but today, unless you're a local and you do your jogging or ride your bicycle there, what's the fun in walking for miles under the burning sun and breathing the exhaust fumes of the hundreds of thousands of cars which drive next to you on no less than 6 lanes? For me, I'm sorry to say, the "Promedade des Anglais" is nothing more than an urban freeway! Therefore, as a beautiful freeway, it will be a very pleasant drive (in my air-conditioned car or, even better if it's not too hot outside, with the open rooftop) and you will admire the beautiful buildings all along. I highly recommend we go for lunch (or for a drink) at the hotel Negresco, then we can go park the car near the Cours Saleya and venture into the old town.
We can also go visit the Matisse museum and the Chagall museum, both highly worthwhile if you have the taste and the time... All this can be done in a day.
Otherwise, let's face it: Nice is still nowadays an inevitable destination because of its international airport (where you might fly back from in the end) which makes it the major hub of the region, but the only thing I like in Nice is the old town. And I don't like its 4-mile-long beach for the main reason that I don't like pebbles (they hurt when you walk on them or when you lie down on them + they can't compete with the beauty, comfort and sensuality of the sand) and I find that big city behind my back when I'm on the beach there to be too oppressive for my taste...
Nevertheless, Nice still makes sense today for the Brits who want to escape their cold weather and who, after a cheap and short flight, can enjoy the sea, the sun and the "exotic" French experience and, if you don't have a car while you're there and just want to take it easy on location, there's a lot more to be done there but, if I were you (and if you were with me), I would recommend that we move quickly to something else. That's all I'm saying...
"Promenade des Anglais" (literally "walkway of the English")
Just a few miles from Nice (on the way to Italy), you'll appreciate the towns of Villefranche, Eze and, most of all, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat with its beautiful landscapes and villas, the most beautiful of all (which would justify the trip to the Riviera itself) being the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild which is out of this world (both the house and the gardens)... A bit farther away you'll find Monaco and Menton.
Nice (on the way out, looking back)
Now, get ready for this: all the guidebooks rave about Nice, I don't...
For me, Nice made sense at the end of the 19th century (when all the English, Belgian and Russian aristocrats wintered there and they had nothing else to do than to walk back and forth in front of the numerous still-existing deluxe hotels so that the ladies of the high society could exhibit their new dresses which wouldn't get dirty on the newly paved "Promenade des Anglais":
