---
node: spot_nice_vieux_nice
type: spot
slug: vieux_nice
destination: dest_nice
title: "Vieux Nice"
lead: "Vieux Nice is the tangle of ochre lanes between the castle hill and the promenade, laid out when Nice belonged to Savoy rather than France. It is where the city eats, and where socca is sold from copper pans."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_nice_vieux_nice.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0519_-France_-_Nice_-_Corner_Rue_de_l%27Abbaye_and_Rue_Saint_Vincent_-_looking_up_-_HDR_-_VP.jpg"
image_author: "Virtual-Pano"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

Nice was Savoyard until 1860, and the old town reads as Ligurian: tall narrow houses, painted shutters, baroque churches and washing across the streets. Sainte-Réparate cathedral and the Palais Lascaris, a seventeenth-century mansion with a musical instrument collection, are the set pieces. Streets are barely wide enough for two people, which keeps the cars out.

## Highlights

Eat socca — chickpea flour pancake, served hot and peppered, standing up. The Cours Saleya market fills the eastern edge every morning. Come in the evening, when the lanes cool and fill, rather than at midday when the tour groups pass through.