part with the port, and the western part with the Old Town.

You also have the opportunity to take a dip into the waterfall at the top of Castle Hill. This is the prime spot to cool off on a hot summer day. There are also numerous playgrounds for children to run around, and benches for visitors to relax at the top of Castle Hill.

The artificial waterfall that was built at the end of the 19th century and the playground was built at the end of the 20th century.

Jean Schmidtt grew up in Nice, but has lived in 12 other cities since then. After traveling the the world throughout this young adult life, he decided to settle back in Nice. His favorite place to visit is the top of Castle Hill. He said, "The beautiful view from the top of the world can make you a changed person, it is a feeling that you can never explain, you just have to feel it." Jean has watched the sunset from the top of Castle Hill over a dozen times but he says it never gets old.

An extra bonus is the top tourist attraction that sits at the bottom of Castle Hill. Get your pearly whites ready because the famous “I LOVE NICE” letters are the perfect photo opportunity for your next Instagram post.

These letters are a staple of Nice and the hashtag #ILoveNice has been used on Instagram over 650,000 times.

Marc Chagall National Museum

All of the art history buffs are going to love this next Nice attraction. Marc Chagall was a Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer who composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations. He became one of the most popular major innovators of the 20th-century School of Paris with his modernist paintings of massive bouquets, melancholy clowns, flying lovers, biblical prophets and fiddlers on roofs.

Marc Chagall is known for his distinct abstract style that merged Cubism, Fauvism and Surrealism.

Nice is the location of the Marc Chagall National Museum. This museum welcomes its visitors with a green Mediterranean garden that leads them into the building, which was designed by architect André Hermant.

Typical Mediterranean plants like olive, cypress, pine and green oak trees fill the garden.

Visitors can take a self-guided tour to view Chagall’s paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and ceramics or they can choose to have a guided tour by an expert in art history. Tourists can visit the museum for free or pay only five euros for a group guided tour.

Beach

Last, but certainly not least, the prize possession of Nice… the beach! Tourists can take a walk down the main boardwalk of the city, Promenade des Anglais, to find their perfect spot to lie out and get a tan.

An important note to remember is that the beaches in Nice are not covered in sand, they are covered in pebbles. These pebbles or small stones are called galets. The good thing about this is that the rocky bottom contributes to the sea's beautiful azure color, and you won't get itchy sand stuck in your bathing suit. Be sure to invest in some rubber water shoes before taking a long stroll along the pebbles.

The pebbles on the beach are smooth, so sitting or lying on them is not very uncomfortable but many people prefer a heavy towel or light mattress.

In Nice, there are 25 public beaches and interspersed among them are 14 private beaches with restaurants. Private or public, you are still able to enjoy the feeling of the cool blue rolling waves of the Mediterranean washing your feet and the bright burning sun warming your face.

Nice water temperatures peak in the range 22 to 27°C in mid-August and are at their minimum at the start of March, at 13°C.

Antoine Richard talked about how he visits Beau Rivage Beach every morning at 8:30 am. He said, "Taking a dip into the still waters is the perfect start to my day, I really think the water holds some sort of magic that has kept me young all these years." The waves of the Mediterranean are the most calm in the mornings, so Antoine has chosen the perfect time to swim.

Nice is Nice!

These were just some of the many options for activities and attractions in the small city of Nice, France. You can experience rich history, modern art and see the breathtaking sights of the town. Nice has everything you need to have a nice time.