Museum / Gallery Sights in Nice

The area around the Cote d'Azur is rich in prehistoric artefacts, many of which can be found in this fascinating museum.

Just outside Saint-Paul de Vence lies one of France's most famous modern and contemporary art museums. Surrounded by pleasant gardens, this is a nice place to spend your afternoon.

In 1617, the Duke of Guise gave Jean de Bellon the task of building a fort intended to block sea access to Cannes. Constructed between 1624 and 1627 on the site of remains that dated back to Roman antiquity, at the time it was nothing more than a simple fortified house.

Located in the Baumettes neighbourhood, this Fine Arts museum is housed in an impressive 19th-century villa and contains an important collection of paintings and sculptures.

The sculptor, Antoniucci Volti, was born in Italy in 1915 but his family lived in Villefranche-sur-Mer. His collection is housed in the town's 16th-century citadel.

A small collection of some of Matisse's works and items from his own personal collection and that of his descendants are housed in an impressive 17th century Genoese mansion.

Museum charting the history of transport in the area, with lots of old vehicles to look at. Located in an old rail warehouse in Breil.

This museum moved to its current location in 1989 though it has been open since 1960. It houses a variety of objects, from ancient times to the Middle Ages, including the Roman town of Cemenelum.

The world-famous painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir lived at La Ferme des Collettes with his family from 1907 until his death in 1919. Renoir moved to Cagnes-Sur-Mer in the hopes that the warm climate would improve his arthritis, which eventually confined him to a wheelchair. The house in which he spent the last 12 years of his life is set in a beautiful estate full of citrus and olive trees, looking out along the coastline all the way to way to the Cap d’Antibes.

Grasse is the world capital of perfumes. At this museum you can discover the ancient tradition of parfumerie and learn how to create your own, unique scent.

Chateau Grimaldi may take you somewhat by surprise if you are expecting the usual historical museum experience - it also holds regular exhibitions of contemporary art and isn’t afraid of displaying bizarre and sometimes challenging installations. The artworks are incongruous in such a traditional context and the collection changes regularly, so you never know quite what you’re going to get when you visit!

With items from prehistoric times, and fine arts and decorative arts from as early as the 17th century, all the way up to the first half of the 20th century.

The museum of palaeontology is located on the excavation site of the Terra Amata where there is evidence of human inhabitation going back 400,000 years.

This museum was created to protect one of the most important petroglyph sites in Europe, in the Merveilles Valley (valley of Wonders).

This historic perfume factory is in the heart of the Old Town and is one of the oldest in Grasse, constructed in 1782.

Located in the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, this museum houses more than 45,000 objects ad 400,000 dedicated to all sports, showing their history from the Antiquity to the present.

A few months before his death in 1955, artist Fernand Léger acquired a farmhouse at the foot of the village of Biot. It was here that his widow Nadia Leger, decided to create a museum to honour him and showcase his life's work.

The museum of modern and contemporary art was opened in 1990 and features artworks from the 1960s to the present day.