Fascinating Facts about Nice

Nice is a veritable kaleidoscope of history, traversing scoundrels, artists, aristocrats, monarchs and martyrs.   Here are a few of the highlights…

First Tourists   Nice’s first tourists started coming almost 400,000 years ago, and were transient cave-dwellers that came to Nice once a year to hunt woolly mammoths!  See the artifacts from the archaeological dig (now a museum) on the hill above the Nice Port.

Rock-filled Beaches   Nice’s unusual beaches are naturally occurring: the smooth stones come from the mouth of the Var and Paillon rivers (which now runs under the Promenade de Paillon gardens), where the river stones have been washing down to line the shores of Nice for eons.  

Original Nike-Town   During the Greek Empire in 500BC, the hill above the Old Town was named Nike, after the Greek goddess of  victory, making Nice the original Nike-Town.  During its multi-century Italian period it was called Nizza, and since becoming French just 150 years ago, it is called Nice.   The people of Nice are Niçoise, like the famous salad, and have their own dialect called Nissart.

Roman Holiday   During the Roman Empire, life was centered on the hill behind Nice, in Cimiez which is now the chic residential quarter.    Head up to the Jardins de Cimiez today and you’ll find the ancient Roman coliseum, which once entertained with gladiators, the ruins of an immense Roman bath complex, an ancient olive grove, and a still-operating monastery.

The Bay of Angels   The bay of Nice was named after a 3rd century miracle, involving a young Christian who was arrested for her faith, across the Mediterranean in Palestine.  Her torturers tried their worst, but nothing could convince her to renounce her faith, and so she was finally beheaded.  As was the custom after such executions, her body was put out to sea on a raft to be desecrated by sea birds.   But the angels took over and guided the raft across the Mediterranean to the bay of Nice, where her body arrived pristine and untouched, and was declared a miracle.  The bay is named after the angels, and the young martyr became Saint Reparate, the patron saint of the Cathedral in Old Nice.

Medieval Castle   On the hill directly above the Old Town, there once was perched a massive walled fortress that protected the chateau and the hilltop village.  It was the strongest fortress on the Mediterranean coast and was thought to be impenetrable.  A prize to be conquered, it was attacked many times… but where it is it now?  Read on a bit further…

Jewish Ghetto   In the Middle Ages the hilltop village was getting too big to stay within the castle walls, and so the town decided to relocate down the hill, to where Old Nice is now.   As was the practice throughout Europe at the time, the town’s Jewish community was forced by law to reside on one gated street called Street of the Jews, where they were locked in each night.  The non-Jewish townspeople didn’t think much of this idea, having lived harmoniously with their Jewish neighbors up to that point, so they all worked together to tunnel a network of passageways under the buildings with secret doors back out to the village.  You can still see the Street of the Jews (Carriera de la Juderia, between rue Rossetti and rue de la Loge), but it is now called rue Benoît Bunico, named after the Italian statesman who pushed through legislation, 200 years later, giving equal rights to Jewish citizens.

Carnaval   The Carnaval in Nice originated in the Middle Ages as a festival of church-authorized excess where the masked revelers could safely ridicule those in power, and anyone without a mask got flogged with stockings filled with flour.  Nice now has a fun, big-budget Official Carnaval (no mask required, but beware of the silly string), as well as various unofficial Carnaval Populaires which are no-budget free-for-alls and anyone showing up without a painted face still gets the flour treatment.

The Heroine of Nice   In 1506, this town of only 3,000 inhabitants was attacked by a flotilla of 20,000 Franco-Turks.   After weeks under siege the town was still hanging on, and the attackers once again tried to scale the walls.  With very few soldiers left to mount a defense, a washer-woman, Catherine Segurane climbed up on the walls herself and tried to beat back the attackers with her laundry bat.   Incredibly, her blow killed a warrior, whereupon she impulsively grabbed his flag, lifted her skirt, and make a gesture like she was wiping her ass.   The attacking soldiers were humiliated; the next day, weary and demoralized, the army gave up and Nice was saved.   Catherine Segurane is considered emblematic of the Nice spirit, and there are small monuments to her throughout the old town including a cannonball from the siege suspended on the corner of rue Droit and rue de la Loge, and an annual homage in August

The Chateau’s Demise   Nice lost its castle in 1706, no thanks to the flamboyant monarch Louis the XIV, who was the first to conquer the castle by a fluke of luck: a cannonball lobbed over the fortress walls flew into a tiny window and landed in the munitions storage…causing a massive explosion that blew out the side out of the stone fortress, allowing the enemies to invade.   Louis the XIV wanted to insure that he would never have to reconquer it, so he ordered the legendary castle, fortress and village walls be dismantled stone by stone, many of which ended up paving the Promenade des Anglais.

Made in Italy   Nice has only been part of France since 1860, when Italy reluctantly gave her up to repay France for helping defend itself from the Austrians.  The Mayor’s office likes to say that ‘Nice chose France’, but the truth is that the famous ‘vote’ was rigged: there were no ‘non’ ballots printed!  This mixed heritage gives Nice its fabulous mélange of French and Italian, as seen in its architecture, colors, cuisine and lifestyle.

The Golden Age   Did you know that 100 years ago, the French Riviera was only a winter resort?   No one came here in the summer (too hot!) and the hotels even closed down as there were no guests.  It took a tradition-flouting American couple, the Murphy’s, and their entourage of fabulous friends (Cole Porter, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, just to name a few…), to make the Cote d’Azur the fashionable summer resort it is today!

