Ochre and cream buildings with shuttered windows line a tight grid of lanes that runs straight down to a pebble beach.
What Vieux Nice looks like
The street grid dates from a 1624 plan, a tight run of pedestrianized lanes narrow enough for a production to close with a handful of signs. Buildings rise four to six storeys, their rendered facades in red and yellow ochre, with shuttered windows and carved stone lintels over some doorways.
runs from the Ponchettes side of the quarter up toward the old Pairoliere bastion, narrow and shadowed between the same ochre rendered walls. The stands partway along it, a Baroque facade set between taller apartment blocks, its bell tower built in exposed brick and its roof tiled in the glazed Genoese style.
is the old town's own enclosed square, fully pedestrianized, with red and yellow ochre buildings on every side and restaurant tables filling the open ground. The , consecrated in 1699, stands along one edge. , the quarter's former coppersmiths street, runs between Place Saint-Francois and Place Garibaldi at its north end.
runs parallel to the sea a block south, its stalls selling flowers, produce and antiques through the day. The lanes behind it run straight down to the and the pebble beach below it, the quarter's edge before the Promenade des Anglais continues west.
Shot in Vieux Nice
Mascarade's flower buying scene was shot at Cours Saleya, with a chase scene along the old town's waterfront and a bench scene on the hill just above it. Both film versions of La Promesse de l'aube, Jules Dassin's in 1970 and Eric Barbier's in 2017, used the Quai des Ponchettes for scenes drawn from Romain Gary's own novel about his adolescence in Nice. Un sac de billes and Brillantissime also shot scenes at Cours Saleya.
La Promesse de l'aube, 1970 and 2017
Both versions of La Promesse de l'aube used the Quai des Ponchettes for scenes drawn from Romain Gary's own novel about his adolescence in Nice. The quay runs along the old town's south edge, with the Ponchettes beach directly below it before the Promenade des Anglais continues west. Street View
Genoa's Centro storico shares the same Genoese building tradition that shaped Vieux Nice under the House of Savoy, with tall rendered buildings and narrow alleys opening onto small squares. Genoa's own lanes run taller and darker than Vieux Nice's, some barely wide enough for two people. A wider lens flattens the gap between the two. Try searching narrow alleys opening onto squares now.
Le Panier shares Vieux Nice's pastel rendered facades and shuttered windows, with vaulted passageways over the old port below. Le Panier climbs a hillside where Vieux Nice stays flat, so a wide or aerial frame gives away the slope. Its street art also needs dressing out for an earlier period. Try searching pastel rendered facades now.
La Barceloneta is a gridded fishermen's quarter on a sandy point, originally capped at two storeys so every house kept its sea breeze. The same straight grid and beach frontage make it a match for Vieux Nice. Barceloneta's height cap lifted in 1837, so many blocks now run taller than Vieux Nice's four to six storeys. Its buildings are plastered in flatter, more uniform tones too, so a close shot on the facades holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching gridded fishermen's quarter now.
.jpg)
