When you are going to the glamourous Côte d’Azur my advice is to really embrace the area and look for the best experiences. In this post I will share some of best tips from my trip to the incredible French Riviera. In Nice we stayed at the glorious 5 star hotel Le Negresco, which is the focal point of Nice and well-known throughout all of France. The hotel was designed by Henri Negresco, and has since its very beginning been a royal hotel, attracting a brilliant international clientele, such as kings of the old and new world and today it is a refugee for many celebrities that visit to the Côte-D’-Azur. With its characteristic and beautiful façade towards the Promenade des Anglais, it has the perfect location in front of the beach.
From the moment we entered the hotel, we were astonished by how beautiful everything it is and how there is an idea with everything single detail of the decoration. When arriving at our unique dreamy deluxe suite with sea view, we were left breathless by the amazing view to the Mediterranean Sea and could not be happier with our choice. Negresco is much more than a hotel, it is an attraction in itself with so many people taking pictures every day when passing along the beach promenade. Inside the hotel it is so obvious that it is no ordinary hotel, with a history dating more than 100 years back the palace holds so many stories, secrets and not least art. Actually, the hotel owes more than 6,000 pieces of arts, carefully curated by the owner, Madame Augier, and many of them can only be found in large museum like Versailles, Louvre apart from Negresco. The general idea is that the art should be used by the guest, so you are allowed to touch and feel everything, relax on the vintage couches, chairs and so on. Each floor has its own peculiarities and uniqueness by being dedicated to a specific time period, so when walking from one floor to the next it is like taking a trip into French history.
With a variety from classic art to art deco, it is possible to find some real treasures and also cool pictures of former guests of the hotel, like Salvador Dalí and Louis Armstrong. If you are visiting the hotel, I can tell you that the art on the second floor is my favourite, let me know which floor is your favourite!
The only “problem” with the hotel is that because it is so beautiful and inspiring you end up spending more time there than you plan, haha! We spent a lot time walking in the beautiful hallways, enjoying the amazing view of bluest sea from our room and having a lovely and delicious lunch outside on the terrace of the hotel restaurant “La Rotonde” while looking to the sea, simply amazing. The hotel has two restaurants and the other is the two star Michelin restaurant “Le Chantecler”, which we definitely need to try next time we go.
Our room view
Another thing I love about Le Negresco is their focus on preserving the environment. The hotel comply with the highest standard and carries the European ecological label, Ecolabel, granted to hotels by AFNOR. The staff of the hotel constantly explores new ways to reduce consumption of energy and transport, they encourage guests to sort their waste and reduce the use of chemical substances. We actually saw a good example of the efforts one morning after returning from a morning swim, where a new method to keep the bushes fresh was being implementing. The idea is to use small insects instead of the poisoned pesticides, I really love this smart and sustainable initiative.
As you can see, I completely fell in love with this amazing hotel, and to end this post I would like to say thank you to all the staff of the hotel, because of you, we had the BEST experience in the Côte D’Azur. The great thing is that every room in Negresco is unique, so there is always a new choice when visiting the hotel and we really can’t wait to come back!
Info:
