Plage de la Promenade des Anglais

The Promenade des Anglais runs along the Baie des Anges for about seven kilometres, from the airport to the old town of Nice. The beach beneath it is a continuous bank of grey pebble, divided into public sections and private concessions, and reached by steps down from the walk.

The promenade came first and the beach followed it into fame. English visitors wintering in Nice funded a coastal path in the 1820s, and the name stuck; through the nineteenth century the seafront filled with hotels and the habit of the seaside walk was established here as much as anywhere in Europe. The Riviera as a concept was substantially invented on this stretch of road.

The shore is worn pebble, not sand — a fact that surprises visitors and is worth knowing before arrival. The stones are smooth and the water is exceptionally clear precisely because there is no sand to cloud it. The bottom shelves quickly, which makes for good swimming and poor paddling, and rubber shoes make the entry considerably easier.

Development is a city front rather than a resort: hotels along the promenade including the Negresco, a cycle lane, and around fifteen private beach concessions renting loungers between free public sections. The walk is used continuously by the city — runners at dawn, families in the evening — in a way that the beach itself is not. The distinction between the sections is worth learning before you arrive: Beau Rivage and Castel are private and charged, Ponchettes and Opéra are free and busiest, and the quieter free stretches sit toward the airport end where the hotels thin out.

Seven kilometres of promenade paid for by English visitors in 1822 and pebble beach below it that surprises everyone. The blue chairs are municipal and free. On 14 July 2016 a lorry was driven along this promenade and eighty-six people were killed; the memorial is at the eastern end and the city does not hide it.