The point where the Paillon flows into
the sea marks the beginning of the world-famous
palm-fringed
promenade des Anglais
, created by nineteenth-century English
residents for their afternoon's sea-breeze
stroll along the Mediterranean sea coast.
Today it's the city's unofficial high-speed
racetrack, bordered by some of the most
fanciful turn-of-the-twentieth-century
architecture on the Côte d'Azur.
Most celebrated of all is the opulent
Negresco Hotel at no. 37, built
in 1906, and filling up the block
between rues de Rivoli and Cronstadt.
Though they will try to stop you if you
are not deemed to be wearing tenue
correcte (especially in the evenings),
you can try wandering in to take a look
at the Salon Louis XIV and the Salon
Royale. The first, on the left of the
foyer, has a seventeenth-century painted
oak ceiling and mammoth fireplace, plus
royal portraits, all from various French
châteaux. The Salon Royale, in the
centre of the hotel, is a vast domed
oval room, decorated with 24-carat gold
leaf and the biggest carpet ever to have
come out of the Savonnerie workshops.
The chandelier is one of a pair
commissioned from Baccarat by Tsar
Nicholas II - the other hangs in the
Kremlin.
Just before the Negresco ,
with its entrance at 65 rue de France,
stands the Musée Masséna , the
city's art and history museum. Closed
for major renovations until 2004, only
its unexceptional, but shady gardens are
open to the public (daily 9am-6pm).
A kilometre or so down the promenade
and a couple of blocks inland at 33 av
des Baumettes is the Musée des Beaux-Arts
(Tues-Sun 10am-noon & 2-6pm; bus #38,
stop "Chéret"). It has too many
whimsical canvases by Jules Chéret, who
died in Nice in 1932, a great many Belle
Époque paintings to go with the building,
a room dedicated to the Van Loos, plus
modern works that come as unexpected
delights: a Rodin bust of Victor Hugo
and some very amusing Van Dongens, such
as the Archangel's Tango . Monet,
Sisley - one of his famous poplar alleys
- and Degas also grace the walls.
Continuing southwest along the promenade
des Anglais towards the airport, you'll
find the Musée International d'Art
Naïf Anatole Jakovsky (daily except
Tues 10am-noon & 2-6pm), home to a
refreshingly different, and surprisingly
good, collection of over six hundred
pieces of amateur art from around the
world.
The beach below the promenade
des Anglais is all pebbles and mostly
public, with showers provided. It's not
particularly clean and you need to watch
out for broken glass. There are, of
course, the mattress, food and drinks
concessionaries, but nothing like to the
extent of Cannes. There's a small, more
secluded beach on the west side of Le
Château, below the sea wall of the port.
But the best, and cleanest, place to
swim, if you don't mind rocks, is the
string of coves beyond the port that
starts with the plage de la Reserve
opposite parc Vigier (bus #32 or #3).
From the water you can look up at the
nineteenth-century fantasy palaces built
onto the steep slopes of the Cap du
Nice . Further up, past Coco
Beach (bus #3 only, stop "Villa La
Côte"), rather smelly steps lead down to
a coastal path which continues around
the headland. Towards dusk this becomes
a gay pick-up place.
On the far side of the castle sits
the old port , flanked by
gorgeous red to ochre eighteenth-century
buildings and headed by the Neoclassical
Notre-Dame du Port; it's full of bulbous
yachts but has little quayside life
despite the restaurants along quai
Lunel. On the hill to the east,
prehistoric life in the region has been
reconstructed on the site of an
excavated fossil beach in the well-designed
Musée de Terra Amata , 25 bd
Carnot (Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 2-6pm).
