A taste of NICECulture &

A taste of NICECulture & cuisine onD’AZUR2the colourfulCÔTENice is one of France’s most visited cities,and it’s easy to see why, says Janine Marsh.With its sun-kissed Bay of Angels lapped bythe lapis lazuli coloured Mediterranean sea,palm trees swaying gently in the warm breeze,cobbled streets of the old town lined withcolourful old buildings, magnificent markets,multiple museums, a castle atop a hill, and themouth-watering local cuisine. Nissa La Bella,as the locals call it (Nice the Beautiful), hasoodles of charm.A little bit of historyVisit Nice today, and it’s hard to remember thataround 100 years ago, Nice was a small fishingvillage. In the surrounding hills, farmers grewvegetables, the sort that could endure the hotsummer sun. Going back even further, Nice tookits name from Greek settlers who arrived around350 BC and called it Nikaia after the GreekGoddess of victory, Nike. Long before that,tribes settled here as far back as 400,000 BC.Nice harbourThe Romans were here too – they knew agood thing when they saw it, and settled thearea we know today as Cimiez, where remainsof a Roman baths complex can be seen.Nice swung between French and Italian rulefor centuries – finally becoming French in1861 – but, so close to Italy, the dolce vitais firmly entrenched in its DNA – combinedwith French joie de vivre – it’s a heady mix!In the mid-18th century, the British elite, ontheir Grand Tours (similar to a gap year),found it to be an ideal winter sun destination.When a prominent writer and doctor namedTobias Smollett wrote about the area’s warmwinters and fresh air, which was beneficialto health, Nice became extremely popularand was established as the first winter resortarea in the world. When Queen Victoriavisited, that was it – the equivalent of a travelinfluencer of 200 years ago, she inspiredanyone who was anyone to go and allegedlyclaimed on her deathbed, “Oh, if only I wereat Nice, I should recover.”8 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 9