After the plumbing situation cut our first Nice stay short, we moved. Same city, different apartment, different neighborhood. This time we ended up inside Vieux Nice, the medieval old town, on Rue de l’Ancien Sénat. Two minutes from Cours Saleya. Five minutes from the sea. Directly inside the postcard.
Sometimes a bad first apartment leads you exactly where you were supposed to end up.
Finding a long-stay apartment in Nice’s Vieux Nice (Old Town)
Rue de l’Ancien Sénat is deep in the pedestrian old town, tucked behind the Palais de Justice and steps from the Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate. A different apartment, a bit larger than the first, quieter street once you’re off the main thoroughfares.
Living inside Vieux Nice means giving up on driving anywhere. Everything is on foot. The streets are narrow, ochre-painted, and old enough that you can feel it. It’s the Nice most people photograph and few actually live in.
Living in Vieux Nice
Down toward the sea, the Promenade des Anglais runs for kilometers. That’s the best free walk in the city. Behind us, the old town’s tangle of alleys, hidden squares, and cafés that stay open late. Cours Saleya market a two-minute walk away, meaning we could grab flowers, produce, or a socca (chickpea pancake, a Niçoise specialty) whenever we wanted.
Then, one week in, Michelle sprained her ankle. Unexpected. But if you’re going to be forced to rest an injury, there’s no better place to do it than a Vieux Nice apartment. The city let us slow down properly. Coffees at the same café every morning. Long lunches. Not much walking. It made the second stay a completely different kind of memorable.
A typical day in Nice
Coffee at a corner café where the same regulars came every morning and we eventually became one of them. When Michelle could walk, a slow walk along the Promenade. When she couldn’t, an even slower walk from the couch to the balcony. That worked too.
Weekends were Riviera when the ankle cooperated: Antibes, Menton, Monaco, Villefranche. When you have a rail pass, the entire coast is available.
Nice: our verdict after a month in Vieux Nice
The second Nice apartment was the one that made it worth staying. Riquier taught us what the residential side looks like. Vieux Nice taught us what it feels like to actually live inside the beauty other people fly in to photograph.
Au revoir translates perfectly into “goodbye until we meet again.”
Nice long-stay stats
- Duration: One month, spring
- Neighborhood: Vieux Nice (Old Town, pedestrian center)
- Cost tier: Mid-to-expensive
- Walkability: Excellent (when not injured)
- Wifi: Fast
- Cat-friendly: Yes
- Best for: Longer stays, quiet-lifestyle people, people who want the postcard Nice, ankle-injury recoverers
- Would return: Yes
Book the stay: Our Vieux Nice apartment on Airbnb →
