Promenade des Anglais is the symbol of Nice, the main and most glamorous artery of the city, the most famous French boulevard outside Paris.
The six-kilometre promenade stretches from the airport to the Promenade des Eta-Uni, repeating the curve of the bay with the charming name "Bay of Angels". According to one legend, the bay is so named because of the "sea angels" - flat-bodied sharks with fins like wings. According to another, the angels pointed out to Adam and Eve, who were expelled from paradise, the shore here, so similar to Eden.
In the XVIII century, this paradise corner was especially loved by wealthy Englishmen - they spent winters here. One particularly harsh winter brought a lot of beggars from the north to warm Nice, and the British gave them a job - to build a road along the sea for walking. Thus a seafront arose, which the city extended and enlarged. After the annexation of Nice by France in 1860, the promenade was named Promenade des Anglais.
The locals call it Promenade or Prom for short. People walk along the Prom both in the daytime and in the evening by the light of the lanterns, which at the same time serve as a landmark for planes approaching Nice airport. You can ride along the promenade on a small white tourist train, you can hire a bicycle, but the best way to walk along the main street of the resort town is to walk slowly - as members of the Russian imperial family, Anton Chekhov, Scott Fitzgerald or Friedrich Nietzsche once walked here. Past the Mediterranean Palace in the Art Deco style (recently restored former casino - now in this building is a hotel, but there is also a casino), past the Historical Museum in the Palais Massena, past the pinkish dome of the luxurious hotel "Negresco" (among the many celebrities who stayed in it - Ernest Hemingway, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel) ...
If a tourist wants to swim, it is easy to do it: not wide pebble beach begins just behind the embankment. True, on its free sections of no amenities will not be found - no cabins for changing, no shower, no toilet. All this and more sunbeds, umbrellas, waiters with snacks and drinks and sometimes even sand instead of stones can be obtained on the paid (not cheap) sections of the beach.
However, the most pleasant pastime on the English embankment is to sit and look at the sparkling bay. Henri Matisse said that the sea in Nice has an incredible, fantastic colour. To admire the sea here, in addition to the usual white benches, there are the famous blue chairs. The tradition of putting blue chairs began in 1950, and since then both locals and tourists have become so accustomed to them that when in 2003 they tried to remove them, the public was outraged. People take photos in them or just relax in them after lunch, just as Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene once did. True, the armchairs were different then, now a third model is used. But the sea is still the same fantastic colour.
