The Mayor is upset that the new rule regarding AirBnb in Nice has been struck down in court. The Town Hall has recently been checking the building rules to see if short term rentals is allowed or not, and this has been deemed unconstitutional.

Nice has been voted 13th best city to live in for locals, up 5 places from last year. Not bad out of the 34,808 cities surveyed. Paris came in 103rd place. It scored highest in "quality of life", with satisfaction being 28% above the national average.

A Place In the Sun has an article about why Nice is the place to buy, including some advice from a local expert.

British people will be allowed to stay in France 6 months of the year without a visa, as opposed to 90 days currently. The new law has just passed through parliament and is expected to be rubber stamped by the "constitutional council" and put into effect this Spring.

Villefranche has now adopted the same regulations as Nice where you are only allowed to rent out one property. If it's your primary residence then you can rent it for 120 days per year, and if secondary then you will get one authorisation from the Town Hall to rent it out for 6 years, non-renewable.

Happy New Year everybody! I hope 2024 is a fantastic year and may your dreams come true.

With all the newspapers proclaiming that Nice is the place to be, both summer and winter, Vogue steps in to help tell us where to stay. There are a range of luxury hotels opening, from the airport to the Old Town, including of course the sea front in the Golden Square (Carre d'Or).

A reminder today from the local newspaper that you have until the end of the month to use those printed tram/bus tickets! Whether it's a single or any other type, the paper tickets will stop working in the machines from 1st January next year. If you have a 10-pack you cannot cash in unused journeys or transfer them to the new rechargeable electronic ticket cards. You have been warned!

An advantage Nice has over many other holiday destinations is that it is still a great place to visit over winter. In fact it was initially famous as a winter holiday destination during Victorian times, when the English initially built the now famous Promenade des Anglais. Now the Daily Mail has run an item about how pleasant it is here over the cooler months. The author picked pretty good restaurants too, though if you also want to visit Bistrot d'Antoine then I recommend booking in advance. It is always busy. Hopefully more people will discover the pleasures of walking past palm trees at Christmas.

Locals in the Port are wary about the new conference centre. A resident's meeting allowed locals to bring up their concerns about the building of a 28,000sqm spectacular sea front centre. Some expressed skepticism at the aggressive schedule, starting next February and to be completed by June 2025, in just over a year. Others complained they haven't seen the environmental impact report before the project gets the green light. The previous socialist leader vows, however, to disrupt the works as much as possible. He plans with his colleagues to start protests, petitions, and any other means possible to cause problems. He admits he won't be able to stop the project but hopes to delay it by a couple of months, presumably so Nice misses the ability to host the UN Summit on how to protect the oceans. Personally I think the project looks great, and a good use of a redundant car park since the new multi-story underground parking was opened right next door. It will certainly bring added prestige to Nice, and a nice international clientele to the restaurants nearby.