Nice

Take bus 15 from Place Masséna — it climbs through residential Nice for fifteen minutes and drops you at the 'Arènes / Musée Matisse' stop in the Cimiez quarter. The museum occupies a 17th-century Genoese villa surrounded by an ancient olive grove, and houses the largest public collection of Matisse's work — from his early dark canvases through the explosive Fauvist period to the paper cut-outs he created in his final Nice years. The trompe-l'oeil façade in Pompeian red is a work of art in its own right.

Tip: Free admission. Arrive five minutes before the 10:00 opening — the first 30 minutes are nearly empty before school groups arrive around 10:45. Room 3 upstairs holds his Nice-period paintings; match the views he painted with what you see through the window. Closed Tuesdays. Bus 15 costs €1.50 (buy on board or tap contactless).

Exit the museum and walk five minutes through the ancient olive grove — some of these trees are over four centuries old and their twisted forms are sculptural in themselves. The Franciscan Monastère de Cimiez dates to the 9th century and holds a small church with three altarpieces by Louis Bréa, the most important Renaissance painter of the Nice school. The monastery gardens are the real reward: a formal Italian garden overlooking the entire Baie des Anges, with views that rival Castle Hill but without a single tourist in sight.

Tip: The northeastern corner of the garden gives a panorama of Nice, the sea, and the Alps in a single frame — arguably the finest photo location in the city. Matisse and Raoul Dufy are both buried in the adjacent cemetery; their simple graves are near the main path and easy to find.

Take bus 15 back down to Place Garibaldi — fifteen minutes and you step into a grand Piedmontese square that feels more Turin than Nice. Café de Turin has anchored the northeast corner since 1908, and it exists for one purpose: seafood platters. Order a dozen fine de claire oysters (€18) with a glass of chilled Muscadet, or share the plateau de fruits de mer (€45) — a towering assembly of oysters, langoustines, whelks, and violet sea urchins over crushed ice.

Tip: Sit on the terrace facing the square — the indoor room is cramped and dark. The plateau takes 10 minutes to assemble; order it immediately upon sitting. Skip the cooked dishes (moules-frites, fish soup) — they are adequate but not why you are here. The raw shellfish is sourced daily and impeccable. Budget €22–35 per person.

Cross Place Garibaldi diagonally — MAMAC's four concrete towers connected by glass walkways are visible from the café terrace, a three-minute walk. The museum chronicles the New Realism and Pop Art movements with major works by Yves Klein (born in Nice), Niki de Saint Phalle, and Andy Warhol. Head directly to the rooftop terrace: a 360-degree panorama framed by Klein's signature ultramarine blue, with Castle Hill to the south and the Alps to the north — one of the most underrated viewpoints in the city.

Tip: Free admission. Start on the top floor and work down — the rooftop terrace has the best light between 14:00 and 16:00, and the Yves Klein room is the museum's emotional peak. A focused visit takes 60–90 minutes if you skip the ground-floor temporary exhibitions. Closed Mondays.

Exit MAMAC from the south entrance and you step directly onto the Promenade du Paillon, a 12-hectare urban park that replaced a bus station in 2013. Walk south through the tree-lined garden toward the sea — past the Miroir d'Eau fountain where local children splash in summer and public art installations tucked between 1,600 trees. You emerge at Place Masséna, Nice's grand central square, where seven luminous resin figures by Jaume Plensa sit atop tall poles and glow in shifting colors after dark.

Tip: The Miroir d'Eau activates every 15 minutes and creates a perfect reflection of the surrounding buildings — stand at the western edge for the best frame with Place Masséna's ochre arcades in the background. If the weather is warm, take off your shoes and walk through it like the locals do. Linger until dusk when the Plensa figures begin to glow.

Walk five minutes south through Place Masséna onto Rue Saint-François de Paule, passing the Opéra de Nice before reaching the table many consider the finest in the city. La Petite Maison has served elevated Niçois cuisine since the 1930s in a dining room that feels like a stylish friend's kitchen. Order the courgette flower beignets (€16), impossibly light and crispy, followed by the whole grilled loup de mer with fennel and olive oil (€38) — a Riviera classic executed to perfection.

Tip: Reserve at least three days in advance — this restaurant fills every night year-round. Request a table in the main dining room; the terrace faces a noisy street. Budget €55–70 per person with a glass of Bellet wine. Do not settle for the tourist restaurants around Place Masséna, where €40 buys a reheated pizza and a forgettable salade niçoise — you are five minutes from the real thing.

