Promenade between luxury and nature - the English promenade in Nice, a walk by the sea (and more)

Dear Hivers, in the desire to convey my tour of Nice to you as authentically as possible, I thought for a long time about which approach to writing a post to apply and how to put everything I saw into one post.
Not at all.
So that you (like me) could conclude what it is like to stay in Nice, I will present the visit to this city in three separate posts.

I will write to you about a walk by the sea on the famous English promenade, a walk in the old town and especially, a walk in the park on the Colline du Château hill.

The English Promenade, a popular promenade in Nice (Promenade des Anglais) is exactly 7 kilometers long.
​It stretches along the Bay of Angels (Baie des Anges), connecting the airport to the west and the Colline du Château to the east.

Along its entire length, on one side is the beautiful sea, the color of which gave this coast its epithet - Azure, while on the other side there are houses, villas of famous and wealthy residents of Nice, hotels, parks.

One of the most famous hotels in the world, and certainly a symbol of the city of Nice, the Hotel Le Negresco, is located on this promenade.

The history of the hotel is fascinating.
Built and opened just before the first World War in January 1913 , owned by the rich Romanian Henry Negrescu.

The architect of the hotel was Édouard-Jean Niermans, and the hotel was designed and built as a hotel that brought a revolution in luxury and enjoyment.
Each room had its own bathroom, heating system, mail delivery.
The glass dome of the Royal Salon, which I did not have the opportunity to see, was designed by Gustave Eiffel himself.
After the start of the First World War, Henry Negresco showed his generosity and turned the hotel into a military hospital.
Without a rich clientele, he spent his fortune during the war and died as a bankrupt businessman in 1920.
Then, until 1957, the hotel was owned by a Belgian company, and in 1957 it was bought by the Mesnage family.
According to the story, they chose this hotel because it was the only one in Nice that had an elevator that could accommodate wheelchairs. Mrs. Mesnage.
The further fate of the hotel is like in a fairy tale.
The management of the hotel is taken over by their daughter, Jeanne Augier, and over the following decades, the hotel is turned into a museum and gallery.

Over the following decades, Jeanne transformed the hotel into a living gallery, filling it with over five centuries of French art—from Louis XV-style furniture to contemporary works by Salvador Dali, Jean Chagall, Henri Matisse and Niki de Saint Phalle.

During all that time, she managed to resist the offers of hotel chains and to this day, even after her death in 2019, it remains the only independent hotel in Nice, which is managed by an independent foundation that Jean started during her lifetime.

I didn't have a chance to peek inside the hotel, judging by the room rental prices, they probably have a strict policy on entering the hotel, so I photographed it from the outside from all sides.

Right next to the Hotel Le Negresco there is another interesting object, the Massena Palace Museum.

Built at the beginning of the 20th century as a villa, it served as the winter residence of the Massena family, to be sold to the city of Nice in 1918, for a symbolic sum with the condition that it be turned into a museum of local history open to the public, free of charge and accessible to all visitors.

Entrance to the museum is not free today, but it is possible to take a walk through the beautiful garden of the villa.

In one corner of the garden, there is a section dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack in 2016, when, in celebration of the fall of the Bastille, a truck was driven into the promenade by a terrorist and killed 86 people.

This monument on the promenade is a memorial to these victims.
Since that horrific attack, the promenade has been fenced off with pillars, so that no large motor vehicle can enter the footpath.

Unlike the sculpture that was erected in memory of the victims of the terrorist act, there is another monument on the promenade, erected in 2012 on the fiftieth anniversary of the return of a large number of Algeian citizens to France. Since 1830, when the French conquest of Algiers began, after France finally lost the war in 1962, over 10,000 families whose ancestors went to conquer Algiers were forced to return to France.

The broken plate with the footprints symbolizes the departure and breaking of the vwz and contact with that other world.

Real enjoyment is the moment of a break in the walk, when you can take a break on the blue chairs, with your feet up on the fence, while observing the open Mediterranean sea.

Continuing the walk along the promenade, you will reach the Jardin Albert 1er park, where there are several monuments.
One huge metal arch "Arc de 115.5" which symbolizes the curvature of the Bay of Nice, and was installed in 1988 to celebrate the centenary of the naming of Nice.

From this sculpture, further towards Place Massena, you will find Nice's most famous fountain, Fontaine du Soleil.

This attraction was often on our route, no matter how many times we passed this park at any time of the day. For this reason, I have photos both during the day and in the evening, maybe even some at night.

On Massena square there is a somewhat strange installation of statues in different colors on pillars "Conversation à Nice", which was created in 2007 by the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa.

The sculptures symbolize the flow of communication between the seven continents of the world.
During the night, the sculptures light up in different colors and fade in color, which symbolizes the exchange of words.

From Massena Square, walking through the park we passed another popular fountain, especially on hot summer days, when park visitors use it to cool off a little.

After we freshened up a bit and wet our hands (and feet, but not on purpose 🙂), we took a break on one of the green areas.

Following the parks of this promenade, when we reached the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, we turned to Garibaldi Square.

I will present a visit to this square when I write about the old town.

For now, we headed to the opposite side, to see the Basilique Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, which was closed, so we contented ourselves with taking photos and walking along the wide boulevard full of shops and buildings of interesting architecture.

I had the opportunity to see such narrow buildings only in Amsterdam, and I was surprised why they made them so narrow, when there was certainly free space at the time of their construction...
Perhaps the creativity of the architects?

We went out on the promenade again at the sculpture
"Neuf Lignes Obliques" which is the work of the French artist Bernard Venet.

Each of the nine steel beams of this sculpture represents one of the nine valleys of the former county of Nice and the surrounding mountains that rise towards the sky. It was erected to mark the 150th anniversary of the annexation of Nice to France, which took place in 1860.

Almost like the dessert of this walk along the promenade is the moment when you head further from this sculpture past the Opera House, past the old town, and below the viewpoint on the hill you reach the position of the sundial and the favorite photo spot "I love Nice".

The view of the open sea from here is fantastic.

Further along the coast, you will come to the Monument aux Morts de Rauba-Capeù carved into the rock, dedicated to the victims of the inhabitants of Nice in World War I (after World War II, the names of new victims were added..

And after passing the monument, you enter the area of ​​the marina and port of Lympia, where the vessels are not overly luxurious like in some other city on the Côte d'Azur.

Following the shadow of the Colline du Château hill, passing through narrow picturesque streets, we once again emerged on Garibaldi square.

With refreshments and a light lunch, and a tasting of traditional Socca (thin chickpea buns), I conclude the chapter on the promenade in Nice.

I greating you to the next story in which I will go through the gates of the old town on another adventure in Nice.