Parks and Gardens

Nice Côte d’Azur and its vast parks and gardens are open to the sea where tropical species, introduced in the 19th century, mingle with Mediterranean species.

A garden visit is always a moment with emotions and sensations, appreciated by all. Parks and gardens visits include in all your Nice Côte d’Azur programmes!

Promenade du Paillon – Nice

12 hectares in the heart of Nice offer walkers a very pleasant stroll. With its 1,600 trees, 6,000 shrubs and 50,000 perennials, its water features and mirrors, this green corridor is a link of greenery and conviviality between Old Nice, Place Masséna and the Promenade des Anglais. Mediterranean feelings and also exotic species take the visitor on a journey around the world…

Parc de la Colline du Château – Nice

Baie des Anges, the old town and the port! Once the cradle of the city, the medieval castle, although equipped with a citadel reputed to be impregnable, was unfortunately destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV in 1706. The hill that bears its name is now a public park with numerous landscape and historical attractions. Your guests will appreciate this veritable labyrinth of greenery for the freshness of its undergrowth and its surprising artificial waterfall, as well as for its ruins, the remains of the ancient 11th-century cathedral.

Parc Floral Phoenix – Nice

Facing the sea, this 7-hectare floral park, at the western entrance to Nice, has the “Remarkable Garden” label. Over 7 hectares, it offers twenty or so themed gardens. Its large 25-metre high glass pyramid (one of the largest in Europe) impresses with its plant diversity. The park also shelters animals inside and outside the greenhouse. In total, more than 2,000 animals representing 70 different species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects! Half botanical garden, half zoo, the Phoenix Park surprises by its capacity to offer a living and evolving show: that of nature!

Jardin du Monastère de Cimiez – Nice

On the hill, in the heart of a middle-class neighbourhood, it is the former vegetable garden and orchard of the monks of the Cimiez Monastery. The garden has kept its original medieval layout with its rose-covered pergolas along with the Benedictine convent and its central well. At the end of the main path, below, is a more secret garden with its ponds, flowerbeds and symmetrical paths.

Jardin Exotique – Eze

At the top of the magnificent village of Eze, a visit to the exotic garden set in the ruins of a medieval fortress is not to be missed. This hanging garden takes the visitor into the world of cacti and succulents. The panorama also extends as far as Saint-Tropez. Stunning!

Jardins Ephrussi de Rotschild – St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

The superb villa built by Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild during the Belle Époque is surrounded by nine amazing gardens: Florentine, Spanish, French, exotic, lapidary, Japanese, Provençal, rose garden and finally the Sèvres garden. The 10,000 m2 French garden, punctuated by waterfalls and flowerbeds, combines the classicism of a canal, basins dominated by a Temple of Love and a waterfall with the symmetry of palm trees and bunches of agaves. A must-see! (cover photo: OTM NCA / J.Kelagopian).

Jardins du Musée Renoir – Cagnes-sur-Mer

The garden of the Renoir Museum is planted with olive trees several hundred years old. It also includes an orange grove, a vegetable garden and a statue of the Victorious Venus, designed by Renoir and Guino at the beginning of the 20th century. Labelled as a “bird sanctuary” by the French League for the Protection of Birds, the garden is also a remarkable natural area maintained without pesticides, where a remarkable fauna lives and prospers!

Arboretum de Roure

The Marcel Kroenlein Arboretum is a high-altitude garden (between 1,200 and 1,700 metres above sea level), located in Roure, on the edge of the Mercantour National Park. An “arboretum” is a botanical garden with a collection of trees. Roure’s 17-hectare arboretum contains coniferous and deciduous trees from all over the world. In addition, it perfectly combines contemporary art and nature. 70 artists from the “No Made” collective and big names such as Sosno, Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Ben have created works on-site and then entrusted them to nature and the seasons… New works are added to the collection every year. Today, the arboretum has been awarded the “Jardin Remarquable” label and has a scientific, educational, tourist and artistic vocation.