Nice is quietly becoming the coolest destination on the French Riviera

livemint.com:

Looking for the sexiest, most fun-loving destination in France this summer? Avert your eyes from Saint-Tropez and look farther east to Nice, dismissed for too long as a retirement community for Europe’s aristocracy. You’ll still spot plenty of heavily tanned white-haired people walking alarmingly over-groomed dogs on the famous seaside Promenade des Anglais. These days, however, they’re joined by joggers, skateboarders and cyclists taking advantage of the countless new bike lanes that have been created since 2008.

Early risers can catch the fruit-and-vegetable vendors setting up their stalls in the open-air Cours Saleya food market as they have for centuries, but those early birds will also come across residents practicing yoga on mats rolled out over the gray pebbles of the city’s main beach. Nice’s new energy has been a long time coming. Queen Victoria often fled London’s fog for the year-round sunshine of Nice, quickly making it the most fashionable winter destination for the British aristocracy during the 19th century.

Since then, the dial of style on the French Riviera, which runs from Saint-Tropez east along the Mediterranean coastline to Menton on the Italian border, has fluctuated a lot. From Nice, the action went west to Antibes during the 1920s, when summering in the South of France became fashionable, then turned to Cannes a couple of decades later after the film festival took off. Most recently it’s been set to Saint-Tropez, a hot spot for bling, nightlife and Instagrammers who love both.

But in recent years, Nice has been quietly making a comeback. I first visited Nice with a group of fellow backpackers in the 1970s. We admired the faded pastel-painted Belle Epoque villas, visited the Chagall and Matisse