The Prom   The Promenade des Anglais takes its name from these uppercrust English (Anglais) tourists, who would promenade along the sea with their parasols…a strange sight to the working-class Niçoise.  Among the celebrated Anglais were Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill, and dancer Isadora Duncan, whose dramatic decapitation took place in front of the Hotel Negresco, when her long scarf caught in one of the wheels of her convertible.

Le-paillon_imagelargeThe Promenade du Paillon Gardens  The Old Town is the shape of a triangle because of the sea on one side, the Chateau hill on another, and the river Paillon on its third side, which is still there, but now running underneath the gardens.  The main entrance to the walled Old Town was by bridge, whose ancient cobblestones are still visible under the glass panel at the town side of the Cathedrale tram stop.

The Noon Cannon   In 1860, Sir Thomas Coventry and his easily-distracted wife were living in Nice.  Having become increasing frustrated by his wife’s lack of punctuality in presenting the noonday meal, he approached the Mayor’s office to propose a daily noon cannon blast, like back in his home village in Scotland, and offered to foot the bill.   Some years later, Sir Coventry returned to Scotland and took his little cannon with him, but by that time the locals were so used to their midday alarm that they petitioned the city to continue the tradition, and it continues today.

High Culture   The appropriately luminous yellow building at the end of Cours Saleya’s outdoor market was once home to Henri Matisse, one of many artists attracted to this area for its unusual light.   Other artists drawn to Nice include Chagall, Picasso, Renoir, Cocteau, and Modigliani.   F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote here, as did Somerset Maugham (who famously said, “The Riviera isn’t only a sunny place for shady people”) and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.  Violin virtuoso Paganini composed in Nice (and decomposed in Nice when he died here 1840).

Pop Culture  Modern celebrities include part-time resident Elton John, whose yellow hilltop villa above the Port can be seen from the top of the Chateau.  Other notable Riviera Rock Stars include Tina Turner, Keith Richards and Bono…

Mafia Blues   During Nice’s golden age through the 1920’s, the Riviera’s best known landmark was an opulent Belle Epoque Casino perched at the end of a long pier which seemed to float in the bay.  This glittering gambling mecca was fraught with mafia and corruption, and was mysteriously burned down three days after opening.  It was quickly rebuilt, and took its place as a major player in Nice’s vicious casino wars for many years.  It closed during the dark years of WWI, and then met its sad demise during WWII, when the Germans dismantled it for its metal which was then used to barricade the beaches after rumors of an Allied embarquement.

WWI Tribute the the USA The top portion of the Promenade des Anglais is named Le Quai des Etats-Unis, with the arched entry into the Old Town a tribute to the United States for its help in the first World War.

Occupation   In WWII Nice was occupied twice: first by the Italians (who were pretty easy-going) and then by the Germans (who weren’t).  During the German portion more secret tunnels were dug under Old Nice and the Chateau Hill to create a mini-submarine base to store munitions,  as well as to provide clandestine escape routes for the German officers.

Bombs Away Just months before the WWII Liberation of Nice, the US Allies bombed the rail tracks in Nice that Nazis were using to resupply their troops in the North. The catastrophic result:  an entire quarter destroyed with hundreds killed and injured.

V-E Day   The Allied Forces helped liberate France from the shores of Normandy and also here in the South of France, where they came ashore between Saint Raphael and La Napoule near Cannes.   Nice, however, liberated herself with a massive rebel uprising… click here for the story on the Liberation of Nice and join in the military parades marking the victory every August 28th.

The Babazouk   After the war, Nice like the rest of Europe, was in bad shape.   The Old Town was so run-down and poverty stricken that it was referred to as the ‘babazouk’ or Monster’s Lair.   Even in the 60’s most families in the Old Town didn’t have refrigeration and still bought ice chipped off the ice man’s cart.   Laundry was still washed by hand in communal tubs and garbage was dropped from the windows into the rat-infested streets below.

Savior or Scoundrel?    Nice was revitalized in the 70’s and 80’s by its visionary mayor, Jacques Médecin, …but a visionary wasn’t all he was.   The product of a Riviera dynasty (his father, Jean Médecin, was the city’s beloved mayor for 40 years before him), Jacques Médecin rejuvenated the city and put Nice back on the map… but then pilfered the city’s entire treasury and absconded to Uruguay with his American wife, where he died of cancer in the late 90’s.

No Fig Leaf for Apollo  The giant Apollo statue that crowns the fountain at Place Massena has had his trials and tribulations, even being banned in the 70’s for being overly well-endowed…  But now he’s back: read the risque and rocambolesque story of the Apollo statue here.

The Heist of the Century  In the ‘70’s, Albert Spaggiari, a mild-mannered local portrait photographer, put together a ragtag band of petty criminals and masterminded a spectacular heist of the Société Générale Bank on avenue Jean Médecin, which involved tunneling into the vault… from the Nice sewers!  But the audacious robbery was only the beginning…  read all about it here!

Today, modern-day Nice has two faces: a vibrant cosmopolitan city brimming with commerce and creativity, and the colorful Old Town with its old way of life still intact.  Going between the two can be a little like a time warp, but that’s just part of the fun.

Want to know more?  Take a Walking Tour of Old Nice, some are even free!  Or take this fun quick virtual tour in English by two local guides…

Photo credits: Casino de la Jetée courtesy of the photo archives of  Philippe Biancheri. L’Hiver a Nice poster RedBubble.com.  Photos licensed through Creative Commons: Beach Rocks by Pascua Theaus Chateau de Nice, Rue Malonat by Patrice Semerina.  Rue Benoit Bunico, Monument to Catherine Segurine by Best of Nice Blog.

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