Vieux Nice: The Layered History of the Old Town by the Sea

 

Vieux Nice, the historic heart of Nice, is less a single neighborhood than a living archive. Its narrow streets, faded palazzi, baroque churches, and laundry-strung alleyways tell a story shaped by geography, trade, conquest, and cultural crosscurrents. Unlike many Old Towns that feel preserved behind glass, Vieux Nice remains stubbornly alive—noisy, aromatic, and deeply rooted in its past.

Greek Foundations and Roman Order

The story begins in the 4th century BCE, when Greek settlers from Massalia (modern Marseille) established Nikaia, named after Nike, the goddess of victory. The settlement sat strategically near the sea, serving as a trading post between the Mediterranean and inland routes.

Later, the Romans formalized the region’s importance by building Cemenelum (in today’s Cimiez), leaving Nice as a coastal satellite to a larger administrative center. While few visible Roman remnants survive in Vieux Nice itself, the city’s role as a port and crossroads was firmly established.

Medieval Walls and a City Under Siege

By the Middle Ages, Nice had shifted closer to the coastline, clustering beneath what is now Castle Hill (Colline du Château). Vieux Nice developed within defensive walls, its streets deliberately narrow and winding to confuse invaders and funnel movement.

From the 12th to the 18th centuries, Nice found itself repeatedly caught between competing powers—Provence, Savoy, France, and various Italian states. Control changed hands often, and the Old Town reflects this instability: fortifications, religious institutions, and tightly packed housing designed for both faith and survival.

The Castle, once a key military stronghold overlooking the Old Town, was destroyed in 1706 by order of Louis XIV, permanently altering the city’s skyline but opening the way for Nice’s future expansion.

Italian Roots, French Rule

For centuries, Nice was culturally and politically tied to Italy. Under the House of Savoy, the city shared language, architecture, cuisine, and customs with neighboring Liguria and Piedmont. This Italian heritage is still visible in Vieux Nice’s pastel facades, shuttered windows, baroque churches, and family-run food traditions.

Everything changed in 1860, when Nice was officially annexed by France following a controversial plebiscite. While French administration reshaped governance and education, daily life in Vieux Nice retained a distinctly Italian rhythm well into the 20th century. The Niçois dialect, a blend of Provençal and Italian, continued to be spoken in homes and markets.

Churches, Markets, and Everyday Life

Religion played a central role in shaping Vieux Nice. Landmarks such as Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate, Église du Gesù, and Chapelle de la Miséricorde reflect the wealth and influence of religious confraternities during the baroque period. These churches were not just places of worship but anchors of social life.

Just as important was Cours Saleya, the Old Town’s marketplace. Long before it became a postcard-perfect attraction, it functioned as the city’s pantry—supplying vegetables, fish, flowers, and olive oil. Even today, it remains one of the strongest links between historic Nice and modern daily life.

Decline, Survival, and Revival

By the early 20th century, Vieux Nice had fallen out of favor with elites who preferred the wide boulevards and Belle Époque architecture of newer neighborhoods. The Old Town became densely populated, poorer, and increasingly neglected.

Yet this marginalization helped preserve it. Large-scale redevelopment largely bypassed Vieux Nice, allowing its medieval layout and historic buildings to survive intact. In the late 20th century, restoration efforts, combined with renewed interest in heritage and tourism, sparked a gradual revival.

A Quiet History of Queer Life and Visibility

Like many historic European Old Towns, Vieux Nice does not announce its LGBTQ+ history through monuments or plaques. For much of its past, queer life existed quietly—woven into the fabric of everyday living rather than openly documented. Small apartments, shared courtyards, cafés, and bars provided discreet spaces where people could gather, socialize, and live outside rigid social expectations.

Nice’s long-standing identity as a port city and borderland fostered a degree of cultural flexibility. Sailors, artists, seasonal workers, and outsiders passed through regularly, creating pockets of anonymity that allowed LGBTQ+ individuals to exist with slightly more freedom than in rural or more tightly controlled environments. This was especially true in Vieux Nice, where dense living and mixed-use streets blurred the line between public and private life.

