Nice is also called Nice La Belle or Nice the Beautiful. We visited it recently and agree with its nickname. Here’s why!
We entered Nice from the east with sweeping views of the city below from a ridge high above. This is a large city with over 1 million in its metropolitan area, making it the fifth largest city in France.
Nice from high above on the east.
We stayed here two days touring Nice and then two more villages nearby. We lodged in the Hotel Splendid which was within walking distance of their promenade by the sea. Anyone visiting for just a couple of days will want to stay near this area. Everything is in walking distance. Near the Hotel Splendid is the Casa Corleone, a great Sicilian restaurant, and one of the best meals we had the entire trip. Love this place.
The Hotel Splendid in the background.
Old Town
The next morning we went first to the old town which is south-east of our hotel. We took a bus, though it may have been within walking distance.
Walking in the Old Town section of the city
They renovated and changed much of the old town down near the sea. Our tour guide showed us a hotel that faced the Boulevard, and she told us that most of the old grand hotels that were built up until the beginning of the 20th century faced the boulevard and not the sea. People were less interested in seeing the sea and more interested in being seen.
One of is grand old hotels.
A closer view
Then we took a walk through their marketplace which for vegetables is open until 2 pm and for other non-perishables is open until 5 pm. They gave us time on our own to shop, use the facilities, and snack. We met our guide at the other end of the market 30 minutes later.
Between the market and old town
Nice’s Churches
As a group, we walked north deeper into the old town where we stopped at a small magnificent cathedral that was built in the 1650s.
Eglise de Gesu
This is the Eglise de Gesu and it has beautiful Baroque interiors. It looks out at the intersection of the former Street of the Jews, where the city’s Jews used to be locked in at night. This street is now called the rue Benoit Bunico. The Eglise or church sits at the intersection of Benoit Bunico and Gesu Street thus the name of the church. Gesu is Jesus in the Nissart language.
Inside the Eglise de Gesu
But Nice grew rapidly in the 1600s and the church was already too small when completed so they built a larger cathedral to replace it within 20 or 30 years of the smaller one.
We also visited the newer church built in the late 1600s called Cathédrale Sainte-Reparate, which was built on the site of an earlier church from the 1200s.
Cathedrale de Sainte-Reparate
It too was beautiful inside.
Cathedrale de Sainte-Reparate
Note the umbrella.
It had a yellow and red umbrella showing that the Pope made this church a basilica.
There were several amazing paintings, too.
They named the basilica after a young Palestinian teenager called Reparate, who refused to renounce her Christian faith in 1060. Her torturers tested her but the angels foiled their attempts. It poured rain when they tried to burn her, and she didn’t die when they poisoned her. Finally, they decapitated her.
To deny her a Christian burial, her murderers left her body on a raft in the sea; but the angels intervened again and the raft came into the bay of Nice where her body arrived untouched and pristine. Today the bay in Nice is called the Bay of Angels, and the young martyr became Sainte Reparate, the patron saint of this Cathedral.
This old town part of Nice looks like an old medieval village.
Streets of Old Town
More of Old Town
More of Old Town
This is another city where they did something to the river. In this case, they covered the river and put a park on top of it so the river runs underground.
The river is under the grassy area which is a park.
The park built over the river.
By the Sea
Later, Chuck and I walked down to the promenade by the sea. It was a beautiful day, and there were sunbathers. There is a wide sidewalk that stretches between the boulevard and the beach. On the other side of the boulevard are the hotels, most of which now open on the sea side of their buildings.
The Promenade in Nice
Looking down on Nice from the east
The grand old hotels in Nice that now open toward the sea.
This is the promenade where the terrorist drove his truck on Bastille Day. We saw several armed men and women in full riot gear patrolling the streets and the Promenade de Anglais Boulevard which was closed the night of the attack and made into a pedestrian thoroughfare. Today, though, I never felt unsafe.
We also walked down toward the sea to a street which is full of restaurants and had a great plate of paella. This is a great city for walking.
More of the Old Town
We usually avoid cities but we loved Nice.
Beautiful photos. I’ve been to Nice, twice. Once with a tour end associated with a Provence river cruise and once with a Rick Steves tour. In both cases I thought our hotels left a lot to be desired. And there are some seedy sides in Nice – I had my wallet pick-pocketed out of my purse. But, all that being said, the views in and around Nice are spectacular, the location is grand, and there are many options to see 20th century are, plus easy access to so many beautiful sights along the French Riviera by train or bus. Now that I’ve seen your photos and commentary, I would like to go back – on my terms, so I can return to see the sights I loved – St. Paul de Vence and the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, and a sight I missed – Eze.
please correct the spelling in my post “awaiting moderation”…. change 20th century are, to 20th century art.
I tried to change ‘are’ to ‘art’, but it would not let me. I apologize. Our hotel was a little dated, too; but it was clean, fairly well maintained, and in a great location. It was ok. We were warned repeatedly about the pick pockets and had no trouble. You should like tomorrow’s post. It is about Eze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence.