Nice, capital of the French Riviera, with nearly 300 days of sunshine per year, retains the marks of its glorious tourist past in the architecture of certain must-see neighbourhoods, such as the city center. Emblematic buildings such as the Negresco, the Palais de la Méditerranée or the Beau Rivage, large palaces, some transformed into residences where lovers of the Belle Epoque can relive a piece of history in these apartments carved out in the great suites of yesteryear.
These palaces built during the key period between 1900 and 1930, are still numerous in the center of Nice. Most of them were former homes of large bourgeois or noble families. Among these residences in the Belle Epoque or Art Deco style, we find the Palais Lamartine, Palais Meyerbeer, Le Palais l’Escurial, Palais Alphonse Karr, Palais Pauline, or even the Palais Barety. Some façades are decorated with floral and coloured mosaics, as can be seen on the La Pergola or La Rotonde building.
Mainly luxury pied-à-terre apartments, one can also find there the main residences of foreign noblemen fleeing their homeland in troubled times, as was the case of the Villa Georges, owned by Catherine Dolgorouki, Princess Yourievska, (morganatic wife of Tsar Alexander II, refugee in France following the death of her husband), divided today into residential lots within a small charming condominium.
Even today, in these converted buildings, we can still find a wide variety of apartments, from studios to very large surfaces with high ceilings and magnificent mouldings with vegetal motifs.
Whether in historic districts, such as the Carré d’Or, Les Musiciens, Dubouchage, or more recent quarters as the pedestrian zone or the Coulée verte, the heart of the city remains today one of the most popular districts for wealthy foreigners and investors seeking the ideal location above all. In general, these multi-cultural districts satisfy those who are looking for a luxury apartment surrounded by all the amenities while being close to the sea.
