Shopping in Nice, France

Almost everyone who has been to Nice will attest to its remarkable shopping culture. Regardless of whether your idea of great shopping is the casual street and open market shopping or at the more formalized mall and shopping center, Nice has a remedy for your shopping ills.

The main outdoor market in Nice is easy to find, located as it is in Old Nice (Vieux Nice,) near the sea. This is a remarkably well maintained and organized open air market, and is a great place to shop if you are looking for fresh produce, like vegetables and fruits, and the prices here are also very reasonable. And, while still milling around Vieux Nice, you might also consider visiting the Marche aux Fleur’s, which is converted into a flea market on Mondays.

Another good place to go shopping for fresh produce is Nice’s flower market, at Cours Saleya. Although it is called a flower market, it is a good place to find all sorts of fresh produce. The Flower market is also a great tourist haunt, so you should not be too surprised if you bump into someone from your home country while there. Its location, sandwiched between Vieux Nice and the Château, means that it receives tons of foot traffic, especially from tourists, as these two (old Nice and the Château) are some of Nice’s greatest attractions and busiest areas.  

If you are in the mood for some mall shopping in Nice, you might consider giving the city’s Cap 2000 mall a visit. Cap 2000 has shops of all sorts, ample parking and is easy to find, located on the way to – or from – the Nice airport.

For street shopping enthusiasts, one of the best places to visit is Nice’s pedestrian zone – a street which is a tourist attraction in itself. This is a place where you get to shop in peace, without the intrusion of car traffic noise that can be rampant in other places. Whether it is clothes or books or food you are shopping for, there is almost certainly a vendor for it in Nice’s pedestrian zone. Apart from Nice’s main shopping street and pedestrian zone, you should also venture into the city’s inner streets and see what they have to offer. If you get the time, visit Nice’s inner shopping streets and you will certainly be surprised at the great variety of goods and the differences in prices offered there.

All of the markets and shopping streets in Nice are lined with famed French restaurants to satisfy your hunger. Most of these cafes offer both French cuisine and exotic fare. And, for most part, French cuisines as cooked and served in France are somewhat different than what passes for French cuisine abroad, which you will surely find out by stopping in for a taste at one of Nice's fine dining establishments.