Nice - Cours Saleya Market

An Italian atmosphere - Nice did not become French until 1860 - pervades the Cours Saleya, a long plain square without any real "sights" (even if in 1796 Napoleon, then Chief Commander of the Italian army, resided in the house on the southwestern corner). Known for its flower market (Tuesday to Sunday mornings), its attraction really lies in the richness of Nice's daily life. The market offers all the things which go to make up the cuisine of the Côte d'Azur, from Nice olives, sheep's cheese and home-gathered mushrooms to fish. The obligatory junk market is held on Mondays. Here fashionable young people and peasant women converge and it is again possible to hear the "lenga nissarda", a mixture of French and the Italian dialect of the Riviera, which is once again being taught in the schools. The flat roof of the "Ponchettes" (the double row of houses between Cours Saleya and Quai des Etats-Unis), which is several hundred meters long, is unfortunately not accessible; from there it would be possible to look across the Baie des Anges over to Antibes, and even to make out Corsica on a clear day.

The trilogy "The Bay of Angels", in which Max Gallo describes the story of an Italian immigrant family in Nice, was written in the yellow Baroque-style house on the east side of the Cours.