Nice Indoors. What to do when it's raining or dark.
(Yes, it does rain - occasionally!) An average of only four "rain days" a month
But when they come there's still plenty to do.
If you are one of those people whose idea of Heaven is to pop into the nearest bar and stay there until it stops raining.....read no further! Your needs are fully catered for.
But if you want to broaden your mind a bit, and the word "culture" doesn't terrify you, then we have some suggestions.
You may like to note that Nice Municipal Museums are free of charge on the first and third Sundays of each month. Surprisingly, most of the Museums in Nice are open throughout the day from 10 am to 6 pm. However, with a few exceptions, don't expect to find galleries or shops open between noon and 2.00pm. In France, lunchtime is for lunch! Even the parking meters are free - who's going to check them at lunchtime?
A one-week Passe Musée costing €6 is available from the Promenade des Anglais Tourist Office, and allows you one visit to a museum each day over a period of seven consecutive days. Another alternative is the Carte Musées Côte d'Azur, giving free access to most of the museums and monuments in the region - a three-day Carte costs €17, a seven-day Carte costs €27.
Lunch at The Negresco
We don't recommend many restaurants, because it is literally a matter of individual taste and there are so many to choose from.
But if you are a gourmet we do recommend the Negresco's lunchtime "Menu Plaisir" offered by Chef Bruno Turbot (with a surname like that could he have become anything other than a chef?).
The interior of the Negresco, which opened at the height of the Belle Époque, is well worth a look. The Negresco's ballroom-sized main public space has a glass dome made in Gustave Eiffel's workshops and a French chandelier ordered by Czar Nicholas II for the Kremlin (the revolution held up delivery, so it remained in France). The bellhops, hired for their youthful adorableness and beauty marks, wear red britches and white gloves. Instead of sneaking in and hoping you won't be ejected, book a table at the Chantecler for lunch.
The "Menu Plaisir" is a three-course table d'hôte for €45. Even better value is the version including wine for €55 per head. You get a different wine with each course - and your glass is topped up regularly.
The menu is available only at lunchtime, Wednesday through Sunday, apart from a few special holidays. It is advisable to book in advance for a culinary experience you won't forget in a hurry.
Musée Matisse
Attracted by the weather, the scenery and the proximity of his friends (Picasso, Renoir and Bonnard lived in neighbouring towns), Henri Matisse wintered in Nice until his death in Cimiez in 1954. Well-known pieces in the permanent collection include Matisse's blue paper cutouts of Blue Nude IV and Woman with Amphora.
The Matisse Museum is Cimiez' biggest draw card. The museum's collection spans the artist's long productive life, capturing all of his creative phases and including drawings, bronze sculptures, oil paintings and cut-out canvases. The permanent collection is housed in a red-ochre, 17th-century Genoese villa overlooking an ancient olive grove and the Parc des Arènes. Temporary exhibitions are held in the futuristic basement building.
Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain (MAMAC)
Nice's pride and joy in the architectural stakes, the Museum of Modern and Contempory Art, specialises in French and American avant-garde works from the 1960s to the present. Glass walkways connect the four marble-coated towers, on top of which is a must-see rooftop garden. There's also an auditorium that regularly screens art-house films.
New realists figure highly, with many pieces by Romanian Daniel Spoerri and Arman. There's a gallery reserved for works by Nice-born Yves Klein (1928-62), and the ground and first floors are taken up with temporary exhibitions.
Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall
Housing the largest public collection of works by the Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985), the museum was built in 1972 to hold the Biblical Message Cycle, a collection of 17 enormous canvases inspired by the Old Testament.
It boasts a very complete collection of Chagall paintings, gouaches, engravings, sketches, lithographs and stained-glass windows. Chagall's style is nothing short of magical: brightly coloured goats, violins and floating humans.
Chagall lived in neighbouring St-Paul de Vence from 1950 until his death.
Musée et Site Archeologiques de Cimiez
At the site of Roman Cemenelum at Cimiez, Cimiez Museum of Archeology presents the tools, sculptures, pottery, engravings, jewelry and coins found here, and includes the outside excavations of the ancient baths and other buildings.
Address: 160 avenue des Arènes; in the lovely red building with trompe-l'oeil facades inside the park area.
The nr 15 bus is free between the museums Chagall, Matisse, and Cimiez-Archeology; get a bus pass at any of these three museums.
Musée International d'Art Naïf Anatole Jakovsky
This museum displays an international collection of art dating from the 18th century to the present day. Donated by Romanian art critic Anatole Jakovsky, the collection is housed in the beautifully restored Château Ste-Hélène in the Fabron district, built by Monte Carlo casino founder François Blanc. The building is very pink - you can't miss it.
The collection was once owned by the namesake of the museum, for years one of the world's leading art critics. His 600 drawings and canvases were turned over to the institution and made accessible to the public. Artists from more than two dozen countries are represented here--from primitive painting to contemporary 20th-century works.
Have a Flutter
Nice has two casinos, Le Palais de la Mediteranée and the Casino Ruhl, both on the Promenade des Anglais in the centre of nice. So you can easily walk home if you lose your shirt!
Both have large numbers of slot machines, open most of the day, and gaming tables - blackjack, roulette etc. which are open from 8 pm to 4 or 5 am, although there is little action before 10 pm.
Both charge entrance fees to the gaming tables, although not the slots, and require a reasonable standard of dress. Minimum age is 21, and, however old you are, you will have to show your passport to get into the gaming rooms.
Shop till you Drop
Nice is acclaimed for its shopping facilities (my wife tells me!) and the best "dry" places are the Galeries Lafayette, a department store situated at the in the Place Messina at the end of the pedestrian zone and L'Étoile, a shopping mall about a quarter of a mile down Avenue Jean Medicin.And the new tramway and excellent bus system makes it easy to take your purchases home!
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Contributor's Note
We have a 2 bedroom vacation apartment to let on the Promenade des Anglais in the centre of Nice. Sleeps up to 7. Check out the website for details.
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