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Nice

The Nice metropolitan area has 1.141 million residents,1 while the city proper has 343 thousand.2 The city is on the Mediterranean coast, south of the Maritime Alpes, in the Alpes-Maritimes (Maritime Alps) Department of the Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur (Provence-Alps-Azure Coast) Region of France. The tallest modern building is the Tour de la Préfecture (Prefectural Tower, 17 stories, 230 feet, 1981). The largest church is the Basilique (Basilica) Notre-Dame (213 feet, 1868). Another notable church is the Cathédral Orthodoxe Russe (Russian Orthodox cathedral) Saint-Nicolas (1912). The Tête Carrée (2002) is said to be the first monumental inhabited sculpture. The Palais de la Mediterranée (2004) retains the old Art Deco façade of its predecessor. The Hôpital (Hospital) Lenval (1997) has brightly colored angular windows. Another famous building is the Hôtel Negresco (1913).3 The city is served by one of France's busiest airports.4

left, right and bottom center: buildings; center: hills fading into hazy mountains; top: pale sky
Street scene in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes (Maritime Alps) Department, Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur (Provence-Alps-Azure Coast) Region, France

Historical map

map showing part of the République de France, and part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. Figure for 2011 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area_(France), accessed 2/5/2015.
2. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_France, accessed 2/5/2015.
3. Information about buildings comes from emporis.com, accessed 7/4/2015.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_France: 2013 table, entries with over 10 million passengers, accessed 2/9/2015.