Things to do in Nice

Three days easily. One for Vieux Nice and Castle Hill, one for the Matisse and Chagall museums in Cimiez, and one as a base for Riviera day trips to Èze, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monaco or Antibes — all under 30 minutes by train. The Cours Saleya flower market is a daily ritual.

The Promenade des Anglais walked at golden hour, ending up Castle Hill (Colline du Château) for the sunset over the curve of the Baie des Anges. There's no actual castle anymore — Louis XIV demolished it — but the park with its waterfall and viewpoint is the city's best free experience.

Vieux Nice (the old town) below the castle — narrow ochre lanes with the Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate, daily markets and socca counters. Port Lympia east of the castle has been gentrifying with seafood restaurants. Liberation neighbourhood north of the centre is the quietest residential pocket.

Socca — a thin chickpea pancake baked in wood ovens, eaten hot in paper from Chez Pipo or at the market. Pissaladière (caramelised onion tart), pan-bagnat (tuna sandwich, basically a salade Niçoise in a bun), and a rosé from Bandol or Bellet (Nice's own tiny appellation in the hills behind the city).

Walk Vieux Nice and the Promenade. Trams (lines 1, 2 and 3) cover everywhere else from the airport to the port. SNCF trains along the coast run frequently and cheaply — Cannes is 30 minutes west, Monaco 25 minutes east. A weekly tram pass plus train tickets handles the whole Riviera.

The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas in the Tsarévitch park — built by the Romanovs in the 1910s, six onion domes painted in deep blues and gold-leafed crosses, set incongruously among palm trees. A 20-minute walk inland from the train station.