Cimiez walk: from the Chagall museum up the hill to Matisse's last home, the monastery, the Matisse museum and the Roman baths, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Nice. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at the Musée Chagall bus stop (bus 5) and finish at the Arènes / Musée Matisse stop (buses 5, 16, 18, 33 and 40): 2.9 km, about 40 minutes of walking and a full day with the museums, 1.4 km of it uphill. Tuesday shuts the Chagall, Matisse and Archaeology museums. The Chagall museum closes from 13:00 to 14:30 in November and December 2026, so do it first and climb after lunch. The museums and the cemetery close at 17:00 from 1 November. Chagall is €12 while an exhibition runs, Matisse €10 and Archaeology €5; the olive grove, the monastery garden and the cemetery are free. Or book a tour: the Monastery & Waterfall e-bike tourad is from €99 (GetYourGuide).

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The route does the Chagall museum first because it is the one with a lunch closure, then climbs the boulevard de Cimiez to the monastery at the hill’s east end, where the cemetery closes at 17:00 in winter, and works back west past the Matisse museum and the Roman site to the bus stop. Cimiez says what the hill holds; this page puts it in walking order with the days each part is open. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator.

Walk it with a guide

Nice’s old town walking tours do not climb to Cimiez, so these are the guided options on the hill. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Nice: 7 Hills Monastery & Waterfall E-Bike Tour with Local Guidead: from €99, 4.9 stars from 17 reviews, 5 hours, with Roman ruins, Belle Époque landmarks, parks and a monastery.
• Nice: Matisse & Chagall Museum Tour Through 2,000 Yearsad: from €188, 5 stars from 2 reviews, 6 hours.
• Nice: Marc Chagall National Museum Private Tour with Ticketsad: from €208, 5 stars from 3 reviews, 2 hours, with the museum’s tickets.
• The museums’ own guides: the Chagall museum’s guided visit is €5 on top of the reduced ticket, in French, English and Italian, and the Matisse museum’s tours are in French and cost €7 on top of entry.

1. The Chagall museum

€12 while an exhibition runs, €10 otherwise · 10:00 to 17:00 · shut Tuesdays · closed 13:00 to 14:30 in November and December 2026 · avenue du Docteur Ménard

The museum was created in Chagall’s lifetime and houses the cycle of the Biblical Message, alongside paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass, tapestry and mosaic. The Chagall museum page has the rooms. Allow an hour.

• Tickets: €12 while an exhibition runs and €10 when none does, with the reduced rate at €10 and €8. The price follows the number of rooms open. Free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month: 6 December 2026, 3 January, 7 February, 7 March and 4 April 2027.
• Hours: 10:00 to 17:00 from 1 November to 30 April. In November and December 2026 the museum closes from 13:00 to 14:30, except from 2 to 7 November, when it stays open through the day. Ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing, and on 24 and 31 December the museum closes at 16:00.
• Closed: Tuesdays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
• Lunch: the Café Chagall in the garden is open without a museum ticket every day except Tuesday, from 10:00 to 16:30 until 30 April.
• Bags: they are searched at the door.

Walk to the Régina: 1.4 km uphill, along Avenue du Docteur Ménard and then 1.2 km of the boulevard de Cimiez, about 20 minutes. Bus 5 climbs the same hill from the Musée Chagall stop to Arènes / Musée Matisse.

2. Boulevard de Cimiez and the Régina

Free · from the street · 71 boulevard de Cimiez

The Régina was one of the hotels of Cimiez’s Belle Époque. The architect Sébastien-Marcel Biasini designed it, and it welcomed Queen Victoria from its inauguration in 1897: she had a private entrance and the whole western rotunda, which you can recognise by its dome topped with a crown. Iron runs through the main façade, in the canopy and winter garden of the hall, the oriels and the balcony brackets.

