Easyjet has five flights a day from Luton to Nice and also flies there from

Easyjet has five flights a day from Luton to Nice and also flies there from Gatwick from around £55 return, London Stansted, Liverpool, Newcastle from around £50 return, Bristol and (from June) Belfast.Where to stayThe Grimaldi hotel (00 33 4 93 16 00 24; ) has 46 rooms costing between €75 (£54) and €175 (£125) a night, depending on the season. The Hotel N?esco, a historical monument, provides pure luxury; the futuristic Hi Hotel features the ultimate in modern design, while the chic Windsor offers rooms individually decorated in the spirit of locally renowned artists.More to my taste was the Grimaldi, a friendly and unassuming hotel in a quiet road behind the seafront, with Vieux Nice and the Promenade des Anglais within easy walking distance. The squares are intimate rather than imposing, with only the beautifully proportioned Place du Palais on anything like a grand scale.As befits a city famous for its art – it has more galleries and museums (19 in total) than any French city outside Paris – Vieux Nice has four municipal galleries as well as art shops in almost every street. The Palais Lascaris has been converted into an art museum, while the Mus?d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, housed in an imposing modern building of marble, iron and glass, has a formidable collection of work dating from the 1960s. You need to venture outside Vieux Nice to see most of the city’s other art attractions, including the Matisse and Chagall museums, the Mus?des Beaux-Arts, the Mus?des Arts Asiatiques and the Mus?International d’Art Na?Anatole Jakovsky. Nice also has 12 theatres and a magnificent classical opera house, rebuilt after a fire in 1881.So where to stay? Paris is the only French city with more hotels and Nice challenges the capital in terms of variety and style at the upper end of the market. At the fish market in the Place St Fran?s, you might notice among the sardines and red mullet what appears to be a mound of grey sludge: poutine, which is harvested only along a short stretch of the coast between Nice and Antibes, is a mixture of baby sardines and anchovies and is used in omelettes.At the end of the road overlooking the flower market is the Cais de Pierrelas, an imposing yellow house.

Matisse lived on the third floor and no doubt drew inspiration from the hubbub below and the views over the Baie des Anges. The 17th-century Eglise de G? is the oldest Baroque church in the city, while Notre Dame de l’Annonciation is a tiny church packed with works of art. The Cath?ale Sainte-R?rate honours the city’s patron saint and overlooks the charming Place Rossetti. While chic, cool, trendy Nice has all the attractions you would expect from the capital of the C?d’Azur, none can match the atmospheric allure of the city’s historic heart.Some shops here naturally have their eye on the tourist market, but most appear to cater just as much for local tastes. Many are traditional businesses with a history in keeping with their surroundings.

I can remember them coming here when they were that age.”If a visit to Acchiardo is like having a meal at your favourite aunt and uncle’s house, it comes as no surprise to learn that it is one of a select group of restaurants awarded “cuisine nissarde” status by the local tourist authorities. “Nissarde” is the Nice dialect’s version of “ni?s” (as in “salade ni?se”) and in this case refers as much to the ambiance as to the cuisine. “Restaurants need to capture the spirit of Nice as well as its flavour,” says Val?e Malbec of the Nice tourist office. “The intimate atmosphere is all part of the experience.”Lyon is the only other French city with a similar classification system. And if Nice cannot match the culinary sophistication of France’s gastronomic capital, it makes up for it with the freshness and simplicity of its cuisine, featuring fish in all shapes and sizes, tastebud-tingling a?i, deep-red tomato sauces and vegetables and fruit bursting with Mediterranean sunshine. The style is a cross between proven? and Italian.Acchiardo typifies the homely and unpretentious attractions of Vieux Nice, a spider’s web of narrow alleys and streets (mostly car-free) nestling beneath the Colline du Ch?au, the hill at the heart of the city.