Somewhere for the weekend... Nice

WHY GO NOW?

WHY GO NOW?

Christmas shopping is more fun in the markets of Nice than on your local high street, and there's the added bonus of great food, drink and art. If you can stay on, you'll be in the right place on Christmas Day for the annual Bain de Noël, when thousands take to the sea. A carnival atmosphere prevails as goose-pimpled swimmers are revived at stalls selling socca (wafer-thin pancakes made with chickpea flour and olive oil).

DOWN PAYMENT

The main airline from the UK to Nice is easyJet (0871 750 0100; www.easyjet.com), which has plenty of room if you're travelling out on 19 December and returning on Monday 22 December, from Luton (£84 return), Gatwick (£124 return), Liverpool (£114 return) and Bristol (£94 return). Alternatively, you can fly from Heathrow or Manchester on British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com). A shuttle bus from the airport to the railway station operates every 20 minutes from 6am-10pm for €3 (£2.20). By rail, Eurostar (0870 518 6186; www.eurostar.com) and TGV will get you there in about nine hours, via Paris, for £109.

INSTANT BRIEFING

If Nice feels like a coastal Italian city, that's because it was part of Sardinia until 1860 when a referendum of doubtful probity ceded it to France. Nice was the birthplace of Garibaldi and ravioli, and you still won't find better pasta in Italy. Along the seafront runs the legendary Promenade des Anglais, overlooked by many of Nice's best hotels. At its eastern end lies the Old Town, with tall, green-shuttered buildings of yellow and ochre façades, and the wooded hill on which a castle once stood; behind the hill is Nice's harbour where you can catch a ferry to Corsica. The city's main tourist office is at 5 Promenade des Anglais (00 33 892 707 407; www.nicetourisme.com).

REST ASSURED

Although it's France's fifth-largest city and a place of legendary affluence, there's a dearth of top-notch hotels in Nice. But it does have some splendidly idiosyncratic ones. Foremost is Hotel Negresco at 37 Promenade des Anglais (00 33 493 166 400; www.hotel-negresco-nice.com). Built in 1913, it is now classed as a National Monument, a status reflected in its eclectic mix of loaned Empire portraits and modern art. The rooms are decorated in different historic styles, most with antique furniture. Double rooms cost €225 (£164) or €315 (£230), without breakfast.

The new Hi-Hotel at 3 Avenue des Fleurs (00 33 497 072 626; www.hi-hotel.net) occupies a 1930s boarding house, and each of its 38 rooms is named for a different "concept": "Rendez-vous" has a lava rock bath, while "Technocorner" has a sofablaster with built-in speakers. Doubles cost from €145 (£106) to €350 (£255) without breakfast.

MUST SEE

Rise early one morning and climb through mimosa trees up Castle Hill to appreciate why Matisse wrote: "When I understood that, every morning, I would see that light, I could not believe my good fortune." The arc of the brilliantly azure Baie des Anges is framed by firs and pines and the buildings below glow yellow.

Descend through the Old Town to Place Rossetti and the 17th-century Cathedral St-Reparate, dark with stained glass even in the drum of its immense dome. To gain an idea of what life was like for a wealthy 17th-century Niçois family, visit the nearby Palais Lascaris at 15 Rue Droite (00 33 493 627 240, open daily except Tuesday, 10am-6pm, €2.30/£1.70), with its painted staircase and elaborately decorated formal rooms.

Walk, cycle or rollerblade along the Promenade des Anglais beside the pebble beach. Call in at Hotel Negresco for a drink before visiting Musée des Beaux-Arts at 33 Avenue des Baumettes (00 33 492 152 828, open daily except Monday, 10am-6pm, €4/£2.90); it has a large collection of Raoul Dufy's paintings, including one of Henley regatta, and works by Monet and Sisley.

Take bus 17 to the Franciscan monastery and cemetery at Cimiez with its lovely grounds of olive, grapefruit, oleander and orange trees. Nearby, at 164 Avenue des Arènes de Cimiez, a 17th-century Genoese villa houses the Matisse Museum (00 33 493 810 808, open daily except Tuesday, 10am-6pm, €3.80/£2.70). Though it lacks many examples of his more vibrantly coloured paintings, it contains numerous drawings, engravings and sculptures.

On Avenue Nicholas II is the extraordinary Russian Orthodox Church inspired by St Basil's in Moscow's Red Square.

MUST EAT

The conjunction of French and Italian food makes Nice a gastronomic delight. In the Old Town are L'Escalinda (22 Rue Pairoliere, 00 33 493 621 171), a small bistro serving authentic Niçois dishes such as courgettes with aioli and roasted peppers in olive oil (€8.20-11/£6-8). For an insight into olive oil and simple but superb home cooking, try Oliviera (8 Rue du Collet, 00 33 493 130 645). Nadim Berouji visits every producer of the olive oils he sells, while Regine uses them to great advantage in her dishes. La Maison de Marie at 5 Rue Massena (00 33 493 821 593) serves a classic salad Niçoise (€9.60/£7), fricassée of duck with olives and endives (€13.70/£10) and an intense lemon sorbet (€8.20/£6).

MUST BUY

Dozens of shops in Nice pay homage to haute couture, most of them in the partly pedestrianised streets behind the Promenade des Anglais. Art galleries and the more individual shops are to found in the Old Town, along with outlets for locally produced olive oil. Besides Oliviera, try Moulin à Huile Alziari (14 Rue St-François-de-Paule). On the edge of the Old Town, the café- and restaurant-lined Cours Saleya hosts varying markets: flowers (Tuesdays-Saturdays), fruit and veg (daily except Monday), and antiques, books and postcards (Mondays). Nearby Grasse is the perfume capital of France; its products can be bought at Aux Parfums de Grasse (10 Rue St-Gaetan).

INTO THE NIGHT

To enjoy a drink while overlooking the sea, try the balcony of the Casa del Sol (12 Cité du Parc, 00 33 493 628 728). The Old Town has numerous bars, pubs and discos. Work off the calories at Le Grand Escurial (29 Rue Alphonse Karr, 00 33 493 823 766). Lovers of baroque music can listen to a concert by the Ensemble Baroque at Le Baroque Bar at 25 Rue de la Croix (00 33 493 800 874).

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