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Graced with an average of 2,640 hours of sunshine per year, Nice, France, proudly wears the colors of Chagall and Matisse: Its Mediterranean bay is azure blue, its tiled roofs are red, its houses ocher and yellow, and its gardens emerald green. All those colors also show up at the wonderful flower market on Cours Saleya and on the tiny bikini bottoms worn on the pebbly but oh-so-fashionable beaches.

Greeks and Romans, Savoyard kings and wealthy visitors have shaped the destiny of Nice, and still this is the only town on the Cote d'Azur that doesn't seem to depend on its 4 million tourists per year. The dynamic capital of the departement of Alpes-Maritimes may be the most-visited French city after Paris, but it is still a very local affair.

If you avoid the summer months in Nice, you can still enjoy the local cuisine to its fullest and soak up the Mediterranean light that Picasso so loved. And the stunning highlights of the French Riviera are just a few minutes' drive away.

Must See or Do

Sights—Hotel Negresco; Chapelle de la Misericorde et de la Confrerie des Penitents Noirs; Cathedrale Orthodoxe Russe St. Nicolas; Eglise du Gesu.

Museums—Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain; Musee Matisse; Musee National Message Biblique Marc Chagall; Musee des Arts Asiatiques.

Memorable Meals—La Merenda; Chez Pipo.

Late Night—Les Trois Diables; High Club and Studio 47.

Walks—Cours Saleya; Promenade des Anglais; Parc Floral Phoenix; Port Lympia.

Especially for Kids—An afternoon at one of the beaches; ice skating in the Complexe Jean Bouin; the playground in the Parc du Chateau.

Geography

Nice enjoys a privileged position between a gently curving bay of the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of the Ligurian Alps, which shelter it from cold northern winds. Palms, eucalyptus and citrus trees give Nice a subtropical appearance. In the hinterland, the Arriere Pays, you'll find olive groves, pine woods, wild flowers and perched villages, which offer fabulous vistas along with cooling summer breezes.

The major areas of tourist interest are the Old Town (Vieux Nice), the New Town to the west with the Promenade des Anglais and the major boulevards, the leafy district of Cimiez with its first-class museums to the north, and the port to the east of the Old Town.

History

At the site known as Terra Amata at the foot of Mont Boron, remnants of a prehistoric human camp some 400,000 years old have been unearthed. Around 1000 BC, the Ligurians built their oppida at the mouth of the Paillon River and on the hill overlooking the valley.

Classical civilization goes back to the fourth century BC, when Phocaean Greeks from Marseille sailed into the harbor and founded a commercial colony near the seaside oppidum around a hill they called Nikaia (today Colline du Chateau).

In 100 BC, the Romans, called in to help against Ligurian pirates, chose to stay on and built a city on a third hill that they called Cemenelum (today's Cimiez). By the third century, Cemenelum had 20,000 inhabitants, who enjoyed such luxuries as Roman baths and an amphitheater.

In the early Middle Ages, Nice was invaded and destroyed by Saracens and Barbarians, but in the 14th century the city rose again. In 1382, Jeanne, Queen of Sicily and Countess of Provence, was smothered to death on the order of her cousin Charles of Durazzo, Prince of Naples. He and another cousin, Louis of Anjou, tried to rule Nice, but the city preferred to side with the Counts of Savoy and spend the prosperous Renaissance and Baroque times Italian-style.

With Louis XIV, the French made a comeback by blowing up the city's fortifications, but apart from a brief period of control by Revolutionary forces between 1792 and 1814, Nice belonged to Savoy until 1860, when the King of Sardinia ceded the city of Nice and Savoy to Napoleon III in the (secret) Treaty of Turin. The treaty was later ratified in a rigged plebiscite.

By 1755 the first wealthy British travelers seeking winter warmth had set up shop in Nice and on the Riviera. In 1830 they financed the building of the seafront esplanade along the Baie des Anges, known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais. Soon it was lined by elegant hotels, and Nice became the favorite meeting place for European glitterati in winter. In the 1890s, Queen Victoria sealed Nice's fate by making the suburb of Cimiez her winter residence.

Famous writers, film stars, composers and painters such as Picasso and Matisse flocked to Nice, followed by an armada of tourists.

Potpourri

Italy's national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was born in Nice on 4 July 1807.

Masterpieces of world literature were written in Nice, including Thus Spoke Zarathustra by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Three Sisters by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.

In front of the Hotel Negresco, the famous dancer Isadora Duncan was accidentally strangled to death in 1927 when the large, red silk scarf draped around her neck became entangled around one of the open-spoked wheels and rear axel of her Bugatti.

Alphonse Karr was a great 19th-century French journalist who lived in Nice for the second half of his life. He is famous for his quote "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" which roughly translates to "The more things change, the more they remain the same." He also was an avid horticulturist who had more than one flower variety named for him and practically founded the trade of cut flowers on the French Riviera.

Catherine Segurane is Nice's "Jeanne d'Arc." When joint French and Turkish armies besieged the town in 1543, Catherine supposedly inspired the defenders with a "patriotic" gesture by showing the enemy her bare bottom.

Nice has two classes of summer tourists: the juilletistes, who flock to the beaches in July (mainly foreigners), and the aoutiens, who replace them in August (mainly French).

Location

The Port de Nice is located on the Quai du Commerce, close to the French Riviera Chamber of Commerce (phone 4-9200-4214; http://www.riviera-ports.com). The Port of Villefranche Darse is located east of Nice, on Villefranche-sur-Mer's main quay (phone 4-9301-7805; http://www.riviera-ports.com). Both Nice and Villefranche's terminals are largely commercial and, apart from a Chamber of Commerce office in both, offer little for tourists. However, each is situated in its respective town's oldest neighborhood, and numerous bars, cafes, restaurants and shops abound within walking distance. Boat trips to Monaco, St. Tropez and the Ile Ste. Marguerite are on offer from both ports. A free shuttle bus connects Port Lympia with the larger commercial port of Villefranche, which serves the car ferries to Corsica and Sardinia as well as the Mediterranean cruise ships.

The cruise ship pier in the nearby principality of Monaco (Nouvelle Digue de Monaco) is located at the Port of Monaco (Hercules Port), just east of the Palais Princier (the home of Monaco's ruler, Prince Albert), and just below the ritzy center of Monte Carlo. The 1,155-ft/352-m dock can accommodate several ships in port, but occasionally tenders are still needed because of the vast number of superyachts in the harbor during high season. Phone 377-9777-3000. http://www.ports-monaco.com/lang-en/le-port-hercule.html.

Surprisingly, given the principality's reputation as a playground for the rich, there is little at the pier itself in the way of amenities. Most visitors simply follow the seawall adjacent to the yacht harbor to get to Monte Carlo (the distance being roughly 1 mi/1.6 km from the ship) or take an elevator and stairs (about 1,483 ft/452 m immediately to Old Town (Monaco-Ville).

Shore Excursions