Nice Pictures, France
Photos and Information
Click top or bottom photos to see more of Nice or go to Cannes
Merde,
good try kid but wrong beach, you should have gone to France's Biarritz.
This is one of
Nice's many stony beaches with pay area visible to the right and an unusually
overcast sky.
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Nice
and Cannes are slightly worn clichés of the French Riviera,
that part of the Côte d'Azur that is happily out of the frequently deranging
Mistral wind and runs from Cannes to Menton on the Italian Border.
The Riviera in general
- and Cannes and Nice in particular - is no longer a pristine paradise
as the internal combustion engine has a near death grip on the place, but the coast is still excellent for relatively dry, sunny weather, inexpensive
eating, wild partying and funny people watching, while the water temperature
of the Mediterranean in the summer is delightful. The new French Riviera pass offers a lot of discounted tourism.
A Nice view from Castle Hill [Colline du Chateau], with the grey beach and the start of the Promenade des Anglais in red asphalt.
Unless
you're staying at one of the super luxury resorts or a campsite, Nice,
the 'Capital of Riviera' is a good base for travelling around the
Côte d'Azur due to its very convenient airport [you can walk to/from it easily!], plenty of reasonable
accommodation, good local transport facilities and fast access to the A8 autoroute that follows the south of France coast from Montpelier in the far west all the way to Italy in the east.
There are also some fine museums and great festivals in Nice, especially
the mad Carnival.
One of Nice's many pay-to-burn beaches.
Nice's
curving collection of beaches is long but pebbly while Cannes' beaches are sandy. However,
Cannes' best spaces - less so in Nice - are taken by hotels or parasol
rental people. In both cities the streets around the beaches consist
largely of slow-moving traffic jammed bumper to bumper and a concomitant
lack of parking spaces [don't bother hunting for street parking, underground parks are conveniently located and not ridiculously priced].
Nice's politics are right-wing and
corrupt [how could they not be, this is the Cote d'Azur, bent since Victoria walked the Earth], though this hardly alters the city's joie de vivre, fine
collection of glorious turn-of-the-century buildings, smooth new tramway, extensive bike routes and all the rest.
One of the two most outstanding buildings on the wide and wonderful Promenade des Anglais, Le Palais de la Méditerranée hotel and casino.
Guide
to Nice's main attractions:
***Promenade des Anglais - 6km [3.75 miles] long, wide and beautifully lined with palm
trees, many elegant buildings, slowly moving cars and giving access
to the attractive beach; the promenade is superb for
people watching be they glamorous Milanese, stuffy Parisians, heavy Muscovites, overdressed Nicoises, or pasty and underdressed Londoners. Biking and inline skating along the prom is excellent, with a dedicated cycle track running past the airport and on to pleasant Cagnes-sur-Mer.
***The Cours Saleya, the huge, lively and mostly inexpensive outdoor eating and market area of Cours Saleya.
Most of the Cours Saleya establishments are busy but cheerful and serve good meals at reasonable prices, as do most in the pedestrianised - and touristy - Rue de France with the definite exception of the pretentious, ill-mannered, over-priced and incompetent Italian restaurant, Borraccio.
On the left side of the image above is the start of the Old Town
[aka the Vielle Ville], to the right is the Promenade des Anglais and dead
ahead is Castle Hill [Colline du Chateau] the city's best viewpoint. Mornings are market time, a totally awesome and very French experience, loaded with strange mushrooms, exotic flowers, 365 kinds of cheeses or more, 28 kinds of olives...
***Vielle Ville [Old Town], a narrow medieval ambience that's good for wandering, shopping, Irish pubs, Sky TV and wild night moves at a reasonable price. It's also conveniently close to the Cours Saleya market and dining area as well as the beaches and Nice's best shopping street ***Jean Medecin where there is terrific shopping, a wafting new tram system and attractive street redesign. We give the city council a 10 for style and execution, even if it's completion was way overdue.
***Museums including Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Musée Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée Archéologique, plus the nearby Gallo-Roman Ruins.
And back to the downsides...Traffic in summertime towards the end of the Promenade des Anglais; this section is the Quai des Etats-Unis. The beach is immediately on the right, Cours Saleya on the left and Colline du Chateau [Castle Hill] straight ahead.
The inexplicable waterfall at the top of Castle Hill.
A steep climb up Castle Hill from the end of the promenade rewards tourists with the perfect Nice panorama over the Baie des Anges and Old Nice.
Those unable or unwilling to hike to the summit [no more than 10 minutes] there is an ascenseur.
And as far as the Chateau is concerned, that appears to be a figment of someone's imagination as the only ruins visible are of the old Cathedral of Nice or the cemetery. For the thirsty the top also provides sustenance in the form of a couple of cafes and a substantial waterfall.
Sunsets are particularly special from the hilltop as the city lights glow in concert with the falling sun.
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