Your Paris to Nice Ville train travel starts here

Nice (, NEESS; French pronunciation: ​[nis]; Niçard Occitan: Niça, classical norm, or Nissa, nonstandard, pronounced [ˈnisa]; Italian: Nizza [ˈnittsa]; Greek: Νίκαια; Latin: Nicaea) is the seventh most populous urban area in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes departmentThe metropolitan area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of about 1 million on an area of 721 km2 (278 sq mi)Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and the second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after MarseilleNice is approximately 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the principality of Monaco and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the French-Italian borderNice's airport serves as a gateway to the region. The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.

The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire 380,000 years agoAround 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victoryThrough the ages, the town has changed hands many timesIts strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strengthFor centuries it was a dominion of Savoy, and was then part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia until its re-annexation by France in 1860. The natural environment of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.

Paris (French pronunciation: ​[paʁi]) is the capital and most populous city of France, with a population of 2,148,271 residents (official estimate, 1 January 2020) in an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles)Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and artsThe City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2020 population of 12,278,210, or about 18 percent of the population of FranceThe Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva.

Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.The city is a major railway, highway and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle (the second busiest airport in Europe) and Paris-OrlyOpened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily; it is the second busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow MetroGare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, but the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was among most visited art museums in the world in 2019, with 9.6 million visitorsThe Musée d'Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet, and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, and the Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso exhibit the works of the two noted Parisians.

The historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, and popular landmarks in the city centre included the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, now closed for renovation after the 15 April 2019 fireOther popular tourist sites include the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre. Paris received 24.5 million visitors in 2018, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and ChinaIt was ranked as the second most visited travel destination in the world in 2018, after BangkokThe football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in ParisThe 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis.