<\/p>\n
In April 1860, the residents of Nice voted. The question was simple: remain under the authority of the Kingdom of Sardinia, or join France. The official result was overwhelming: 83,502 votes for annexation, 235 against. Nice became French on June 14, 1860, forty years after the English began building its promenade.<\/p>\n
The most famous city on the French Riviera has only been French for one hundred and sixty-six years. Before that, it was Greek, Roman, Savoyard, and Sardinian. It is this accumulation, visible from the sea through the silhouette of Castle Hill, that gives the Baie des Anges its strange density.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The same Greeks from Marseille who founded Antipolis \u2013 the future Antibes<\/a> \u2013 founded Nikaia in the 4th century BC, on the hill overlooking the seaside. The name comes from Nike, goddess of victory, after a battle against the Ligurians. They had chosen the site for the same reasons as Antibes: a dominant position, a natural bay, and sufficient depth for ships.<\/p>\n The Romans, however, preferred Cemenelum, present-day Cimiez district, in the hills above Nice. It was there that they built the core of their presence: an amphitheater, thermal baths, a forum. The remains are still visible in the Cimiez gardens. The coast was left to fishermen. The urban logic hasn't really changed since then: the heights still overlook the bay.<\/p>\n In 1388, Nice placed itself under the protection of the House of Savoy. This was not a conquest; it was a request. The city chose the Savoyards because they seemed capable of guaranteeing order and prosperity. The County of Nice would remain Savoyard, with two brief French interruptions during the Revolution and under Napoleon, until 1860.<\/p>\n It was under the Savoyards that the old port of Nice \u2013 Port Lympia \u2013 was built, starting in 1745. A port developed in the bay east of Castle Hill, sheltered by the rocky mass. It is from this port, still bustling today with ferries to Corsica and visiting sailboats, that one truly grasps the scale of the hill, the mass of rock that has protected the city since Greek times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the beginning of the 19th century, Nice was still Sardinian. But English aristocrats and bourgeois discovered that the winters there were mild, incomparably milder than in London. They arrived by the hundreds, then by the thousands, to spend the cold months there. An English colony settled permanently in the city.<\/p>\n In 1820, the English community financed the construction of a path along the beach, a space for winter strolls, facing the sea. The Ni\u00e7ois immediately called it the \u00abCamin dei Inglesi\u00bb: the Englishmen's path. The Promenade des Anglais. This name, which is today one of the most famous avenues in the world, recalls a truth that Nice does not flaunt much: its international fame was built before it was French.<\/p>\n Queen Victoria regularly stayed there in the 1890s, at the H\u00f4tel Regina in Cimiez. The Russians followed, a significant aristocratic community settled in Nice in the 19th century, large enough to justify the construction of Saint Nicholas Cathedral, consecrated in 1912 and still the largest Russian Orthodox church in Western Europe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Treaty of Turin of 1860 was a political agreement between Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II. France supported Italian unification. In exchange, Savoy and the County of Nice became part of France. The plebiscite yielded an overwhelming result: 83,502 votes for annexation, 235 against. Nice became French on June 14, 1860.<\/p>\n Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero of Italian unification, was born in Nice in 1807. He would never forgive this annexation, his hometown given to France as a bargaining chip, a few months before he helped unify Italy. It is one of the Riviera's most profound ironies: the greatest Italian patriot was born in a city that chose not to be Italian.<\/p>\n From the sea, Nice reveals itself in its geographic continuity. The Baie des Anges opens in an arc to the west, from Castle Hill to the shores of Antibes, about twenty kilometers of coastline that boats cover by hugging the coast from offshore. The Promenade des Anglais stretches for seven kilometers, bordered by the line of pastel facades that give the old town its recognizable color. The hill closes the bay to the east, with the old port hidden in its shadow.<\/p>\n It is from the sea that one understands the logic of the builders. The hill serves as both a lookout point and a natural shelter for the port. The bay is deep enough for boats, yet open enough for light. The English winter residents who built their promenade facing the sea were not wrong about the main point: the city is most beautiful from the water's edge.<\/p>\n Anchoring in the Baie des Anges is possible opposite the promenade, and in calm seas, it offers one of the most striking views on the Riviera. At dusk, the Promenade becomes a continuous line of light facing the bay, and the facades of the Negresco take on the evening orange. However, the bay remains open. With an easterly wind, choppy seas quickly set in, making the stay uncomfortable. The usual strategy: hug the coast from Nice, then continue towards The Bay of Villefranche,<\/a>\u00a0much more protected, twenty minutes to the east.<\/p>\n Nice is one of the major milestones when sailing between Cannes and Monaco. Heading east from the Nice \u2013 Monaco zone<\/a>, the Bay of Angels opens up behind you, the Castle Hill shrinks, and Villefranche appears beyond the cape, with its deep harbor, its colorful houses, its citadel. It is one of the most striking changes of scenery on the Riviera: in twenty minutes, you go from an open bay to a sheltered natural harbor.<\/p>\n The\u2019Itinerary Nice \u2013 Villefranche \u2013 Monaco<\/a> is our flagship program departing from Nice. It runs along the most historically dense coast of the Riviera: Nice and its two millennia of occupation, Villefranche harbour<\/a> and its four centuries of military covetousness, the Cap Ferrat<\/a> and its hidden villas, and Monaco as the arrival point. Four territories in one day.<\/p>\n From the sea, and only from the sea, you can see the Baie des Anges in its entirety. The curve, the seven kilometers of promenade, the city stretching uninterrupted from Castle Hill to the airport limits. It's the view the Greeks of Nicaea had from their ships. Nothing, neither the buildings nor the centuries of changes in sovereignty, has truly altered it.<\/p>\nThe County of Nice and the House of Savoy<\/h2>\n
1820: The English build the promenade<\/h2>\n
1860: Nice becomes French, and Garibaldi is furious<\/h2>\n
The Bay of Angels from a boat<\/h2>\n
Nice on a boat trip<\/h2>\n