Visit the Museums of Nice

If you’re coming to spend a weekend or a few days in the beautiful city of Nice and you’re a museum enthusiast, you won’t know what to choose from the dozen or so museums on offer.

We’re here to guide you and give you all the information you need to make your choice, whether you’re on your own, with friends, or a family with children!

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMAC) in Nice

This museum houses no fewer than 1,300 works of pop art, new realism, conceptual art and artists from the Groupe 70 and Fluxus. The collection takes you on a journey from the 1950s to the present day. In particular, you can discover works by Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Children’s activities

Wednesday is the day dedicated to activities for children: a 1-hour workshop with an educational kit, produced by artist Eve Pietruschi, will enable them to familiarise themselves with the different creative techniques used by the artists (5/11 years). Another offers them the chance to create their own works inspired by the museum’s artists, through a discovery of the plastic arts (6/12 years). During the school holidays, a wide range of activities are offered, all with a fun approach: guided tours, storytelling readings, meetings with artists, workshops, etc.

The National Sports Museum in Nice

Free for under-18s, this museum houses almost 43,000 works of all kinds: historical posters, sportswear and equipment, trophies and medals, as well as everyday objects that bear witness to the importance of sport in our society. There are guided tours and temporary exhibitions on the Olympic Games, art and sport, sport and digital technology, motor sports and more, which vary from year to year.

Children

For children aged 6 to 12, there are cultural mini-stages, games and sports courses. There’s plenty to keep them busy and challenged!

The Matisse Museum in Nice

Free for under-18s, this museum exhibits many of the artist’s works: paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs and personal objects.

Permanent and temporary exhibitions will delight the eyes of young and old alike, with either guided tours aimed specifically at adults, or interactive tours aimed primarily at families with children aged 7 and over.

Children’s tours

As well as interactive tours for children aged 7 and over, there are also family discovery workshops for children aged 4 and over.

The Nice archaeological museum and the Terra Amata site

This area is located on 2 sites: Cimiez and Terra Amata. It’s the ideal place to discover prehistoric Nice, and is located in the Villa des Arènes, which is also home to the Matisse museum, so you can kill 3 birds with one stone and keep busy for a good part of the day!

The Cimiez museum

This museum boasts an extensive collection of art and everyday objects, documents, coins and jewellery, from the metal age through antiquity to the Middle Ages. A rich and varied collection from excavations carried out on the site and from private collections. Models give an idea of what the site might have looked like at the time. Outside, the ruins of the ancient town offer many points of interest: thermal baths, a 1st-century wall, a pool, a sports ground, a swimming pool, a heating system, etc.

Children

The tactile area is organised around the 5 senses, giving children a fun way to discover archaeology.

The Terra Amata site

This is the site where the oldest hearths in the history of mankind have been discovered, dating back 400,000 years. Find out about the very first people of Nice, their way of life, the climate, their tools and discover the footprint of a Homo erectus from Terra Amata.

The Marc Chagall national museum

Particularly popular, this national museum was created (and this is rare enough to be worth mentioning) during the artist’s lifetime. It presents exceptional collections, including the Biblical Message cycle, which demonstrates the complexity and variety of the different artistic practices used by Marc Chagall.

The Musée National Marc Chagall is free to visitors under the age of 26, and hosts a number of exhibitions throughout the year, including a major collection of gouaches, engravings, lithographs and sculptures. Over 250 works created during different periods can be discovered at your own pace at the Musée National Marc Chagall.

The Musée Massena

On the Promenade des Anglais, discover this museum housed in a charming 19th-century villa in the Belle Époque style. Comprising 23 rooms on 3 levels, some 15,000 pieces of furniture, paintings, sculptures and objets d’art bear witness to Nice’s influence from the First Empire to 1939.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice

Housed in a 19th-century Italian Renaissance palace built by a Russian prince, this museum has been home to a collection of regional primitives, sculptures and paintings by artists such as Claude Monet, Marie Laurencin and Edouard Vuillard since 1925.

The Palais Lascaris

In the old town of Nice, this seventeenth-century residence boasts a collection of exceptional antique musical instruments, objets d’art, prints, paintings and tapestries from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Baroque-style rooms and staircase are imposing in their stature and beauty, as are the painted ceilings and richly decorated salons…

The Musée International d’Art Naïf Anatole Jakovsky

This museum brings together many works of naive art from the 18th century to the present day. This spontaneous art is an invitation to let your mind wander as you interpret in your own way the various paintings, sculptures, drawings and posters that trace the evolution of this art form.

The Charles Nègre Museum of Photography

In the heart of Vieux Nice, you can discover temporary exhibitions by the great names in photography or exhibitions focusing on a very specific theme. 1700 images and 220 objects.

Make the most of your stay in Nice to combine business with pleasure by discovering museums, each more enjoyable than the last and for all ages – most are free up to the age of 18!