26 DEPARTURES TRAVEL
26 DEPARTURES TRAVEL RIVIERA REVELS A New Surge of Niçois Style Things are heating up in Nice as a fresh assortment of offerings – from a colossal art installation to gussied-up home-style cuisine – blends the old and the new to brilliant effect. by Lanie Goodman “HIGH NOON IS superb but frightening,” wrote master colourist Henri Matisse in 1918, describing the dazzling luminosity of Nice, where the artist spent most of his life painting carefully assembled dreamscapes – models languorously draped on armchairs, surrounded by fruit, flowers and window views of the palm-fringed Promenade des Anglais and the turquoise sea. And some things never change – the shimmering 300-days-of-sunshine intensity, the glowing red and yellow-ochre façades of the Italianate architecture in Nice’s Old Town, or the Anantara Plaza Nice’s idyllic rooftop bar gentle swoosh of lapping waves when they hit the grey beach pebbles. But now, over a century later, France’s fifth most populous city (whose recently cranked-up status as a Unesco World Heritage Site drew seven million tourists last year) is still humming with a surge of cliché-busting energy. © ANANTARA PLAZA NICE
Meanwhile in Saint- Jean-Cap-Ferrat ... Set back in the subtropical gardens of the GRAND-HÔTEL DU CAP-FERRAT, A FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, the new Provençal-style private villas – the five-bedroom Villa Beauchamp and two-bedroom Villa Clair Soleil, designed by Sybille de Margerie, are ideal for friends or families, each with pools, deck terraces, and all the comforts of the hotel’s ultra-professional services. fourseasons.com FROM LEFT: © LE GRAND-HÔTEL DU CAP-FERRAT, A FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, GUNNAR KNECHTEL / LAIF And happily, everything – from the gorgeously restored landmark hotels to convivial small bistros helmed by inventive young chefs – feels deliciously bling-free and vrai. Add to that an effervescent cultural scene, plus a sleek red electric tram with whimsical sound-designed jingles and contemporary-art installations at every stop. Even after dark, the city’s main square, Place Masséna, is an arresting sight: entitled Conversation in Nice by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa, there are seven illuminated fibreglass figures mounted on 10-metre poles (think jelly babies on a stick), that slowly change colour, from fuchsia, cobalt, emerald and orange. With a hefty €100m municipal budget for massive renovations, the spruce-up is slowly changing the landscape, beginning with a new National Theatre housed in a 13th-century restored Franciscan convent. “We have ten museums, an extraordinary opera, and a rich architectural heritage, from Genoese baroque palaces to Belle Époque villas,” says Robert Roux, Nice’s deputy mayor in charge of culture. “That’s pretty rare for a seaside town.” But unlike its glitzy neighbours, Monaco and Cannes, Nice’s distinctive allure stems from its earthy back-tothe-roots spirit, now officialised by the recently awarded cuisine nissarde label for traditional cooking; the terroir cuisine (a nod to the Italian peasant farmers and flower growers who arrived in droves at the turn of the century) showcases some of the humblest vegetables, like Swiss chard (blettes), which grows wild on the nearby hillsides. There are, in fact, two versions of the traditional flakycrusted square tarte de blettes – one savoury and one sweet, spiked with raisins, rum and pine nuts and dusted with powdered sugar. And should you wish to try another Niçois speciality, go ahead and order merda de can (dog turds), Swiss chard and potato conically shaped into green gnocchi with tapered ends. No one will bat an eye – call it bon enfant humour, but that’s really what they’re called. At apéro hour, out come the plates of pissaladière – a slowly simmered caramelised onion and anchovy tart – and socca, Nice’s addictive finger food, a big paper-thin pancake made with chickpea flour and olive oil, sprinkled with a load of black pepper. Over by the port – Nice’s trendy neighbourhood lined with cafes, shops and galleries – is the new-kid-on-theblock Michelin-starred restaurant Les Agitateurs (lesagitateurs.com). Headed by a trio of wildly experimental chefs, you dine on unique combos of “vegetal poetry”, fish and meats, concocted with the finest ingredients. Further down the street, on the pedestrian-zone Rue Bonaparte (across from young Napoleon’s former digs) is Peixes (peixes.fr), an ultra-stylish ceviche eatery featuring oysters, or fresh tuna, scallops or swordfish carpaccio and tasty desserts. Come sunset, head to the nearby antiques district and soak up the local atmosphere at the lively wine bar Rouge (rouge-restaurant.fr), stocked with an impressive variety of top-notch natural and local vintages delicious small plates to share, from barbajuans (fried ravioli stuffed with cheese and … Swiss chard!) to copious platters of charcuterie. In the labyrinthine Left: the stately new Villa Beauchamp at Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat; above: white-fish ceviche with sweet-potato purée and crunchy corn at Peixes 27