Take bus 82 from Nice's Vauban stop (every 30 minutes, €1.50) — the 25-minute ride is a highlight in itself, hugging the cliff road with the sea dropping away below. Alight at Èze Village and walk uphill through the medieval gate. The village is a vertical labyrinth of stone stairways, arched passages, and bougainvillea cascading over 12th-century walls. At the summit, the Jardin Exotique occupies the ruins of a castle where enormous cacti and succulents frame a 360-degree panorama from Cap Ferrat to the Italian border. On a clear morning, you can see Corsica.

Tip: Entry €7. Arrive by 09:30 before cruise-ship bus tours flood in around 10:30 — the difference is night and day. Best photo spot: the very top platform next to the ruined castle wall, shooting south toward Cap Ferrat. Walk down through the village slowly after the garden — the artisan shops in the lower streets (perfumeries, olive-wood carvers) are genuine. Skip the Fragonard perfume factory at the base entirely — it's a sales floor disguised as a cultural visit.

From Èze, take bus 112 toward Monaco — a 15-minute ride that deposits you near the Rock. Climb the ramped walkway to Place du Palais, where the Prince's Palace commands the headland. The square delivers even without entering: a changing of the guard at 11:55 daily, cannons along the ramparts, and a sheer drop to the yacht-filled harbor below. Continue to the Cathédrale de Monaco, a small Romanesque-Byzantine church where Grace Kelly is interred. The narrow streets of Monaco-Ville feel like a different country from the glass towers below — because they are.

Tip: The Palace Square viewpoint facing Port Hercule and the Monte Carlo skyline is the single best photo location in Monaco — arrive before noon when light hits the harbor directly. The changing of the guard at 11:55 lasts only 5 minutes; position yourself on the right side of the square for an unobstructed view. The Cathedral is free and takes 10 minutes — Grace Kelly's tomb is in the left transept, always marked with fresh flowers. Skip the Palace state rooms (€10) unless throne rooms specifically interest you.

Descend the Rock via the Rampe Major — a scenic cobbled ramp zigzagging down through fortified walls — and you arrive directly at Place d'Armes. The Marché de la Condamine is Monaco's daily covered market, but at lunch the surrounding food stalls become the principality's best casual dining. This is where Monaco's residents eat when they don't want to spend €40 on a salad. Sit at one of the outdoor tables under the market awning and order from the stall windows.

Tip: Order barbajuan (€3.50 for three) — Monaco's national snack, a fried pastry filled with Swiss chard and ricotta — and a pan bagnat (€8), a pressed tuna sandwich soaked in olive oil that's essentially a Niçoise salad in bread form. Budget: €15-20. The stalls nearest the entrance draw the crowds; walk to the back left corner for the same food, faster service. Eat by 13:30 — stalls close at 14:00 sharp.

Walk 15 minutes uphill through the Condamine, or take the free public elevator from Place d'Armes to Boulevard des Moulins — Monaco is built vertically and these elevators are how locals navigate. Emerge at Casino Square, where the Belle Époque casino by Charles Garnier (architect of the Paris Opéra) anchors a plaza of immaculate gardens, mirror-polished supercars, and people-watching that borders on performance art. Step through the ornate lobby, peek into the Salle Garnier opera atrium, then stroll the Casino Gardens toward the sea terrace overlooking the harbor.

Tip: The casino lobby and atrium are free — you only pay €17 for the gaming rooms, which aren't worth a sightseeing visit. Best photo of the facade: from the fountain in the center of the square, shot in the afternoon when the sun illuminates the entrance. Walk behind the casino to the sea terrace — it's quiet, free, and has a better view than any €25 cocktail bar nearby. Allow 30 minutes to stroll the Casino Gardens (Jardins de la Petite Afrique) alongside.

Return to Nice by train from Monaco-Monte Carlo station (€4.10, 20 minutes, departures every 15 minutes). Walk five minutes from Nice-Ville station down Avenue Jean Médecin and through the arch to Place Garibaldi — Nice's grandest Italian-style piazza, ringed by arcaded ochre buildings. Café de Turin has anchored the northwest corner since 1908, its sidewalk terrace permanently occupied by locals dismantling towers of shellfish. After a day of perched villages and Monegasque opulence, this is the antidote: unadorned, abundant seafood and cold Provençal white.

Tip: Order the plateau de fruits de mer for one (€32) — oysters, langoustines, whelks, crab, and prawns on crushed ice — or a dozen fines de claire no. 3 oysters (€18) with a half-bottle of Chablis. Budget: €30-40. No reservations; arrive by 19:30 for a terrace seat. Tourist-trap warning: in Monaco, never eat on the Port Hercule waterfront — the food is mediocre and prices are 3x what you'd pay 200 meters inland. The Condamine market and Monaco-Ville backstreets are where the value hides.

