Colline du Chateau

Perched 300 feet above the Mediterranean Sea, Colline du Chateau is a beautiful park with amazing views of Nice. To the west of the park lies Old Nice, with its narrow streets and buildings dating back to the 16th Century. Also to the west is the beautiful beach along the Quai des Etats-Unis and a walkway. To the east is the Port of Nice with its impressive collection of multi-million dollar yachts.

Colline du Chateau was the home of a military fort until 1706, when the fort was destroyed by King Louis XIV, during the War of Spanish Succession. More than 100 years later, in 1822, the King of Sardinia turned Colline du Chateau into a park. Starting as a botanical park, it was developed over time, leading to the beautiful park that it is today.

We began our walk from the beach. It was a perfect day with mostly sunny skies, the temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and a slight breeze coming off of the Mediterranean. Walking up to Colline du Chateau, the hill looks imposing with its steep slope. A stone staircase, with multiple switchbacks is there on the west side of the hill to aid walkers in hiking up the slope.

At nearly every switchback, there are viewing platforms, allowing you to catch your breath while looking out over Old Nice and the beach. Every viewpoint was essentially the same, each one from a greater height.

At the top of the stairs, the hill flattens out, and a traditional park emerges. There is a large, open grassy area with a children’s playground.

There is also a snack bar at the top of the hill with a good variety of snacks. Besides things like ice cream and hot dogs, it also sells things like crepes. Also, in addition to selling soft drinks and water, they also sold cappuccino, aperol spritz, prosecco, and champagne. As unique as the snack bar was, we just paid for a couple of bottles of water and continued our walk around the park.

We walked across the park to the east side of the hill. The east side has fantastic views of the Port of Nice. The port has a wide variety of boats within the marina, from some fairly small sailboats to enormous yachts. There is also room in the port for small cruise ships. Club Med 2 was docked in the marina on this day.

Off in the distance, over the marina, houses ascend up to Mont Boron, which is another park on top of a much larger hill. Mont Boron is taller and much larger than Colline du Chateau.

After viewing the marina, we went looking for the Cascade. The Cascade is a man-made waterfall on the west side, near the top of the hill. It is a very popular place to take pictures.

Directly above the Cascade is a large cobblestone plaza. This is the highest point of the park and has fantastic views of Nice from all directions. We stayed there for a while, admiring the views, while watching an seemingly endless string of airplanes descending into Nice Airport.

Under the plaza is another snack bar called Lou Casteu. We stopped in and grabbed a couple of French beers and enjoyed the weather and the view. It was a lovely place to take a few minutes to relax.

We finished our drinks and decided to return to our Airbnb, which was just north of the park. That meant we were able to walk a little more through the park, and then we descended down the path and stairs on the east side of the park by the Marina.

It was an absolutely lovely day in Colline du Chateau. It is a beautiful place for a walk, with many places to relax. There are amazing views from practically everywhere in the park. This is an absolute must visit for anyone who is spending time in Nice.