Nice travel guides

Nice, France – Overview

Nice is one of the picture postcard perfect cities in France. The city certainly lives up to its name. Glamour oozes out of its sunny beauty and the city sparkles with iridescent Mediterranean sunshine. Nice is a hit with tourists all over the world and attract hordes of celebrities all round the year.

The mild winter weather and the crescent shaped golden beach attracted the European aristocracy in 19th century. Nice has shaken off its colonial past long back but hasn’t become segregated from its colonial and blue blooded roots.

No wonder Hollywood stars make a beeline for the shores of Nice, the fifth largest city in France with a legacy of luxury. But unaffordable high street luxury and blue blooded snootiness/snobbishness aren’t all that this beautiful sea side watering hole has to offer.

Like its other French cousins, Nice has a rich cultural and artistic heritage and the numerous museums and art exhibitions testify to the culture consciousness of its citizens. Nice has marked no departure as far as the fields of art, culture, painting, sculpture and other such fine arts are concerned.

Nike’s limpid beauty and pristine marine charm had left a deep impression on the minds of several artists like Chagall and Matisse and they created immortal abstract masterpieces here which captured the scenic beauty and essence of the city of Nice.

Entire art museums in Nice have been devoted to exhibit the paintings and indelible impressions of these iconic artists.

Opulence and grandeur are the other names for Nice. But it is also intricately bound to its glorious past and Mediterranean history. The citizens of Nice possess a fiercely independent streak and had been for centuries an independent city under the royal kingdom of Savoy.

It was joined to France not before 1860 and the city still clutches to its own Nicois traditions, cuisine and dialect in a bid to preserve its aristocratic past. Thus, Nice has witnessed the marriage of two vastly dissimilar halves, but effortlessly manages to straddle both the worlds. This is what sets Nice apart from all the other cities in France and contributes to its distinctive charm.

You will be literally spoilt for choice when you go out on a sightseeing tour round Nice – so many are the places of interest for a visitor! Bars, clubs, nightclubs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, casinos, cabarets, gaming tables, museums, churches, cathedrals, parks, promenades, walking trails, beaches, magnificent palaces, castles, mansions – you name it, Nice has it!