Cimiez

What you gain

• ↑The Matisse Museum holds the finest collection of Henri Matisse's work outside Paris: 68 paintings, 200 drawings, and hundreds of prints in the 17th-century Villa des Arènes — the museum is undervisited relative to its significance and rarely has queues
• ↑The Roman ruins at Cimez (1st–4th century AD) include baths and an amphitheatre that hosted jazz festivals for decades — the setting of Roman arches against the Mediterranean light is among the finest in France
• ↑The monastery garden of the Franciscan Monastery is the finest elevated garden in Nice: rose beds, the cloister walk, and a panoramic viewpoint taking in the old town, the promenade, and on clear days the Alps

What you sacrifice

• ↓Cimiez requires either a taxi or the bus to reach from Vieux-Nice: the hill makes walking from the seafront a 30-minute uphill journey rather than a casual stroll
• ↓Accommodation options are limited to boutique properties at premium prices — most visitors base elsewhere and visit Cimiez as a half-day excursion