"Keeweechic's Nice" a Nice Travel Page by keeweechic

Nice, the pearl of the French Riviera, is a busy commercial city and the capital of the Alpes Maritimes department. Nonetheless, beauty, a wonderful climate and affable citizens helps to keep its charm and year-round appeal intact. Nice, the 5th largest city in France, is on the Mediterranean Sea in southeast France, near Monaco and the Italian border. The climate is mild and subtropical. The town was founded no later than 350 BC and it is thought that Carnival's "Battle of the Flowers" began then. Later it was a Roman resort, becoming part of Provence in Medieval times. It passed to Savoy and Italy, then to France in the 19th century. As early as the 18th century, English tourism was making Nice an international resort.

Everything seems accentuated in Nice, the light is so bright, the pine trees are green and the blue shades of the Mediterranean Sea and the sky is stunning. All set down in a natural setting of rocks and hills - a true inspiration for artists, painters, writers, sculptors, musicians, who contributed to Nice's fame and who are paid tribute to in the museums of Nice. The tourist trade was born in Nice in the eighteenth century with the winter holidays of famous aristocrats, first English, than Russian and Americans who gave to the region a lively and fashionable way of life.

Today, the tourist industry is the first economical activity of Nice. Nice has been acknowledged as the first town of France for its beautiful gardens and glorious trees.