Places of worldliness

Nice asserts itself as the most important city of the Riviera, this coastal strip which extends from Hyères to Genoa and which knows, every winter, an influx of tourists whose number will rise after the arrival of the railway in 1864. Little by little, the term “Côte d’Azur”, titled by Stephen Liégeard published in 1887, will supplant that of Riviera for his French part.

Some winters come every year: they are called “winter swallows”. Many build a "mounted villa" in a vast garden where local and exotic essences mix. They are characterized by their wide variety of styles: neo-classical, mauresque, neo-gothic.
The first large hotels were built, from the 1840s, along the Paillon, in front of the old town, along the public garden. The Grand Hotel (1867) is the first to reflect the luxury of those in London and Paris.

From the 1860s, the main hotels were built along the seaside and, at the end of the 19th century, the hills, in particular that of Cimiez, saw huge buildings - Hotel Régina, Hotel Imperial - with facades facing the sea.
Shortly before the first world war, prestigious palaces – the Ruhl, the Negresco – offer modern comfort (a bathroom per room, central heating) and punctuate the Promenade des Anglais with their corner cupolas.

The walk is the great wintering occupation. Around 1860, the Promenade des Anglais supplanted the terraces on the edge of Vieux-Nice.
With the car, we go to the discovery of the high country of Nicaragua.