In the late 20th century, as LGBTQ+ visibility increased across France, parts of the Old Town naturally became informal meeting points. Bars and cafés—often not explicitly labeled as “gay” spaces—served as social anchors for locals long before rainbow flags became common. This understated integration remains characteristic of Vieux Nice today: queer life is present, normalized, and largely unsegregated from the rest of the neighborhood.

Rather than forming a distinct “gay quarter,” LGBTQ+ residents and visitors have historically blended into the wider social life of the Old Town. That quiet coexistence reflects both the limits imposed by history and the subtle resilience of communities that learned to carve out space without demanding visibility.

Vieux Nice Today

Today, Vieux Nice is a balancing act. It is home to long-established families, expat communities, artists, students, and an ever-growing number of visitors. Its streets are filled with the sounds church bells, conversations in multiple languages, and the constant hum of cafés and kitchens.

Despite pressure from tourism and short-term rentals, the Old Town remains deeply local at its core. Laundry still hangs from balconies. Neighbors still chat in stairwells. Markets still close when they feel like it.

Vieux Nice endures not because it has been frozen in time, but because it has adapted—layer by layer—without erasing what came before. It is a place where history isn’t curated; it’s lived.

From Cinecittà to the Victorine Studios: Three Icons, One Riviera Myth

 

In Nice, a new exhibition brings together Brigitte Bardot, Mylène Demongeot, and Michèle Mercier—three stars whose lives and careers became inseparable from the French Riviera’s golden age.

The French Riviera has always been more than a backdrop. It is a myth-making machine, a place where cinema, glamour, and freedom collided to create enduring legends. This summer in Nice, that mythology takes center stage once again with “The Little Darlings of the French Riviera,” a new exhibition devoted to Brigitte Bardot, Mylène Demongeot, and Michèle Mercier—three actresses whose destinies are forever intertwined with the Côte d’Azur.

Unveiled this past Saturday at the Lympia Departmental Cultural Center, the exhibition was opened by writer and curator Henry-Jean Servat, who frames the project as both a celebration and a reckoning. Running until April 12, 2026, the exhibition invites visitors to revisit a world of sun-soaked cinema, audacious femininity, and creative freedom—while acknowledging the distance between that era and today.

After previous tributes in Saint-Tropez and Villefranche-sur-Mer, Brigitte Bardot once again finds herself at the heart of a Riviera homage. But this time, she is not alone. Placed alongside Demongeot and Mercier, Bardot became part of a trio that collectively shaped the region’s cinematic identity—from international co-productions and Italian studios like Cinecittà to the legendary Victorine Studios in Nice.

Each woman represents a distinct facet of Riviera stardom. Bardot, the global symbol of liberated sensuality, transformed Saint-Tropez into an international icon. Mylène Demongeot, with her wit and cosmopolitan charm, bridged popular cinema and European sophistication. Michèle Mercier, immortalized by Angélique, embodied romantic adventure and historical fantasy, exporting a distinctly French glamour worldwide.

Described as an exhibition with “the allure of forbidden fruit and the scent of paradise lost,” The Little Darlings of the French Riviera does not indulge in simple nostalgia. Instead, it reflects on how these women navigated fame, desire, and public scrutiny at a time when the Riviera functioned as a laboratory for modern celebrity. Their images—sunlit, carefree, and endlessly reproduced—helped define an era, but also masked the personal costs of stardom.

Firmly rooted in the present, the exhibition invites a contemporary audience to reconsider what the Riviera represented then—and what it represents now. In revisiting these three careers side by side, it becomes clear that the French Riviera was not merely a setting, but an active force: shaping roles, amplifying mythologies, and projecting French cinema onto the world stage.

At Lympia, the past feels tantalizingly close. Not frozen in time, but alive—glimmering between memory and reality, just like the Riviera itself.

