Nice is the undisputed capital of the Cote d'Azur, and it earns that title not just through glamour but through character. The city has a split personality: the wide, formal sweep of the Promenade des Anglais along the seafront, and the tumbling, narrow-laned Vieux Nice behind it, where laundry flaps from sienna-coloured facades and the smell of socca drifts from corner vendors.
The authentic Niçois live in Vieux Nice, spreading out from Place Masséna. Many of the Italianate facades suggest 17th-century Genoese palaces. Buy a pissaladière from Chez Thérésa at the Cours Saleya market and wander — the old town is a maze of small streets teeming with local life and some of the least expensive restaurants in the city. The hill above — the Colline du Château — gives the best panorama over the Baie des Anges.
Nice has a higher density of museums than many comparable French cities. The Musée Matisse and Musée Chagall sit in the elegant Cimiez neighbourhood, which also preserves Roman ruins from the ancient provincial capital. MAMAC overlooks the old town and holds a fine collection of Nouveau Réalisme. If the weather turns, you will not run out of things to do indoors.
The pebbly beach is not to everyone's taste, but the light along this coast is extraordinary — it is the same light that drew Matisse, Chagall, and Renoir to settle here. The Hotel Negresco, with its pink dome and eccentric art collection, anchors the western promenade. And from Nice, the rest of the Riviera is within easy reach: Monaco, Cannes, and the hilltop villages of the hinterland are all short bus or train rides away.