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NICE

www.nicetourisme.com

www.nice-coteazur.org 

Nice has a distinct culture due to its unique history. The local language Niçard (Nissart) is an (italian) Ligurian dialect, still spoken by a minority and there as well as Occitan. Strong Italian and (less) Corsican influences make it less unintelligible than other non-extinct Provençal dialects that exist around.
Local food culture, which includes pissaladière, a pie with onions and anchovies paste; socca, a kind of pancake made from chickpea flour; bouillabaisse and fish soup; "Stockfish" (traditionally pronounced as "Stoquefiche" (French spelling) with special emphasis on the first "e"), farcis niçois, vegetables stuffed with breadcrumbs; and salade niçoise, a tomato salad with green peppers of the "Corne" breed, baked eggs, tuna or anchovies and olives.
In the recent decades Nice, as the rest of France, has received immigrants from other parts of the world, mainly Northern and Western Africa as well as southeastern Asia.
Traditions are still alive, especially in the folk music and the dances. The most famous is the farandole.

PLACES OF INTEREST

SIGHTSEEING

CATHEDRALE SAINTE-REPARATE

Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate - Place Rossetti : one of the major examples of early Roman baroque art in Nice. Its construction lasted over a century, from 1650 to 1757. The entire building has preserved its original decoration. The ten or so chapels inside the cathedral belonged to wealthy families or corporations responsible for its decoration and up-keep.

CHAPELLE DE LA MISERICORDE

Chapelle de la Miséricorde, a baroque masterpiece on Cours Saleya in the Old Town of Nice, this chapel belonged to the high brotherhood of Black Penitents. Its rich decoration is immediately striking, though that's just a veil for the magnificent architecture, the basic design. Everything here is movement, dynamics, light, lyricism. According to art historians, this is one of the ten most beautiful baroque buildings in the world.

CIMIEZ

Cimiez is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, France. The area contains the Henri Matisse Museum and the Roman Ruins (arena, amphitheatre, thermal baths, and paleochristian basilica). In July every year the Jazz Festival of Nice is held on the grounds of the Roman Ruins in Cimiez. Close to the ruins is what is left of the once splendid Hotel Régina where Queen Victoria spent part of her long visits to the French Riviera.
In Roman times it was called Cemenelum; on the Ligurian coast as a city it was an important rival of Nice, continuing to exist as a separate city till the time of the Lombard invasions, and has left its ruins at Cimiez; it is now a quarter of Nice.
Also here can be found the Monastère de Cimiez (Cimiez Monastery) and church that have been used by the Franciscan monks since the 16th century. The church owns "La piéta", "La Cruxifiction" and the "Déposition", three of the most important works from the medieval artist Louis Bréa. On display are more than 300 documents and works of art from the 15th to 18th centuries. Buried in the monastery's cemetery are the painters Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy plus the winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature, Roger Martin du Gard.

COLLINE DU CHATEAU

The 10th-century château no longer exists : it was razed to the ground on the orders of the Sun King. We nevertheless recommend a visit of this magnificent strategic site, surveying the port and Bay of Angels

EGLISE DE L'ANNONCIATION / EGLISE SAINTE-RITA

Eglise de l'Annonciation or Eglise Sainte-Rita - Rue de la Poissonnerie : one of Nice's oldest churches, completely restructured in the 17th century. Thanks to recent restoration, the chapel now reveals all the magnificence of its baroque decor.

EGLISE DU GESU (JESUS)

Eglise du Gésu (Jésus)- Rue Droite : built between 1612 and 1642. Originally a chapel belonging to the Jesuits, who turned it into a monument testifying to the art of the Counter-Reformation for the entire County of Nice, which had an influence on the re-building of the region's main religious buildings in baroque style.

JARDIN BOTANIQUE

Classic collections of Mediterranean flora (genista, cistus...) and acclimatization garden.

JARDIN D'EDEN MUSEE D'ART MORDERNE ET D'ART CONTEMPORAIN

On the terrace of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Designed by French painter Yves Klein.

JARDIN DU MUSEE NATIONAL MESSAGE BIBLIQUE MARC CHAGALL

Designed by Henri Fisch, this garden is enhanced by a polychrome mosaic by Chagall.

MUSEE ARCHEOLOGIQUE DE NICE-CIMIEZ

Archaeological collections dating bak to the Roman city of Cemelenum ; ruins of the thermal spa and baptistry.

MUSEE DE PALEONTOLOGIE HUMAINE DE TERRA AMATA

Near the grotto of Le Lazaret, the site of Terra-Amata in Nice was one of the first to be inhabited by Man. You'll see an encampment of elephant hunters dating back 400,000 years, a reconstitution of a prehistoric dwelling, mouldings.

MUSEE MATISSE

Contains the artist's personal collection including the most famous canvasses, virtually all of his sculptures, drawings, gouache cut-outs and engravings. The Museum is housed in a 17th C. Genoese villa in the park known as the Arènes de Cimiez.

PALAIS LASCARIS

PLACE GARIBALDI

The PROMENADE des ANGLAIS To which Nice owes its fame and glory ! This superb sea-front boulevard, always decked with flowers, follows the curve of the "Baie des Anges" and was originally a path just two metres wide ! It was an Englishman, the Reverend Lewis Way, who had it built at his own expense in 1820. The locals immediately named it the "Chemin des Anglais". In its final form, two lanes of traffic separated by flower-beds and palm-trees, the "Prom" was inaugurated in 1931 by the Duke of Connaught (son of Queen Victoria)

VILLA ARSON - CENTRE NATIONAL D'ARTS PLASTIQUES

A major center for research and artistic innovation, the Villa Arson is both a center for contemporary art, an artists' residence and a national art school. It organizes many exhibitions for established names as well as promising young artists.

THE MUSEE DES BEAUX-ARTS JULES CHERET

The Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret in Nice, France at 33 av. des Baumettes was built in the former private mansion built in 1878 by the Ukrainian Princess, Elisabeth Vassilievna Kotschoubey. Named for the artist Jules Chéret who lived and worked in Nice during his final years, the museum opened in 1928. The museum houses a collection of art spanning the past four centuries. There are paintings by Chéret and other artists who lived and worked on the French Riviera such as Gustav Adolf Mossa, who for many years was curator of the museum. The small museum has sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, François Rude and Auguste Rodin, plus ceramic pieces by Pablo Picasso. Some of the paintings are from: Marie Bashkirtseff Benjamin Constant Kees Van Dongen Raoul Dufy Marie Laurencin Luc-Olivier Merson Alfred Sisley Edouard Vuillard Retrieved.