Princess Stéphanie Sets the Record Straight

 

Princess Stéphanie of Monaco has put an end to speculation about her future, firmly denying any plans to step back from public life. In an interview with Gala magazine, she clarified comments that had sparked rumors of retirement and reaffirmed her unwavering commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Recently promoted to Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit on November 18—an honor presented by her sister, Princess of Hanover, at the Prince’s Palace—Princess Stéphanie spoke candidly about her role and responsibilities. Marking World AIDS Day on December 1, the president of Fight Aids Monaco reflected on more than two decades of advocacy.

Founded in 2004, Fight Aids Monaco remains at the heart of her work. “I use my public profile to advance the fight against AIDS and to challenge the discrimination that still surrounds this disease,” she told Gala. “Without that visibility, my voice would not be heard in the same way.”

La Fleur du Cap: The Riviera Villa That Became David Niven’s Home

 

For anyone that has walked on the seaside trail from Beaulieu-sur-Mer along the rocky edge of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, where the Mediterranean laps directly against stone terraces and the light seems permanently cinematic, stands a villa that quietly encapsulates more than a century of Riviera history.

Today known as La Fleur du Cap, the residence is best remembered as the long-time home of British actor David Niven, whose charm and wit were as much a part of the Côte d’Azur’s postwar glamour as the sea itself.

From Olive Groves to Belle Époque Retreat

The villa’s story begins in 1880, when Alfred Bounin, a Nice olive-oil merchant, purchased a small rocky promontory on the Cap-Ferrat shoreline. He built a modest waterfront house he named Lo Scoglietto—Italian for “the little rock.” Unlike the grand hillside villas of the era, this home embraced the sea directly, complete with a private landing point and bathing cabin connected by a narrow footbridge.

Over time, the house was gradually expanded, evolving from a simple seaside retreat into a refined Belle Époque villa that mirrored the rising prestige of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat itself.

 

A Magnet for High Society and Royalty

By the early 20th century, Lo Scoglietto had become a coveted address among Europe’s elite. In the 1920s, it was rented by Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, one of the most famous—and famously reluctant—American heiresses to marry into British aristocracy.

Its reputation only grew. In the 1950s, the villa served as a temporary residence for King Leopold III of Belgium shortly before his abdication, reinforcing its status as a discreet haven for royalty seeking privacy on the Riviera.

Hollywood Arrives on the Cap

The villa’s cinematic chapter began in earnest in 1956, when Charlie Chaplin spent a summer there with his family. Photographs from the period show the silent-film legend enjoying the rocky shoreline and relaxed pace of Cap-Ferrat life—a striking contrast to the global fame he carried with him.

David Niven’s Riviera Years

The most defining era of the villa began in the early 1960s, when David Niven acquired the property. By then, Niven was one of Britain’s most beloved screen actors, known for his impeccable manners, dry humor, and an Academy Award–winning performance in Separate Tables.

Niven would live at the villa for over two decades, making it his primary European home. Far from retreating from society, he became an integral part of local life—walking into the village, playing pétanque, frequenting cafés, and entertaining friends that included actors, aristocrats, and figures from nearby Monaco.

The villa also made a rare on-screen appearance in 1983, when scenes from Trail of the Pink Panther were filmed there. The film became one of Niven’s final screen roles, permanently linking the house to his cinematic legacy.

A Lasting Tribute

Following Niven’s death in 1983, the village of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat honored him by naming the small square in front of the villa Place David Niven—a rare tribute that reflects how deeply he was appreciated not just as a star, but as a neighbor.

In later years, the property was carefully restored and expanded while remaining a private residence. Though its footprint has grown, the villa has retained its defining relationship with the sea—still appearing to rise directly from the Mediterranean.

In subsequent years, the villa was restored and expanded. In the late 20th century it was acquired by Ana Tzarev and Robert Chandler and lovingly maintained as a private residence.

Today, La Fleur du Cap stands as a discreet landmark of Riviera history: a house shaped by merchants, royalty, silent-film legends, and one of Britain’s most effortlessly elegant actors.