Villa Masséna, musée d'art et d'histoire

This is a beautiful museum. The ground floor has an alcove, a library, larger-than-life portraits of prominent people, and a hall that runs a looping slide presentation about Nice and this building. Walking up the wonderful staircase, you will find the face mask of Napoleon at one end and the bicorne hat at the other. Several exhibits of Garibaldi and the proclamation of Nice's independence are in the enormous hallway. The rooms have a sizeable collection of statues and posters of carnivals from the city's olden days. When I visited, there was an awareness exhibition about the oceans on the uppermost floor. Outside the building is a beautiful garden with benches to relax. Total time taken: 45 mins.

Villa Masséna in Nice is a must! This museum is surrounded by a well kept garden that also has benches. Built in 1898, the villa became a museum some twenty plus years later. Now it showcases it architectural beauty on the ground floor - stately rooms that are beautifully decorated - and then provides a history of Nice and the Côte d’Azur on the upper floor. There are two entrances - one near the Promenade d’Anglais and another on the back side of the property. There is free WiFi and an online tour you can follow. Wonderful all around, inside and out. Highly recommend!

After years of visiting museums, you eventually realize most of them are pretty much the same – nothing particularly special about them. This museum is exactly that: nothing special. If it’s raining outside and you just need a place to hide from the weather, stop by. There’s about 40 minutes of content, give or take. Just be careful with the security staff — if you slightly move a curtain to check if it’s still raining, they’ll warn you not to touch anything. Also, I get that everything is in French and I respect that, but come on — this is a tourist city, at least give us descriptions in English as well. So I had to improvise and make up my own explanations, which honestly made the whole thing more entertaining than the actual exhibition. On the bright side, they do have a beautiful garden with free entry — and honestly, it’s a million times better than the museum itself. Overall, I left disappointed.

The splendid Museum of the History of the City of Nice: the ground floor boasts exceptionally rich interior architecture. The lush park overlooking the sea is also worth a visit.

Beautifully presented museum on the history of Nice, the decorative arts, and plenty of Napoleon memorabilia! The beautiful building is right on the Promenade (and it has good toilets too).

Really interesting museum with lots of early historic art scenes as Nice grew from a fishing and olives town into the city it is today. Lots of interesting Napoleon items as well. Well worth a visit to this cool interior museum especially on hot summer days

Built in the late 1800s by the grandson of one of Napoleon’s greatest generals (and named after that general, Andre Massena, who was born in Nice), this Italian-style neoclassical villa turned museum is a good place to spend an hour or two out of the sun if you’re a history buff. The first floor is decked out in all the original period furniture and objects d’art, and there’s other Napoleon-related memorabilia on the remaining floors, artwork, paintings and such, with the top floor reserved for rotating exhibits. Gift shop downstairs and lovely garden outside too. Bonus: it’s right near the beach so you can catch some rays afterward. Unexpectedly cool.

Great historic place in the heart of Nice. Moreover, we stumbled across the very unique temporary exhibition about the different periods of Riviera.

Well preserved elegant neoclassical villa-turned-museum from the 19th century stuffed with all kinds historical artifacts, much of it Napoleon-related. Andre Massena was one of his great generals, and the grandson of that general built this place. The first floor is pretty much preserved as it would have been in the early 1900s, with other paintings and artwork on the upper floors related to Nice, and there's a lovely garden to walk through in back. Plus the beach is right across the street, where you can grab lunch at one of the eateries on the sand.