Nize, near the border with Italy, in the department of Marine the Alps.
Historically Nize belongs to France solely from aims of s XIX, having be previously a community related to Italy. A part of the local population conserves the nicense or niçart (niçois, or nizzardo) a variety of dialecto of the similar Provençal occitano to the Monegasque derived from italianoligur and influenced by the French and the Spanish.
At the moment bigger city by number of inhabitants of France is 5ª and its Nice-Côte airport d'Azur is the second with greater traffic of the Gallic country. One is an eminently tourist city attracting specially tourist British, Nordics and Americans. In 1990 the population of the city was of 345 700 inhabitants, reaching the 933 080 inhabitants in all the urban area in the 1999 census.
The city of Nize is located in the Mediterranean in a level Straits limited by the mountainous bulk of Mercantour. The city limits the West with the valley of the Var and the east by the Borón mount. The city counts on two small normally dry rivers in summer. The Paillon, to the east between Nize and the Var and the Magnan to the east, much more small and that crosses downtown. His last kilometers it is transformed into an underground river. Several hills dominate the city, most well-known of them is the hill of Cimiez with their Roman ruins. The hill of the Château separates the city of the port.
In the architectonic wealth of Nize (nowadays it is the fifth bigger city of the Gallic country), the wealth of its past can also be appraised; to travel by its historical center, located between the coastal line, the park Him Chateau and boulevard Jean Jaures, is to journey its medieval past, in which they emphasize his famous pointed arcs. With its ocher tile roofs to two waters, the city has not only the enchantment of its diverse architecture in styles, from the medieval one - happening through gothic and the baroque one to the Renaissance one, but the flavor of the gastronomical tradition in its multiple third-rate cafes and small restaurants.
Closely together of the House of Opera, we found the well-known zone Him Cours Saleya with its third-rate cafes and small restaurants, Monday becomes a market of antiguedades, and as the changing scene of a theater transforms the following days into a market of flowers and fruits, great unfolding of kindness of the Mediterranean climate.
Between Him Cours Saleya and the coastal line can be lowered by the street Them Pochettes in which beautiful buildings of century XIX are appraised, many turned today art galleries. Nize has three seats that the tourist must visit, and not far is the Seat of San Agustín where one of the oldest churches of the city is located, the church of San Martin and San Agustín in whom a beautiful Representation of the Mercy of century XV can be admired. The Seat of San Francisco dates from century XVI, and in this one it can enjoy the boisterous spectacle of fish and seafood and admire the architecture of the Old Hotel of Ville, in which today stock-market of Work works. Nevertheless, the route by the historical center does not finish until arriving at the church of San Jacobo Mayor, most beautiful example of the architecture barroca of century XVII, constructed by the Company of Jesus.