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Over the past decade—and especially in the years following the pandemic—Marseille has emerged as a port of call for stylish Parisians and creative expats swapping the rigorous demands of urban living for a more relaxed life by the sea. A flurry of restaurants and trendy places to stay have opened to meet the moment, and helped foster the tourism boom that Marseille has been experiencing.
Yet while the spotlight shines on Marseille, a creative renaissance has been quietly building in Nice, the French Riviera’s gateway city. Though Nice is more classically charming than Marseille and has long served as a convenient base for travelers visiting the French Riviera, it lacked Marseille’s brand of cool, with an energy that felt slower-paced to appeal to its large population of retirees—one of the biggest in France. Look back at its history, however, and Nice’s new energy is unsurprising and overdue: it was once a breeding ground for great artists, such as Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, who were part of the vanguard of creatives that turned the city into a cultural hub. (Both artists’ works are immortalized in their own respective museums in the city.)
At long last, Nice is reclaiming the creative energy that defined its past. This summer, with the buzz around Nice’s biggest opening, Hôtel du Couvent, people are turning to the city and discovering for themselves all that’s been brewing over the past decade—uncovering a crop of new restaurants and stays that are ushering in a new vanguard of cool.
Where to Stay
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While a small crop of Nice’s indelible old-world hotels like Hôtel La Pérouse and Le Negresco still charm, the last five years have signaled a watershed moment for Nice’s hospitality scene with the arrival of trendy boutique stays attracting younger, stylish crowds to the city’s pebbled shores. Among the first of Nice’s modern hotel vanguard was Hotel Amour Nice, which opened its doors in 2019, reflecting the same laidback sensibility of the brand’s cult-favorite Parisian counterparts, Hôtel Amour and Grand Amour. The Nice property offers a welcome contrast to this traditionally grand and old-timey stretch of the Riviera. With just 38 rooms—each one individually designed and many with fully-stocked bookshelves—the hotel gives the appearance of a private home. A shaded patio restaurant (favored among locals and guests alike) and a panoramic rooftop with a swimming pool have become port-of-calls for stylish lively crowds, who you’ll likely find spending long summer days at the hotel’s beach club located just five minutes from the property.
This summer, Mama Shelter, a hotel brand known for creating urban refuges in up-and-coming cities, joins Hotel Amour Nice in providing another energetic, modern stay for the lively crowds making their way to this corner of the French Riviera. “Nice and its neighborhoods are ever-evolving, and are attracting young people and families more than ever,” says Cédric Gobilliard, general manager of Mama Shelter. Mama Shelter Nice features 102 rooms, a rooftop with a pool (the first for the brand), a bar and pizza counter, and a restaurant. The hotel brand is a particular favorite for remote workers, and caters to both vacationers and professionals: Mama Shelter Nice also plays host to two workshop spaces, two studios, and a break room.
But no opening has had a bigger impact on Nice than the 88-room Hôtel du Couvent that opened this past June. The product of a 10-year renovation that adjoined the three buildings of a 400-year-old former convent, the project is led by hotelier Valéry Grégo, who partnered with interior decoration firm Festen Architecture to create a tranquil five-star oasis in the heart of Vieux Nice with the sole vision of thoughtfully preserving and highlighting the building’s history. “Nice has changed over the past 10 years in how much younger and vibrant it has become, but this was only made possible because it had the right potential: light, sea, mountains, weather, and its food scene,” says Valery. “I think our hotel is reflective of that change.”
Evidence of this masterful execution lies in the restoration of the in-house herbalist apothecary and the bakery as it existed centuries ago, as well as the subterranean Roman baths, built as a tribute to the ancient baths of Cimiez, an archaeological site that can be visited within the city. Elsewhere on the property, the hotel’s bucolic terraced garden extends over two-and-a-half acres perfumed with olive, lemon, and apricot trees, where guests can wind down with a drink beside the garden lap pool overlooking sweeping views of the city, or at the Guinguette café, one of three restaurants on the property.
The hotel will also begin hosting a farmers’ market in the courtyard on Saturday mornings, which will be open to guests and locals alike. It’s five-star, to be sure, but there’s nothing pretentious or stuffy about it; kids are welcomed and embraced (with family rooms and a kids’ club); spaces are comfortable and warm; the property itself is grand in scale, but somehow, manages to remain subtle. Hôtel du Couvent wasn’t designed to wow, but rather to blend in—though that may be improbable for the buzziest hotel opening the French Riviera has seen this year.
Where to Eat and Drink
Nice has always been a food town—characterized by its regional cuisine and iconic dishes like salade Niçoise and daube Niçoise, as well as its beloved street food snack socca, a pancake made with chickpea flour. You can find these dishes, among other traditional, home-style fare, at institutions like La Meranda, La Petite Maison, and Chez Davia, or at the more casual bistro and wine bar La Part des Anges. But over the past decade, Nice’s dining scene has been reinvigorated by a bevy of newcomers infusing new energy and diverse flavors to a town that has long rested on its laurels. From neo-bistros—like hipster hotspot Le Canon, with its inventive takes on the traditional dishes—to the city’s more recent wave of restaurants introducing a broader range of international cuisines, there are now plenty of dining spots that will appeal to younger, diverse crowds of visitors and expats alike.
Among the first to introduce Nice to a new frontier of high-quality international cuisine was Banh Mei, helmed by self-taught chef and owner Thi Hieu Nguyen, which initially opened in Vieux Nice as a Vietnamese street food joint in 2013 but shifted its approach over the years to become a destination for both Asian and Mediterranean gastronomy, while still retaining its casual atmosphere. (Nguyen now works in partnership with sommelier Renaud Châteaugiron, formerly of Clown Bar, who joined her in 2021.) In a city typically characterized by casual home-style dining, chef and sommelier Vanessa Masse shook things up when she opened Pure V in 2018, serving gastronomic Scandinavian cuisine in the form of a seasonal tasting menu that benefits from Provence’s local ingredients sourced directly from local farmers, breeders, and fisherman. As a pioneer of Nice’s natural wine scene, it was fitting when in 2023, Vanessa decided to expand her culinary vision by opening Pure Vins, a more intimate and casual antidote to its Michelin-starred predecessor, where her Finnish chef combines Asian and Nordic flavors in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Babel Babel followed a similar path, energizing the Promenade des Anglais when it opened in 2019 in a lively space with balcony seating (the terrace to beat in Nice), serving Mediterranean-style small plates, followed by the arrival of its second venue, a wine bar, Barrique, which opened in August of 2023. Barrique combines all of the elements that made Babel Babel such a success: light bites, an extensive natural wine list, and a friendly atmosphere that sees visitors regularly pour into the street.
Sticking out among the throng of traditional restaurants and tourist shops flooding the streets of Vieux Nice is Frisson, a new trendy coffee, ice cream, and concept shop helmed by former Colette employees Sylvain Brondel and Olivier Breton. The first of its kind in Nice, the duo wanted to open a space that would blend their passion for food, culture, art, and design: “We envisioned it as a friendly and creative space where people could gather and show up as they are,” explains Olivier. “And there wasn’t a better city for that than Nice with its proximity to nature and its rejuvenated food scene.” At Frisson, they plan to host monthly exhibitions, events, and brand activations, making it exactly the kind of place you’d expect to find in Marseille. As tides continue to change in Nice, this may be the first of its kind here, but it surely won’t be the last.
