A new exhibition at Villa Masséna traces how Nissa la bella keeps its cultural traditions alive
Nice occupies peculiar territory, wedged between sea and mountains, speaking a dialect closer to Italian than French. The city has survived centuries of political reshuffling while maintaining an identity fierce enough to require its own vocabulary. Mediterranean resort meets alpine gateway, cosmopolitan playground meets resolutely local culture. How does such a place honor and preserve its heritage without enshrining it like an ancient relic? And are traditions still relevant in our times?
The current exhibition “Nice, son passée a de l’avenir” (Nice, it’s past has a future) at Villa Masséna has answers to these questions. But rather than just displaying a selection of cultural artifacts, the show is thematically organized around humankind’s oldest timekeeper: the seasons. This structure is original, and it works. Traditions are presented as a living rhythm. And like a string of fairy lights, these annual events central to Nice punctuate the year with highlights that locals and visitors alike look forward to with excitement.
Villa Masséna itself occupies charged ground for such an exhibition. The Belle Époque villa, which was recently awarded “National Monument” status, was converted to a museum in 1921 with a mission to document the people and events that left a mark on the city over time. Now it turns attention inward, asking what remains authentically Niçois beneath the cosmopolitan veneer. The walk-through sets out to capture the quintessential Nissartitude, and the events and people that have been shaping it over years, decades, and centuries.
Milestones that have become Synonyms for Nice
The opening room establishes the terms: tradition requires several generations to mature into heritage, each one adapting what it inherits and integrating it into contemporaneous life. The timing proves fortuitous. In 2025/26 many of the most beloved cultural institutions reach milestone anniversaries: The ever-popular folk group Ciamada Nissarda turns 100 this year. 90 years ago, Francis Gag founded the Théâtre Niçois, to which he added Nice la Belle, the keeper of all things local customs, 70 years ago. The one and only local print newspaper Nice-Matin marks 80 years of publication. And the label Cuisine Nissarde has 30 candles on its birthday cake. All of these cultural contributions, recent as they may seem in the course of History itself, have left an indelible imprint on the city.
Video by La Ciamada Nissarda on YouTube
Winter by the Sea – Beach lounging Style
If winter makes two appearances in this exhibition, it is because unlike other seasons, it has two very different sides to it. The “city winter” is a season spent on the patio of a café, soaking up the sun, or even on the beach, or even dipping a toe in the blue sea. Here in Nice, a “cold” day means 15°C.
The annual cultural calendar starts off with a bang. The flamboyant Carnaval with its legendary flower battles and its politically themed floats that poke satirical fun at the ruling class has been a staple in the annual diary since 1873, providing simultaneously ancient and contemporary entertainment, pagan bacchanal and family fun. Each year comes with a new motto, which in 2026 will be Vive la Reine (Long live the Queen), celebrating the power of women.
As calendary winter starts bidding its adieu in early March, the Paris-Nice cycling race gets underway. Founded in 1933, it connects the capital to the coast, and its nickname “the race to the sun” captures the symbolic transition from winter to spring as athletes start out in the chilly northern climate and finish the course on the balmy Riviera.
Spring – Intimate Community Festivities
The season of nature’s reawakening and the beginning of working the land is rung in in style with intimate local festivals that tourists rarely come across:
The Festin des Cougourdons brings families together in the Arènes de Cimiez for a celebration centered on gourds which have traditionally served as decorative objects or even musical instruments. It also honours the hard work of famers whose hard work was the backbone of Niçois economy for centuries, and pays tribute to those who are no longer with us.
The Feast of Reproaches on Good Friday is an ancient custom of airing one’s grievances with friends and neighbours and putting them to rest once and for all. With Easter ante portas, the confréries de penitents also become more visible. These religious brotherhoods have been operating since medieval times, combining faith with civic engagement in ways secular organizations struggle to match, from maintaining charitable work and organizing processions to preserving archives. Nice is home to four of them, recognizable by the colour of their habits and crosses in their emblems: white, black, red, and blue, each with a focus on a particular charitable œuvre.
And May celebrations animate neighbourhoods throughout the city. Traditionally, this was the time when young people went in search for a life partner and often found them at such community dances. Today, it is no longer a singles market but the joyful atmosphere still makes it easy to connect and form lasting friendships.
Summer – The World Joins In
The beginning of the hot season throws the door wide open to share local customs and traditions with international visitors. June, historically is a special month revolving around patron saint festivities. Always a highlight: the Fête de la Saint-Jean, an annual celebration on 24 June that commemorates the birth of John the Baptist. As so many other events in this Catholic city, it starts with a mass, then a procession, accompanied by dancers and musicians, makes its way to the Carras port where a fisher boat is set on fire. Legend has it that young girls who dance around nine bonfires of Saint John, would be married within the year.
