Nice

climb to the Castle Hill park for the whole Baie des Anges going gold, then Niçoise dining in the Old Town's lantern-lit lanes

a room in the 1913 pink-domed landmark on the Promenade — five centuries of art on the walls, dinner at Michelin-starred Le Chantecler

the coastline, Villefranche's deep-water bay and Cap-Ferrat from the water as the light drops — an intimate charter away from the beach crowds

the arena and baths of Roman Cemenelum and the monastery's rose gardens with a Baie-des-Anges view — the deep-history layer above the art

the marble "tetrapod" museum straddling the buried Paillon, home to Yves Klein, Niki de Saint Phalle and the Nice-born Nouveau Réalisme movement

the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe, opened 1912 with Tsar Nicholas II's backing — the relic of Nice's Imperial-Russian winter colony

a Belle-Époque seafront villa telling the story of how Nice became the aristocracy's winter capital — the human backstory of the UNESCO listing

the true Niçoise plate at source — socca, pan bagnat, pissaladière, petits farcis

Nice's only two-Michelin-star table — brothers Gaël and Mickaël Tourteaux cooking bold Riviera-Caribbean flavours — the gastronomic high point of a Nice stay

one of France's smallest appellations, on the hills within Nice's own boundary — a rare in-city wine tasting

a 17th-c convent reborn with Roman-inspired thermal baths, a subterranean spa and a walled garden in the heart of Old Nice

the Hyatt Regency Palais de la Méditerranée's third-floor pool terrace and the Anantara Plaza's rooftop wellness

one of the world's great carnivals — illuminated float parades and the batailles de fleurs on the Promenade

the 78th edition across two stages in the heart of the city — Sting, Busta Rhymes, Lola Young headlining

the Old Town's bars and terraces — rosé and pastis, small plates, live corners — as the market square shifts from produce to people

the pastel-fronted working harbour, now a dining-and-drinks quarter away from the Promenade crowds — the locals' night out

the mirror-pool's 128 jets and the green corridor's lawns and play areas are a built-in kids' win in the city centre

the tourist train up to Castle Hill, the waterfall and playground at the top, and the whole bay laid out below