The original salons
A whole floor in Belle Époque grandeur as it was — marble, gilt and chandeliers.
Cayambe — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Horizon06 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jesmar — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jesmar — CC BY-SA 3.0
Because it is about the city, not a painter: you leave understanding why Nice looks the way it does — the promenade, the grand hotels, the Russian and English street names. One hour here improves everything you see afterwards.
From outside, yes — its pink dome is the city's emblem and it stands right next door. Entry is for guests and diners, but the façade and photographs from the promenade are for everyone.
The promenade itself, the Jean Médecin shopping street five minutes away, or the old town fifteen minutes along the water.
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The Villa Masséna stands right on the Promenade des Anglais beside the famous Negresco hotel — the last of the Belle Époque villas left on the seafront, white and colonnaded behind a palm garden. Inside it is two things: a ground floor kept in its original grandeur — gilded salons, marble and chandeliers from the days when royalty wintered in Nice — and upper floors that tell the city's own story: how a fishing town became the winter resort of Europe's kings and fortunes, through photographs, paintings, costume and the first tourism posters. It is the best museum for understanding Nice, its position makes it an easy stop between the seafront and the shopping streets, and the garden is free to sit in.
A whole floor in Belle Époque grandeur as it was — marble, gilt and chandeliers.
From fishing town to Europe's royal winter resort — told in photographs, costume and posters.
Between the promenade and the Negresco — the easiest museum to fold into a walking day.
65 Promenade des Anglais, 06000 Nice