From the city center, walk north along Avenue de Cimiez — a gentle 15-minute uphill stroll past Belle Époque villas buried in jasmine and wisteria. The Chagall Museum was purpose-built for these paintings, and it shows: seventeen monumental canvases of the Biblical Message series hang in a naturally lit hall designed to Chagall's own specifications. The blues are so saturated they seem to vibrate. In the garden, a mosaic-bottomed pool reflects one of his works. This is not a survey museum — it is a single artist's vision given a perfect vessel, and the most emotionally striking collection on the Riviera.

Tip: Entry €10. Opens at 10:00 — be there at opening and you'll have the main hall nearly to yourself for 30 minutes. Start with the five Genesis canvases on the left wall of the Biblical Message room and move clockwise. Don't skip the concert hall (ask at the desk to peek in) — three stained-glass windows by Chagall glow blue-violet and are inexplicably ignored by 90% of visitors. Closed Tuesdays.

Walk ten minutes further up Avenue de Cimiez, past the Roman arena ruins, into the garden-park surrounding the monastery. The Franciscan Monastery of Cimiez dates to the 9th century, its church modest and cool inside, with three remarkable late-medieval altarpieces by Louis Bréa. But the reason you're here is the garden: manicured Italianate terraces overlooking the city, the sea, and the foothills of the Alps behind. The adjoining cemetery is where Matisse and Raoul Dufy are buried — their graves simple, almost anonymous, tucked among the cypress trees.

Tip: Free entry. The monastery garden is one of Nice's best-kept secrets — most tourists never climb this far and you may have the viewpoint bench to yourself. Find Matisse's grave in the cemetery's upper-left section (marked simply 'Henri Matisse 1869-1954'). The pergola walkway with climbing roses is the most photogenic angle, shooting south toward the sea. Step inside the small Franciscan museum (free, 10 minutes) for illuminated manuscripts in unexpected quiet.

Walk 15 minutes downhill from Cimiez along Avenue Malausséna toward the city center — the descent is easy through residential streets that feel nothing like the tourist zone. Turn left on Rue Alsace-Lorraine to reach this deep-cut local institution. Voyageur Nissart is the restaurant Niçois send you to when they want to prove their grandmother's cooking still exists somewhere: unpretentious dining room, veteran waitstaff, and recipes that haven't changed because they were already perfect.

Tip: Order the salade niçoise (€14) — the real one, with raw vegetables, tuna, anchovies, hard-boiled egg, and absolutely no lettuce (putting lettuce in a Niçoise is heresy here) — followed by stockfissada (€16), dried stockfish braised in tomato with olives and potatoes, a dish you'll find nowhere else on earth. Budget: €20-25 with a pichet of rosé. No reservation needed at lunch; arrive by 13:00 before daily specials run out.

Walk 15 minutes southeast through Place Garibaldi and down the grand stairs to the port. Port Lympia — Nice's historic harbor — is the city's most underrated quarter: Italianate buildings painted in deep reds, yellows, and corals line the waterfront, fishing boats share the basin with modest yachts, and antique shops and hole-in-the-wall bars populate the side streets. Walk the full loop around the basin, cross to the eastern quay for the best view back toward Castle Hill, and let yourself drift. This is Nice without an agenda — the final afternoon belongs to whatever the city decides to show you.

Tip: The eastern quay (Quai de la Douane) gives the best photograph of the port with Castle Hill rising behind — afternoon light paints the buildings warm gold. Wander into the streets behind the port (Rue Bonaparte, Rue Ségurane) for antique shops and local bars the tourist maps ignore. A free public elevator at the far end of the port lifts you back to Castle Hill for one last look if you have energy. Allow 30 minutes of aimless wandering — the port neighborhood rewards getting slightly lost.

Walk 12 minutes west from the port through Old Town streets — Rue de la Boucherie to Rue Sainte-Réparate — passing the Baroque Cathedral of Sainte-Réparate along the way (peek inside: the interior is unexpectedly ornate). Olive et Artichaut sits on a quiet corner in the heart of the Old Town, a last-night kind of place: contemporary Niçoise cooking by a chef who respects the classics but isn't imprisoned by them. Sharing plates are designed to showcase the best Riviera produce of the week.

Tip: Order the artichoke and burrata appetizer (€14) and the slow-cooked lamb shoulder with thyme jus (€22) — both signatures that rarely leave the menu. Budget: €30-40 with wine. Reserve by phone for dinner — the room seats only 30 and fills quickly. Ask for the window table for the best atmosphere. Farewell warning: if you walk through Rue Masséna after dinner, ignore anyone offering 'free' friendship bracelets or asking you to sign a 'petition' — it's the oldest street scam on the Riviera and they will demand money.