And what would a Niçois summer be without its iconic jazz festival? A little-known fact is that this is actually the world’s first jazz festival, dating back to 1948 when Louis Armstrong headlined alongside Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli at the Opera and Casino. Although by now it spreads out all over the city, including the Coulée Verte, it has its permanent home in the Arènes de Cimiez gardens, exemplifying once more the cultural hodgepodge that is Nice: 2,000 year old Roman ruins hosting contemporary musical performances in the shadow of the 16th century Monastère de Cimiez …
Autumn – Earth and Emotions
Harvest arrives with olives, mushrooms, chestnuts, and the culinary practices defining local identity. Historically an agricultural region inhabited by humble folks, simple preparations like socca and panisse, sold at market stalls, matter more to Niçois self-conception than any Michelin-starred cuisine. And then there is the famous “soup for the dead”, also more congenially named “Soupe du 1er Novembre”, a kind of watery chickpea stew eaten on All Saints and All Souls Day in memory of the departed.
Sports commands weekends. Top ligue football (soccer) team OGC Nice and the professional basketball club Cavigal Nice unite fans across neighbourhoods through their shared passion for sport. The exhibition treats sport seriously, recognizing that collective identity expresses itself through athletic loyalty as readily as folk traditions.
Winter in the Mountains – The Alpine Face of the Season
The Niçois are an outdoorsy lot – no wonder in a region so abundantly blessed by Mother Nature. In the late 1800s, Victor de Cessole and the Club Alpin Français pioneered the establishment and democratization of winter sports in the snow-capped Alpine foothills just outside Nice, and now, thanks to good infrastructure, you can trade beach winter for mountain winter in less than an hour.
But while activities may be very different, what connects both facets of winter are once again traditions. The calèna (Christmas Eve vigil) brings Lou Présépi, the Provençal nativity scene built with regional detail, followed by thirteen desserts. The veillées, evening gatherings that once structured village life, continue in adapted forms. A life-size model is erected each year in place Rossetti in the centre of Vieux Nice, and every church or village square in the Niçois hinterland has its own version, often featuring centuries-old and artfully carved santons.
Francis Gag – Local Legend and Founding Father of “modern” Niçois culture
No exhibition about Niçois traditions would be complete without a special chapter dedicated to “les Gag”, as the Gagliolo family are lovingly referred to locally. Born to Italian immigrants in 1900, Francis Gag founded the Théâtre Niçois in 1936, creating a vital stage for the Niçois language and writing plays that became recognized as masterworks of Occitan literature. In 1956 he established Nice la Belle, researching and performing authentic Niçois dances, songs, and costumes, ensuring the transmission of local folklore traditions that continue today under his descendants’ leadership. His son Pierre-Louis, well into his nineties, has made a reputation for himself as a playwright and theatre manager, his grandson Jean-Luc is a highly respected city councillor for culture and the preservation of Niçois heritage, as well as a fine author, and great-granddaughter Marie represents the young face of this prominent family who as an actor and writer has inherited her ancestors’ artistic talents.
All photos courtesy Ville de Nice
In the same room – because intrinsically interwoven with the Gags – the folk ensemble Ciamada Nissarda illustrates how cultural transmission actually works. Eighty members perform at festivals across Europe while teaching thousands of Nice schoolchildren annually, earning UNESCO partnership recognition. Their costumes reveal essential dynamics: men wear the fisherman’s outfit, women dress as flower sellers with embroidered shawls and capeline hats marked with three Maltese crosses. Traditional? Certainly. But extensively modified for stage over decades. Each generation believes it preserves authenticity while adapting more than it admits. That tension between fidelity and innovation keeps culture alive rather than calcified.
Heritage Becomes Part of One’s DNA
This exhibition is part of Villa Masséna’s larger multi-year cycle to present the city through multiple lenses across several years: neighborhoods, sea, traditions, gardens. Each approaches Nice differently, together revealing a place existing in multiple timeframes simultaneously, preserving langue d’oc traditions while remaining contemporary, and maintaining medieval festivals while hosting international events.
The work continues beyond museum walls in theatres and festivals. But the true connection with the past is made in homes and families where generation after generation, a people fiercely proud of its heritage teaches its young that same love for the traditions their own elders had passed down to them: singing the local anthem “Nissa la bella”, speaking Nissard, preparing inherited recipes, and celebrating the rhythm of the seasons packed with rich experiences and emotions nurtures a passion for one’s traditions. That way, Nice can confidently turn toward the future while ensuring its roots are firmly anchored in its soil.
Video via Monsieur Sylvain on YouTube
VISITOR INFORMATION
“Nice, son passé a de l’avenir” runs through March 1, 2026 at Villa Masséna,
Open Wednesday through Monday, 10:00 to 18:00.
Admission is free for residents of Nice.
CONTACT DETAILS
Villa Masséna
Musée d’art et d’histoire
65 Rue de France
06000 Nice
Tel: +33 (0)4 93 91 19 10
Lead image by Zairon on Wikimedia Commons – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link; all other photos as credited
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