Skylines of Nice
Most French people don´t like highrises, especially in southern France since they claim that tall buildings would block their views of the beautiful nature. Thus there are just a few highrises in Nice, and they are not very tall and are located in the outskirts. And because Nice doesn´t
have any tall cathedral or TV tower, the skyline looks pretty week. But in return,
the nature that surrounds the city is amazing. Nice is situated between
the Mediterranean sea and the Alps, and there is even a high rock in the city.
Colline du Chateau and its views
In the eastern part of central Nice, there is a high rock, Colline du Chateau, that you can climb from the Old Town. On the top of the rock there are observation points, a park and a beautful cemetery on the way up. There is also aa huge war memorial facing the bay on the east side of the rock, called Aux Morts. Despite the name there is no castle on the rock, but there are ruins of an old church. These are the views from the rock:
Nice city center skyline with Promenade des Anglais and the beach at Baie des Anges. The white building with the red round roof is Hotel Negresco.
Promenade des Anglais and the airport.
Old Town, Vieux Nice.
Old Town to the northwest.
Monument Aux Morts is a memorial to those who died in the World War I. 3655 names are written in remembrance.
Monument Aux Morts stands on the east side of the rock.
Rue des Ponchettes in Old Town, paralel to Promenad des Anglais is a pedestrian street with houses in many colours.
Old Town and the airport.
View downt the waterfall of Colline de Chateau.
The waterfall.
Towards the north and the alps.
Northeast.
A commercial plane taking off from Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport.
Closeup of Promenade des Anglais and the beach.
Promenade des Anglais and Old Town.
The harbour, called Port Lympia.
The nice neighboorhouds on Mont Boron and the Corsica catamaran.
Many rich and famous people have residences just east of Nice's harbour Port Lympia.
Ferries are leaving Nice to Corse and Sardinia from the port of Nice.
Port Lympia, the port of Nice.
Côte d'Azur (the French Riviera) comes from the azure shade of colour of the mediterranean seas, that this photo is proof of.
The white coppola on the top of this mountain belongs to Nice Observatory.
View towards the Acropolis building.
This unusual church is called Nôtre-Dame.
This is the beautful Colline du Chateau cemetery where famous people, like the founder of Mercedes-Benz is buried. Nôtre-Dame is in the background.
Colline du Chateau cemetery is like a small Pere Lachaise of Nice. Part of the cemetery is Jewish.
This structure with this beautiful tree on top is one of the sights on the rock of Colline du Chateau.
View on the way down to street level.
Promenade des Anglais and the beach
Promenade des Anglais is the center of not only Nice, but the whole Riviera. It is stretching along the Baie de Anges of the Mediterraena Sea the whole way through the city and borders the beach from the city. Promenade des Anglais means "the promenade of the Englishmen" and is called so because it was built by the English community in the 1820's Victorian times.
Hotel Negresco is the highlight of the promenade. It is a true landmark and is the most famous de luxe hotel in Nice, and probably the most famous building on the whole Riviera.
It currently has 122 rooms and 22 suites, so it is not a very large hotel. It was constructed in 1912 by Henri Negresco.
The lobby of Hotel Negresco. The Baccarat crystal chandelier is one of the largest in the world.
The beach and Colline du Chateau, from where we got up to see the views, on the eastern edge of the promenade.
Port of Nice on the eastern end of Promenade des Anglais.
Theatre de L'Opera.
Palais de la Mediterranee. This luxury casino hotel recently reopened since it was restored to its 1930s classic Art Deco style.
Detail of Palais de la Mediterranee.
Musée Massena, a beautiful newly restored museum.
Hotel West End and Negresco.
Nice city center skyline with Promenade des Anglais and the beach. The white building with the red round roof is Hotel Negresco.
Place Masséna and the New Town/City Center
Place Masséna is the main square of the "new" part of Nice's city center. In 2001 I wrote that "This hybrid between a park
and a very large square is in my opinion Nice´s most beautiful place. Beautiful sculptures, palms and fountains make this place an oasis in
the big city." When I came back in 2008, I found out it had become even more grande, since they have removed the cars from the streets, opened a lightrail system that goes through the square, bordered by red Italian buildings.
We could park our car in northern Nice and take the new lightrail tram to Place Massena. It is extremely expensive to park in Nice daytime.
The fountain at Place Massena.
Red buildings, in an almost pink shade, are surrounding the square.
We visited the department store Galeries Lafayette in one of the red buildings with Italian architecture.
Place Massena extends to the northeast and southwest as a tropical park with sculptures and many palms.
The park extension of Place Massena to the southwest goes all the way to Promenade des Anglais and the sea.
View towards the mountains from Place Massena.
Before 1824 when it was covered, the Paillon River was dividing Place Massena in two parts.
Avenue Jean Médecin starts on the northern part of Place Massena.
These green neon signs can be seen on the many private owned pharmacies in for example like France, Italy and Spain.
A pedestrian street in central Nice.
At the busy Avenue Jean Médecin there are a lot of commercial stores.
Vieux Nice, Old Town
Vieux Nice, that means old Nice is the oldest and most picturesque part of the city with its narrow streets, stands and small shops.
There is a cathedral in the center of old town. There are many tourists on the streets and it is not rundown like many other old towns.
There are many tourists on the streets and it is not rundown like many other old towns.
Sainte-Réparate Cathedral seen from a narrow street. This Roman Catholic cathedral has a very special mosaic dome.
Sainte-Reparate Cathedral at Place Rosetti seen from Collline du Chateau.
Vieux Nice got an Italian feeling. In the old town you can eat socca, a special kind of pancake that you can only find in Nice.
The stairs that lead to the incredible viewpoint at Colline du Chateau. It was a hard walk up in the heat.
View of an old town street from the stairs.
Here you can also see the outskirts of Nice and the mountains in the background.
Vieux Nice, Old Town from above.
Port Lympia, the port of Nice.
The outskirts of Nice
The outskirts and suburbs of Nice contain both highrise ghettos for poor people, villas and highrises for people with middle incomes and luxorious residential areas with expensive mansions for some of the richest people in the world. The airport, that was built on articificial land is located very close to the city center just west of Promenade des Anglais. The surrounding of Nice are extremely beautful with the sea and the mountains. Many towns and villages are bordering Nice, so it is hard to find where one city ends and where another starts on the French Riviera.
Some residential highrises in the north part of Nice, where we parked our car to get on the lightrail tram to downtown to avoid traffic jams. Both parking and the tram trip is included in the fee, since the community want less cars in the city center.
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Nice-Côte d´Azur International Airport is France´s largest
airport outside Paris and is built on an artificial island because of the lack
of land to build on in the mountains. This is were I arrived and left both 2008 (travelling with Sterling), 2001(travelling
with Goodjet) and 2002 (travelling with SAS).
The hotel/office complex in blue
glass is situated right opposite the main terminal and include some of the few
large modern buildings in American style. Nonte the white/green Saudi Boeing 747 to the right.
This view is the first thing that meets you when arriving from the international terminal.
From the large highways in Californian style you can see how beautful the surroundings of Nice are.
Sunset over a highway in the suburbs of Nice.
