The stately place Masséna is the hub of the new town, built in 1835 across the path of the River Paillon, with good views north past fountains and palm trees to the mountains. A balustraded terrace and steps on the south of the square lead to Vieux Nice; the new town lies to the north. It's a pretty and spacious expanse, without being very significant - in fact the only things of interest here are the sundry ice-cream vendors who shelter their goods under the arcades during summer. A short walk to the west lie the Jardins Albert 1er , on the promenade des Anglais, where the Théâtre de Verdune occasionally hosts concerts.

The covered course of the Paillon to the north of place Masséna has provided the sites for the city's more recent municipal prestige projects. At their worst, up beyond traverse Barla, they take the form of giant packing crates for high-tech goods, in the multi-media, mega-buck conference centre grotesquely called the Acropolis . Though theoretically a public building, with exhibition space, a cinema and bowling alley (11am-2am), international business often limits casual entry. There are, however, various modern sculptures outside the building on which to vent your critical frustration.

Downstream from the Acropolis is the vast marble Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain , or MAMAC (Wed-Sun 10am-6pm), with rotating exhibitions of avant-garde French and American movements from the 1960s to the present. New Realism (smashing, burning, squashing, wrapping, etc, the detritus or mundane objects of everyday life) and Pop Art feature strongly with works by, among others, Warhol, Klein, Lichtenstein, César, Arman and Christo. It's good fun, and the huge, light galleries are a delight to walk around.

Running north from place Masséna, avenue Jean-Médecin is the city's main shopping street, with nothing much to distinguish it from any other big French city high street. You'll find all the mainstream clothes and household accessory chains, plus FNAC for books and records, at the Nice-Étoile shopping complex between rue Biscarra and boulevard Dubouchage. Couturier shops are to be found west of place Masséna on rue du Paradis and avenue de Suède. Both these streets lead to the pedestrianized rue Masséna and the end of rue de France - all hotels, bars, restaurants, ice-cream and fast-food outlets, with no regard for quality or style.

Skirting this, the chief interest in western Nice is in the older architecture: eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian Baroque and Neoclassical, florid Belle Époque and unclassifiable exotic aristo-fantasy. The trophy for the most gilded, exotic and elaborate edifice goes to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral , off boulevard Tsaréwitch at the end of avenue Nicolas-II (daily: April, May, Sept & Oct 9.15am-noon & 2-5.30pm; July & Aug 9am-noon & 2.30-6pm; Nov-March 9.30am-noon & 2.30-5pm; Sun afternoon only; 12F/¬1.83; bus #14 or #17, stop "Tsaréwitch").