Nice has class. Not the flashy kind, but the sort that’s been refined over centuries. It sits proudly on the Côte d’Azur – the heart of the French Riviera – and it shows. There’s an effortless elegance to the place. The buildings, the light, the sea – it all comes together like it’s meant to be lived in slowly. You get the sense that style wasn’t added here; it was always part of the plan. This is a city that knows exactly what it is, and it doesn’t try to be anything else. It just gets on with being Nice — and that’s more than enough.
At the centre of it all is the Promenade des Anglais – a wide, sweeping boulevard that runs along the coast like it’s framing the whole city. It’s more than just a footpath by the sea. It’s where everything and everyone seems to pass through at some point in the day. Cyclists, rollerbladers, couples holding hands, old men in linen jackets, tourists with cameras, locals with dogs – they all glide past, slowly. There’s no rush. The Mediterranean is right there beside you, calm and blue, and the curve of the promenade gives you that rare feeling of space in a city. You can walk for hours and not get bored. Just watch the world go by, with the sea whispering beside you.
We stopped for an Aperol Spritz at one of the restaurants overlooking the promenade. It wasn’t planned — just one of those moments where the light was too nice, the breeze too soft, and the timing too perfect to keep walking. The waiter didn’t rush us. No one does here. You sit, you sip, you watch the world shuffle past. The drink arrived cold and bright, the kind of orange that looks like it belongs in a painting. In front of us, the sea kept doing its thing, and for a moment, there was nothing else to worry about. That’s what Nice does — it gives you these moments, small but perfect, if you’re smart enough to stop and enjoy them.
