Cimiez was one of the first spots I visited after my arrival in Nice. And because it was one of the first, it took me forever to figure out how to get there, given my bad habit of not looking too closely at maps and prefering to play flâneur
Eventually, I somehow found my way, after a solid hour or so of circling a nearby neighbourhood and University Campus. At long last, the Monastery!
Unfortunately, that day, rushing to also see Musée Matisse, I didn't wander through the Franciscan Museum (maybe next week), but I was thoroughly impressed by how perfectly peaceful the grounds of le Monastère Cimiez was.
Nearby the Monastery, there are also Roman ruins by the Museum of Archeology. When I first arrived, I failed to grasp the significance of the ruins and really didn't understand their existence in Nice. Having been here for some time, and having picked up some local history, I now know that Cimiez is where the Romans first settled as they set their sights on capturing the Greek city, Nikaïa, which is now la Colline du Château.
The Roman City was known as Cemenelum and it was inhabited until the invasion of Germanic Tribes from the Alps, when the Romans fled to Nikaïa.
Now, there remains only fragments of the Romans' presence: an ampitheatre pictured above and Roman baths that were unfortunately closed for restoration at the time of my visit.
People do still frequent the space though and it's a nice change to not be barred from being in these heritage sights and being able to walk into a piece of Nice's convoluted history.
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