Nice has a distinct culture due to its unique history. The local language Niçard (Nissart) is an (italian) Ligurian dialect, still spoken by a minority and there as well as Occitan. Strong Italian and (less) Corsican influences make it less unintelligible than other non-extinct Provençal dialects that exist around.
Local food culture, which includes pissaladière, a pie with onions and anchovies paste; socca, a kind of pancake made from chickpea flour; bouillabaisse and fish soup; "Stockfish" (traditionally pronounced as "Stoquefiche" (French spelling) with special emphasis on the first "e"), farcis niçois, vegetables stuffed with breadcrumbs; and salade niçoise, a tomato salad with green peppers of the "Corne" breed, baked eggs, tuna or anchovies and olives.
In the recent decades Nice, as the rest of France, has received immigrants from other parts of the world, mainly Northern and Western Africa as well as southeastern Asia.
Traditions are still alive, especially in the folk music and the dances. The most famous is the farandole.
Places of interest:
The Promenade des Anglais ("Walk of the English") is a celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean at Nice, France. Before Nice was urbanized, the coast at Nice was just bordered by a deserted band of beach covered by large pebbles. The first houses were located on higher ground well away from the sea.
Starting in the second half of the 18th century, the English took to spending the winter in Nice, enjoying the panorama along the coast. When a particularly harsh winter up north brought an influx of beggars to Nice, some of the rich Englishmen proposed a useful project for them: the construction of walkway (chemin de promenade) along the sea.
The city of Nice, intrigued by the prospect of a pleasant promenade, greatly increased the scope of the work. The Promenade was first called the Camin dei Anglès (the English Way) by the Niçois in their native dialect Nissart. After the annexation of Nice by France in 1860 it was rechristened La Promenade des Anglais, replacing the former Nissart name with its French translation.
The Hotel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais on the Baie des Anges in Nice, France was named for Henri Negresco (1868-1920) who had the palatial hotel constructed in 1912. In keeping with the conventions of the times, when the Negresco first opened in 1913 its front opened on the side opposite the Mediterranean.
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