Cours Saleya and Nice markets: where to go, when, what to taste?

What is the Cours Saleya?

The Cours Saleya is a long square in the Old Town of Nice, parallel to the sea, bordered by ochre façades and shutters that remain half-closed until late morning. It is here that the flower market and the Provençal market stand side by side, buckets of ranunculus and carnations on one side, crates of tomatoes, courgette flowers and citrus fruits on the other.

From our windows at 107 Promenade des Anglais, getting there is a walk rather than a journey: one follows the Quai des États-Unis, the sea on the right, and enters the Old Town of Nice by one of the side streets. The scent arrives before the stalls, mimosa in winter, basil in summer.

The market is held in the morning. Around midday, the vans depart, the terraces move their tables forward, and the square changes function without changing scenery. It is this double life, market in the morning, open-air salon in the afternoon, that makes the Cours Saleya something other than an attraction.

Which markets in Nice and when?

The Cours Saleya holds a market in the morning, from Tuesday to Sunday: flowers and Provençal produce share the square. On Monday, it changes register entirely and turns to antiques.

Further north, around the old Gare du Sud, the Libération market is the largest daily market in Nice. It is the one for the people of Nice: fewer languages are spoken there, more bargaining takes place, the fishmongers announce the morning's catch in loud voices. For anyone wanting to understand how the town feeds itself, that is where to go.

The two markets do not compete, they complement each other. Saleya provides the setting, the nearby sea, the façades, the striped awnings. Libération provides the everyday. A stay in Nice benefits from knowing both.

What to eat at a Nice market?

Socca, first. This chickpea flour pancake, cooked on large copper plates and served hot in a paper cone, is eaten standing up, with pepper, without cutlery. In the Old Town of Nice, it can be found a few steps from the Cours Saleya stalls, and the wait is part of the ritual.

Then come pissaladière, long-stewed onions, Nice olives, anchovies, petits farcis, tourte de blettes which disconcerts visitors with its sugar, and in season courgette flowers. Nice cuisine is market cuisine: few gestures, produce that has not travelled far.

My neighbour's advice: buy little, but from several stalls, and finish with a coffee on a terrace facing the façades. The Nice market is not visited, it is practised.

Where is the antiques market held?

On Monday, the Cours Saleya sells neither flowers nor vegetables: the antique dealers unfold their tables along the entire length of the square. Mismatched silverware, old linen, gilt frames, postcards of the Riviera from before, the stock varies each week, and that is precisely the interest.

Two groups cross paths there: the dealers, early, who know what they are looking for, and the strollers, later, who do not yet know. For furnishing a Nice flat with objects that have already lived here, it is a reasonable starting point, and an open-air lesson in local history.