The northern suburb of Cimiez has always been a posh place. Its principal streets, avenue des Arènes-de-Cimiez and boulevard Cimiez, rise between plush, high-walled villas to what was the social centre of the local elite some 1700 years ago, when the town was capital of the Roman province of Alpes-Maritimae. Part of a small amphitheatre still stands, and excavations of the Roman baths have revealed enough detail to distinguish the sumptuous and elaborate facilities for the top tax official and his cronies, the plainer public baths and a separate complex for women. All the finds, plus an illustration of the town's history up to the Middle Ages, are displayed in the impressive, modern Musée d'Archéologie , rue Monte-Croce (Tues-Sun: April-Sept 10am-noon & 2-6pm; rest of year 10am-1pm & 2-5pm; bus #15, #17, #20 or #22, stop "Arènes").

The seventeenth-century villa between the excavations and the arena is the Musée Matisse (Wed-Sun: March-Sept 10am-6pm; rest of year 10am-5pm). Matisse spent his winters in Nice from 1916 onwards, staying in hotels on the promenade - from where A Storm at Nice was painted - and then from 1921 to 1938 renting an apartment overlooking place Charles-Félix. It was here that he painted his most sensual, colour-flooded canvases of odalisques posed against exotic draperies. As well as the Mediterranean light, Matisse loved the cosmopolitan aspect of Nice, the rococo salons of the hotels and the presence of fellow artists Renoir, Bonnard and Picasso in neighbouring towns. He died in Cimiez in November 1954, aged 85. Almost all his last works in Nice were cut-out compositions, with an artistry of line showing how he could wield a pair of scissors with just as much strength and delicacy as a paintbrush.

The museum's collection, with work from every period, includes a great number of drawings and an almost complete set of his bronze sculptures. There are sketches for one of the Dance murals; models for the Vence chapel plus the priests' robes he designed; book illustrations; and excellent examples of his cut-out technique, of which the most delightful are The Bees and The Créole Dancer . Among the paintings are the 1905 portrait of Madame Matisse; the Storm at Nice (1919-20), which seems to get wetter and darker the further you step back from it; Odalisk ; the 1947 Still Life with Pomegranates ; and one of his two earliest attempts at oil painting, Still Life with Books , painted in 1890.

The Roman remains and the Musée Matisse back onto an old olive grove, one of the best open spaces in Nice and venue for the July jazz festival . At its eastern end are the sixteenth-century buildings and exquisite gardens of the Monastère Notre-Dame de Cimiez (Mon-Sat 10am-12.30pm & 3-7pm; free); the oratory has brilliant murals illustrating alchemy, while the church houses three masterpieces of medieval painting by Louis Bréa and Antoine Bréa.

At the foot of Cimiez hill, just off boulevard Cimiez on avenue du Docteur-Menard, Chagall's Biblical Message is housed in a museum built specially for the work and opened by the artist in 1972 (daily except Tues: July-Sept 10am-6pm; rest of year 10am-5pm; 30F/¬4.58, or 38F/¬5.80 for summer exhibitions; bus #15 stop "Musée Chagall"). The rooms are light, white and cool, with windows allowing you to see the greenery of the garden beyond the indescribable shades between pink and red of the Song of Songs canvases. The seventeen paintings are all based on the Old Testament and complemented with etchings and engravings. To the building itself, Chagall contributed a mosaic and stained-glass window.