21 Best things to see & do in Nice

Nice can rightly claim France’s best hoard of modern art after Paris’s – and much of it was created here, in the early 20th century, when the Riviera’s light, colour and warmth attracted artists such as Renoir, Matisse and Chagall.

Wealthy collectors later founded museums, often in charming and historic buildings, and many artists donated works to their adopted towns. Just outside of Nice’s borders you’ll find museums dedicated to other world-renowned artists such as Picasso, Bonnard and Cocteau.

Being far less busy than Paris’s art museums, they’re a pleasure to wander – often set in pretty sculpture gardens, with lovely cafes or wine bars attached so you can sit and ruminate on your art fix.

The biggest winter event on the Riviera calendar, Nice’s carnival is considered by the cognoscenti as second only to Rio’s.

Every year, enormous, animated satirical floats cover a different theme, cruising through the city in daytime (Corso Carnavalesque) and night parades (Corso Illumine) – along with a ‘Battle of Flowers’ parade, where floral floats skim along the iconic Promenade des Anglais waterfront and blooms are hurled all over.

Too tame? Then get egged and floured at the anarchic Carnaval Populaire in Place Garibaldi. On the final night – always a Wednesday – the Carnival ends with a big firework display and a bonfire of floats on the beach, both of which are free to watch.

Feel the wind blow through your hair along the spectacular Grande Corniche, the clifftop Cote d’Azur road where Hitchcock filmed Grace Kelly driving her roadster in To Catch a Thief.

Built 500m above sea level by Napoleon and following the old Roman road Via Julia Augusta, it has incredible views of this sought-after stretch of French coast, with mountains on one side and sea shimmering on the other.

You can drive the length of it in under an hour, but half the fun is stopping at the coast’s highlights along the way: picturesque towns such as La Turbie and Eze. From La Turbie, take the road to Monaco, but turn off at Les Hautes de Monte Carlo for the incredible views from the promontory by the France Telecom dome.

Part of the Grande Corniche is a park, with a network of footpaths: get there on the Route de la Revere, west of the Col de Eze.

World-renowned French artists Henri Matisse, like Picasso, is credited with revolutionising the visual arts in the 20th century. Many of his best works were painted at the turn of the 20th century, using his unique blend of intense colour, flattened form and decorative pattern.

Set in a grand 17th-century Genoese mansion, Nice’s Matisse Museum opened in 1963, containing works that Matisse left to his adopted city, where he lived from 1917 to 1954.

It isn’t focused heavily on his most famous works – instead, you’ll see how the artist’s style evolved over the years: touching on his bold, colourful paintings, gouache cut-outs, drawings, prints, and 57 sculptures (nearly all of his output). Steps lead down to the modern wing, built atop the city’s Roman ruins.

The region’s cuisine is a mix of Provencal and Italian food, using plenty of olive oil, sun-ripened fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood and lamb from the mountains.

Pasta often features – flavoured with pistou (similar to pesto) – and salad is ever-popular; truffles, caviar, lobster, and foie gras commonly feature in fine dining restaurants.

Get above it all on the picturesque, human-scale, and wonderfully scenic Train des Pignes.

The historic steam engine takes 90 minutes to chug from Puget-Theniers to Annot, and on special occasions goes as far Le Fugeret.

Along the way, you pass through verdant French countryside, peppered with mountains and gorges, olive-oil mills and walled villages.

Choose to disembark at medieval Entrevaux with its citadel, or Annot and Le Fugeret for lovely walks.

It’s a spectacular route and a great day out in the South of France: kids love it too.

Conceived as Nice’s answer to Paris’s Pompidou Centre, MAMAC’s twin towers – connected by a sculptural glass facade – contain a core collection of intriguing art from the 1950s to the present.

Stroll through some 1,400 bold, edgy works by the likes of Ben, Yves Klein, Christo, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Dine, Warhol, Oldenburg, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Tiguely and Kelly, framed by luminous white-cube rooms – and don’t miss the striking public art on your way in. MAMAC also holds frequent, excellent temporary exhibitions.

This character-filled, medieval village is one of the oldest in the South of France, and arguably the loveliest of all the ‘perched’ villages. It’s a place to wander narrow, cobblestone streets, past ancient stone houses, admiring the stunning vistas of the Cote d’Azur.

There’s also a vibrant art scene here. Indeed, it’s long been a haven for famous actors, film stars, and artists – Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall all lived here.

The Maeght Foundation and several other excellent modern and contemporary art museums are also located nearby.

Housed in a low, modest-looking building among pretty Mediterranean gardens, this museum houses the painter Marc Chagall’s remarkable cycle of 17 glowing, colour-drenched paintings inspired by the Bible. This permanent collection is the biggest public collection of works by the artist anywhere.

One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Chagall has an entirely unique style that borrowed from many schools of modern art, including Cubism, Fauvism, Symbolism, Surrealism, Orphism and Futurism.

The artist was heavily inspired by the Cote d’Azur, and lived in nearby Vence from the 1940s to the 1980s, becoming a key part of the region’s rich art scene.

Replete with Chagall’s trademark folk symbolism, the colour-saturated, dreamlike works in Nice’s pristine white museum have a special magic, especially the brilliant red Song of Songs.

