Nice has some of the most active nightlife along the Riviera, with evenings usually beginning at a cafe. You can pick up a copy of La Semaine des Spectacles, available at kiosks around town, which outlines the week's diversions.
The major cultural center along the Riviera is the Opera de Nice, 4 rue St-Francois-de-Paule (tel. 04-92-17-40-40). The opera house was built in 1885 by Charles Garnier, fabled architect of the Paris Opera. A full repertoire is presented, with special emphasis on serious, often large-scale operas. In one season you might see Tosca, Tristan und Isolde, Verdi's Macbeth, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Carmen, as well as a saison symphonique, dominated by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. The opera house is also the major venue for concerts and recitals. The box office is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5:30pm. Tickets cost from 6.10EUR for a high-altitude, low-visibility seat to 121.60EUR.
Near the Hotel Ambassador, L'Ambassade, 18 rue des Congres (tel. 04-93-88-88-87), is designed in a mock-Gothic style and has two bars and a dance floor. Its clients come in all physical types and age ranges. The cover is 2.60EUR, including the first drink. Piano Bar Louis XV/Disco Inferno, 10 rue Cite-du-Parc (tel. 04-93-80-49-84), is a double-tiered nightclub with a piano bar in its 200-year-old vaulted cellar and a modern disco on its street level. There's a cover of 12.15EUR, including the first drink. Newer contenders include Disco Butterfly, 67 quai des Etats-Unis (tel. 04-93-92-27-31), a site where hip recorded music (including house, garage, techno, and whatever strikes the fancy of the DJ) attracts a high-energy, highly sociable crowd under 35 to dance the night away. An alternative is Club Nautique, 20 quai Lunel (tel. 04-93-89-68-00), beside the Vieux Port, where an ambience that's midway between a rustic waterside pub and a big-city singles bar attracts the prosperous and the restless.
Le Cabaret du Casino Ruhl, in the Casino Ruhl, 1 promenade des Anglais (tel. 04-93-87-95-87), is Nice's answer to the cabaret glitter that appears in a more ostentatious form in Monte Carlo and Las Vegas. It includes just enough flesh to titillate; lots of spangles, feathers, and sequins; a medley of cross-cultural jokes and nostalgia for the good old days of French chanson; and an acrobat or juggler. The cover of 15EUR includes the first drink; dinner and the show, complete with a bottle of wine per person, cost 45.60EUR. Shows are presented every Friday and Saturday at 10pm.
The Casino Ruhl has an area devoted exclusively to slot machines (open daily from noon to 4 or 5am, entrance free). A more formal gaming room, replete with blackjack, baccarat, chemin de fer, and "21" tables, has an entrance fee of 11.40EUR per person; it's open nightly, Monday through Friday from 8pm to 4 or 5am, and Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 5am.
Le Relais American Bar, in the Hotel Negresco, 37 promenade des Anglais (tel. 04-93-16-64-00), is the most beautiful bar in Nice, filled with white columns, an oxblood-red ceiling, Oriental carpets, English paneling, Italianate chairs, and tapestries. It was once a haunt of the actress Lillie Langtry. With its piano music and white-jacketed waiters, the bar still attracts a chic crowd.
Increasingly, Nice continues as the gay centerpiece of southern France. Near the Hôtel Negresco and promenade des Anglais, Le Blue Boy, 9 rue Spinetta (tel. 04-93-44-68-24), is the oldest gay disco on the Riviera. With two bars and two floors, it's a vital nocturnal stopover for passengers from the dozens of all-gay cruises that make regular calls at Nice and such nearby ports as Villefranche. The cover varies from free to 7.60EUR depending on the night. L'Ascenseur, 18 bis rue Emmanuel Philibert (tel. 04-93-26-35-30), is one of the most popular of the new crop of gay bars. This is a bustling, friendly gay bar that's loaded with wood paneling, billiard tables, metallic accents, and some of the more appealing gay men in Provence and the rest of Europe. It's open Tuesday through Saturday from 9pm till at least 3am. There's no dance floor, but disco music plays as gay men and (to a lesser degree) women laugh, converse, and flirt.
You can make a night of it (or several nights of it) at the following predominantly gay establishments: Le Santiago, 28 rue Lepante (tel. 04-93-13-83-01), with its hotel bar and restaurant; Latinos, 6 rue Chauvain (tel. 04-93-85-01-10), for "gay tapas"; La Table Coquine, 44 av. de la Republique (tel. 04-93-55-39-99), a gay restaurant; Cafe Chris, 3 rue Smolett (tel.04-93-26-75-85), a gay cafe; and Le C.D. Restaurant and Salad Bar, 22 rue Benoit-Bunico (tel. 04-93-92-47-65), where you can cruise the scene while you munch.
