In 1860, the County of Nice – including the city of Nice, obviously – was ceded to France by the Italian Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in exchange for France’s support during the (failed, mostly) Second War of Italian Independence. The Treaty of Turin between Victor Emmanuel II and Napoleon III made the southern city and its surrounding area part of France, although a plebiscite to finalize it (which passed with 83% of the vote) included a high-pressure campaign by both French and Italian authorities.
Italian was phased out, French phased in. About a quarter of the 45,000 or so inhabitants of Nice left, moving back to the Italian kingdoms. And France found itself with a new – largely unspoiled – segment of Mediterranean coast.
In 1870, Napoleon III was defeated (and captured) by the Prussians, ending his reign and the Second French Empire, giving way the following year to the Third Republic. And with that new period of French democracy, an era of intense optimism, enlightenment, peace, and economic prosperity was ushered in. This was the Belle Epoque.
What we now think of as Nice is truly a product of the Belle Epoque. Building programs focused on beauty? Check. Art and culture? Check. Economic prosperity? Check. And best of all, the period of the Belle Epoque, basically from 1871 to the start of World War One – nothing ends a good time like a yearslong terrible war – is easy to see in Nice today. So let’s take these aspects of this exciting era one at a time, and how best to experience them, to gain for yourself a little bit of that remarkable spirit on your trip here.
The easiest thing to see is Nice’s ambitious beautification and building program. By the time the dust had settled on the handover of the area to France, the city had about 30,000 residents. That’s not tiny for the end of the nineteenth century, by any means, but certainly not a major population center. But in true French Belle Epoque fashion, even a small city like Nice would get some major architectural projects.
Every French city worth its salt needs a Notre Dame. (Seriously, it’s truly a thing.) Well, now that Nice was French, it was no exception. One of the first Belle Epoque openings was Notre Dame de Nice, a basilica opened in 1879. It is done in a similar fashion to its famous cousin in Paris, with two towers on the front facade, although it is significantly smaller.
Today, Notre Dame de Nice is most well known for hosting a light show inside it, and the interior as a result seems to keep pretty limited opening hours. (It was not open a single time I passed by in a month, and given its location on the way between Old Nice and the central Nice-Ville train station, that was often.)
The most famous Belle Epoque building was the symbol of Nice, the Jetee Promenade, a casino built on stilts in the Mediterranean, connected to the oceanfront promenade by a bridge. It opened in 1883, and was considered one of the most beautiful buildings in all of France, let alone in Nice. Sadly, it was destroyed in 1944 during World War Two, but photos are quite literally all over the city, including one in my own Airbnb.
The push for tourism that led to the Jetee Promenade is one of the easiest ways to see Belle Epoque Nice. Some of that is simply in the effort to beautify the beachfront, with the establishment of Nice’s series of quays and beaches. Each has a slightly different feel, like the Opera Quay and Beach fronting Old Nice, or the cafe lined Plage de Carras. But all feature a level pedestrian promenade, beach access, and plenty of seating for the most popular Belle Epoque-inspired activity: sunset watching.
Tourists flocked here during the Belle Epoque (and have never stopped) due to a two-pronged advertising approach employed by France. First was to attract wealthy French citizens from elsewhere in the country. For that, heroes of the French past had their names borrowed, most specifically Andre Massena. Born in Nice (so it isn’t like he was not associated with the city at all) in 1758 – when it was still part of Piedmont-Sardinia – Massena was one of Napoleon’s (the original, not the more recent iteration) most trusted military commanders, serving all the way to 1817. Given his popularity (despite returning to being a republic, First Empire Napoleonic figures were still incredibly well thought of) and his connection to the city, Nice named all sorts of things for him, like the city’s central square, Place Massena. The campaign was so successful that Victor Massena, the marshal’s grandson, relocated here, building a large Belle Epoque villa right on the beachfront promenade.
Today, Musee Massena protects both the villa itself, and one of the most important collections of empire (both fist and second) artifacts in existence, many of which were passed down in the Massena family. This includes personal effects of some of Napoleon’s generals, some of Empress Josephine’s jewels, original copies of Napoleon III’s proclamation of French control over Nice, military honors from a wide assortment of characters, portraits, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s actual desk mask.
It is a dizzying romp through French history, and one that easily makes this the best historical museum in Nice.
But the Musee Massena is also an archive to the second prong of Nice’s Belle Epoque tourism outreach: that to foreigners. Posters were made – some by well-known artists – advertising the area. New terminology was born, with the first recorded uses of both “French Riviera” and “Cote d’Azur” coming in this period.
And it worked. Not only did tourists flock to the region, but some of the most influential people made this a retreat. Queen Victoria was a huge fan of Nice, and the museum includes some of her effects, as well as those of the Russian Romanov dynasty.
That latter family was so connected to Nice (the eldest son of Tsar Alexander II and heir to the throne actually died here – of meningitis) that Nicholas II furnished the funds for one of the most ornate Russian Orthodox cathedrals outside of Russia to be built here. St. Nicolas Cathedral opened in 1912 to support the large Russian expat and tourist populations, as well as the Romanov family itself, that liked to winter here in Nice.
And of course, what would the Belle Epoque be without art? While most of the more famous masters who came here did so after the end of World War One, those are just the more well-known names. (An exception is Renoir, who spent the last couple decades of his life in nearby Cagnes-Sur-Mer.) For those, we head to the city’s Belle Epoque-era Musee des Beaux Arts.
The building itself is now named for Jules Cheret, a Belle Epoque artist and art collector I had never heard of until visiting. But his use of pastels will capture any visitor with the spirit of that exciting era, and his work promoting poster art is said to have led to the commercial success of Toulouse-Lautrec, Chagall, and others.
Besides Cheret, we see Belle Epoque artists like Maurice Denis, who came to this area for the climate and beauty, and whose works have been given credit for popularizing Nice during the era.
And of course, with all of this positivity, all of the culture, all of these tourists, and all of this incredible new building, the uber-wealthy made Nice their homes, at least for part of the year. Families like the Rothschilds joined Europe’s royalty in having residences in the area. And even today, Nice and the Côte d’Azur is one of the most exclusive and expensive places to live, with enclaves like Cap Ferrat being said to be second to Monaco in price per square meter.
For those who have wondered what it might be like to live in France during the Belle Epoque, even a modern visit to Nice provides both glimpses back, and a similar lifestyle even now. Like those who flocked here during the era, we can stroll the promenade, take in the sea air and sunshine, admire the art, and feel that life here is truly wonderful. That is the Belle Epoque spirit, and it is alive and well here in Nice.
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