This delightful pink pastiche of an Italianate villa was built in 1912 by the flamboyant art collector Baroness Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, to house her fabulous collection of 18th-century art and furniture. Set on the highest point of high-net-worth playground Cap Ferrat, it’s a gilded, fondant fantasy for fans of kitsch design and architecture, and a fun stop on a tour of the Cote d’Azur.

The villa’s gardens, terraced out of the rock, are equally remarkable, divided into little worlds of their own: exotic, English, Florentine Spanish, Provencal, Japanese, and French, with a musical fountain that plays every 20 minutes.

French artist Pierre Renoir (1841-1919) was a pioneer in the development of the Impressionist style. His paintings are known for vibrant light and saturated colour, predominantly of the female (and often nude) form. He spent his last years in this lovely villa in Cagnes, which now displays his paintings and sculptures.

Set in a sublime garden amid playful mosaics, fountains and sculptures by Calder, Giacometti, Pol Bury and Tal Coat, the Maeght Foundation is itself a masterpiece.

Designed in 1964 by Josep Lluis Sert, a student of Le Corbusier, this striking building’s luminous white rooms are filled with natural light – the ideal setting for bold, colour-packed art by the likes of Braque, Chagal, Leger, Bonnard and Miro.

Outside, there’s a sculpture garden, with rotating works by world-renowned sculptors such as Jean Arp, Eduardo Chillida, Erik Dietman, Barbara Hepworth and Joan Miro.

Kids will love the garden with its Miro maze and Pol Bury fountain.

This sumptuous, Baroque-style palace, built in the 17th century by the Counts Lascaris-Vintimille, is dedicated to preserving the art and music of the 17th and 18th centuries. It also offers a rare chance to see how the one percent lived back when Nice was Italian.

Alongside its grand staircase and quadratura (trompe l’oeil) paintings, its interiors are just as lush as you’d expect, bedecked in decorative and fine arts from the 17th and 18th centuries, including frescoed walls, tapestries, sculptures, and gilded picture frames.

The real surprise, though, is the small but fascinating music museum, with a collection of 500 musical instruments. There’s also a 17th-century pharmacy on the ground floor.

Nice’s food and flower market, held along the pedestrianised Cours Saleya esplanade, is packed with all the vibrant, sensuous colours, flavours and scents of the south: lavender, marzipan, sugared almonds, spices, herbal teas, takeaway socca and pissaladiere snacks. Held Tuesday to Sunday, around 6.30am to 1.30pm.

This magnificent former private mansion – built by a Russian princess – contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures from the 16th to 20th century, by artists who lived in the Cote D’Azur.

Villa Massena, a lavish Second Empire palace (built circa 1900), was donated to Nice by the aristocratic Massena family, to house the city’s Museum of Art and History. A beautiful and intriguing building in itself, the villa’s 20 rooms now retrace the history of Nice through more than 1,500 exhibits – ranging from furniture to decorations and artworks.

Historic figures Napoleon and Garibaldi (the latter born in Nice) get plenty of attention – Napoleon’s letters to his wife Josephine, along with some of her clothes, are particularly interesting – and there are fascinating photos and relics from the resort’s early days.

Starting at the quarry used to build Monaco’s port, this beautiful 4.8km circular path follows the wild, rocky southern tip of Cap Ferrat, and lasts around two hours. You’ll pass several highlights of the peninsula, including the fabulous Grand Hotel du Cap, the picturesque Cap Ferrat lighthouse, and the wave-splashed Pointe Malalongue.

By the sandy, foliage-framed Plage de Passable beach, cross east over the peninsula onto Avenue Denis Semeria (past the Villa des Cèdres and its botanical gardens, once home to notorious Leopold II of Belgium), and on to St-Jean.

Rolling Stones fans can gaze at Villa Nellcote, where the album Exile on Main Street was recorded: from the Plage de Passable, turn left on Avenue Denis Semeria and walk 1km to Avenue Louise Bordes. For an easier stroll in the area, there’s a pretty 3km walk from Paloma Beach to the 11th-century chapel of Saint Hospice, following the eastern protrusion of the coast just south of St-Jean.

Built in 1908 in an ancient-Greek-style, this villa in a ravishing seaside garden setting features replica 2nd-century AD interiors typical of the island of Delos. The project of two scholars obsessed with the period.

Artist Henri Matisse considered this little chapel in Vence to be his greatest masterpiece. Completed in 1951, it features striking stained glass windows, cerulean tiles and vibrant murals, and a serene interior reflecting Matisse’s unique artistic vision. Despite its modest size, the chapel is renowned for its profound beauty and spiritual ambience. He painted it as a gift to the nuns who nursed him back to health after a protracted illness.

Tucked between chi-chi St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Nice, the charming Medieval village of Villefranche-sur-Mer is the relaxed, boho antidote to the moneybags Riviera. A kilometre of coarse, gently shelving golden sand and crystalline waters, it’s all free and open to the public.

Sheltered from the wind, this shingle beach in a beautiful, wooded cove is a laid-back favourite of both locals and celebrities. Views across to the Alps are sublime. It’s part public, but best to splurge on a lounger at the delightful Paloma Beach Club – a local institution with an excellent restaurant.