Photographs by Joao Bizarro.
Nice, capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department of on the Riviera, is France’s second most-visited city, but somehow in recent years it had started to lose its mojo.
Suddenly, at least so it feels, that’s all changed. With a dynamic mayor, Christian Estrosi, at the helm – a former French motorcycle champion, enjoying his second term in office – the city is on a no-holds-barred upward trajectory. With significant investment in infrastructure, renovation of its historic old town and major upgrades to its transportation networks – such as the tramway extension connecting the airport to the city center – along with new environmental sustainability initiatives and the enhancement of green spaces, the city is on a roll. Not since Queen Victoria vacationed there in the late 19th century has there been a better time to visit this jewel.
And riding the wave,,or perhaps helping to propel it, a clutch of five-star hotels, each with its own particular take on style and luxury, has recently launched in the city. Indeed, when I recently checked-in at the new Maison Albar – Le Victoria (named not for the British queen and empress but for a fifth-generation member of the hotel’s owning family), I felt instinctively that high-end luxury along with lashings of fun was going to be on the cards. With Gucci, Chanel and Saint-Laurent for neighbors and an entire security detail on the sidewalk outside the front door, what feels like a relatively small boutique hotel (100 rooms) has all the trappings of a full-on, six-star establishment.
Whisked up to the second-floor front desk, the counter itself a thing of great beauty – pale walnut wood with mother-of-pearl inlay – I oohed and aahed at those gorgeous terrazzo floors with inlaid marble, and the dreamy daybeds in the reception area that would make you want to lie down and go to sleep right there if you weren’t about to be shown to a very lovely room of your own.
Mine boasted a black, cream and gray color palette, with a nod to Art Deco. It was a chic, uncluttered space with a superb, unrestricted view of the Mediterranean Sea, an arresting mid-blue against a deep cobalt sky – that classic, unparalleled meeting of the Mediterranean “blues.” All sea-facing rooms have balconies, by the way.
Nothing “blue” however, about Maison Albar – Le Victoria. I don’t think anyone could ever be anything less than euphoric here, even for a moment. Up on the sixth floor, with its 360-degree panoramic views, both the restaurant and bar have doors opening onto one of Nice’s most scrumptious roof terraces, complete with one of the city’s most beautiful hotel swimming pools.
While I tend to be neutral about hotel restaurants, no matter how good they are, I’m afraid I’m going to wax embarrassingly lyrical about Maison Albar – Le Victoria’s. It’s called Taulissa, and is helmed by 3-Michelin-star chef Glen Viel and his associate, Fred Grava. Their shtick, if I can call it that, is to take the highest caliber dishes and then “rusticize” them, which is to say, to take the most exquisite ingredients and then serve them as if they were something you’d eat at home around the kitchen table. The result is that eating there is incredibly relaxed, nothing and no-one is stuffy, everything is democratized.
They are also masters of texture, taking artichokes or parsnips, say, and preparing them three different ways within the same dish, giving the humblest ingredients star status. Although I shy away from superlatives in restaurant reviewing, I have to say that the dish of slow-cooked ribs with mashed potato and parsnips I ate there was one for the ages, an all-time showstopper.
My nearest and dearest are always telling me I should get out more, so in Nice I did. According to the time of year you choose to visit, Nice is a veritable kaleidoscope of activity – social, cultural and sporting. In addition to superb museums and galleries, it also offers world-class seasonal opera and year-round musical performances at the city’s enchanting opera house; the self-explanatory early summer Pride de Nice; a mid-summer jazz festival; and a two weeks-long carnival in February / March, the most important winter event on the Côte d’Azur and the premier international carnival in France.
A tour by cavaleta, an ecologically friendly pedicab similar to an Asian tuk-tuk, with its driver as your guide, is a great way to learn about the city. My driver, Christophe, reminded me that Nice has only been part of France since 1860, surrendered then by Italy, and pointed out how the second-floor windows and shutters on the lovely Place Garibaldi are in fact trompe l’oeil, not real at all, a trick of the eye.
The city is also the perfect base from which to explore the towns and resorts that dot the French Riviera, names like Villefranche, Beaulieu and Menton to the east, and Antibes, Cannes and St. Tropez to the west – all of them conjuring up their own particular romance.
Back at Maison Albar – Le Victoria, I enjoyed luxuriating in the Oria spa, where they pamper you with Tuscan “Seed to Skin” products, and drinking my espresso shots at the hotel’s light-filled Café Victoria. I also enjoyed climbing the almost hidden, circular staircase as well as descending its 30 marble steps to the reception level, a good alternative to the elevator – one of those elevators where you touch your key card to the monitor to determine the floor you’re going to before you enter. Not that I minded that particularly, but I must say Maison Albar’s elevators had a mind of their own.
Technology’s great up to a point but I did have a literally “alarming” experience when I “touched” my key card one afternoon. Innocently pressing the number for my room floor, the monitor started belting out “Access denied, Access denied” for the entire first floor – full of people at the time – to hear. I anticipated imminent arrest.
Oh well, stuff happens as they say, even in the best-run establishments. And sometimes that “stuff,” too, is part of the fun.
Jeremy Wayne is a luxury travel adviser with Superior Travel of New York. Contact him at jeremy@superiortravel.com.