The former Hôtel Régina on the boulevard de Cimiez. Photo: mwanasimba, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Matisse bought a flat in the former hotel in 1938. The Musée Matisse says the space suited his last projects, the designs for the Chapelle de Vence and the large cut-outs, and that he worked on the cut-outs directly on the walls of his flat and studio here. He died in Nice in November 1954. The hotel has been converted into residences, so you see it from the street.

Walk to the monastery: 610 m, along Rue Elisabeth II and the boulevard, then through the olive grove by the Allée Miles Davis to Place Pape Jean-Paul II.

3. The monastery, its garden and the cemetery

Garden free, 8:30 to 18:00 to 31 March and to 20:00 from 1 April · cemetery 8:30 to 17:00 to 28 February, 18:00 from 1 March · Franciscan museum free, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 12:00

The Franciscan monastery of Cimiez stands at the east end of the hill. Its square holds the Seraphic Cross, a 5.80 m marble copy of the original of 1477 that is in the church. The Franciscan museum, in the former friars’ cells on the second floor, shows paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and frescoes on the life of the Franciscans in Nice from the 13th to the 18th century. The monastery garden, 1 avenue Bellanda, covers 9,550 m² and has flower beds, a rose garden and a view over the east of the city and the sea.

• Matisse’s grave: the cemetery of the monastery, on Place Pape Jean-Paul II, holds the grave of Matisse, who died on 3 November 1954. The cemetery closes at 17:00 until 28 February, when the museums shut too.
• The Franciscan museum: shut at weekends, and on 1 and 11 November and 25 December 2026. It is not accessible to wheelchair users.
• The church: Notre-Dame de l’Assomption is the monastery’s parish church.

Walk to the Matisse museum: 420 m, back through the olive grove by the Allée Dizzy Gillespie and the Allée Barney Wilen.

4. The Matisse museum

€10 · 10:00 to 17:00 to 31 March, 18:00 from 1 April · shut Tuesdays · 164 avenue des Arènes de Cimiez

The museum is in a Genoese-style villa completed in 1695, the Villa des Arènes, which the City bought in 1950. It opened on 5 January 1963 and reopened extended on 26 June 1993. It holds about 130 objects from Matisse’s own collection, among them furniture, textiles and a Tibetan tanka that he used in his pictures, and 31 paintings, 454 drawings and prints, 38 cut-outs and 57 sculptures. The exhibition Henri Matisse - Alex Katz. The Silence of Painting runs from 28 October 2026 to 18 January 2027. The Matisse museum page has the rooms. Allow an hour.

• Tickets: €10, free for under-18s, students and job-seekers with proof. The 4-day Museums Pass is €15; the museum’s ticket is valid for the day you choose, and there is no timed slot. Buy at the door or through the City’s museum ticket office.
• Closed: Tuesdays, 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May and 25 December.
• Bags: everyone passes a metal detector and a bag check, and suitcases, backpacks and bulky items are not allowed in, so leave them at the hotel.

Walk to the Archaeology museum: 120 m, along the villa’s garden.

5. The Archaeology museum and the Roman baths

€5 · 10:00 to 17:00 to 30 April, 18:00 from 2 May · shut Tuesdays · 160 avenue des Arènes de Cimiez

Cemenelum was the capital of the Roman province of the Alpes Maritimae. The museum opened in January 1989 and shows finds from the city and its region, among them a bronze mask of Silenus of the 1st century BC and a dancing faun found at Cimiez. The 2.5-hectare site beside it is the baths quarter: three complete bath complexes (north, east and west), a paved street, a house and two shops, mostly of the 3rd century. The north baths keep a cold room, the frigidarium, that stands over 10 m high.

• Tickets: €5, or €4 each for a group of 10 or more. Free for under-18s and students with proof. The ticket office closes 30 minutes before the museum.
• Closed: Tuesdays, 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May and 25 December, and on Monday 2 November 2026, when the next exhibition goes up. It opens on Saturday 7 November: Anne et Patrick Poirier. Mémoires des ruines.
• Access: the museum and part of the site are accessible to visitors with disabilities.

Walk to the amphitheatre: 100 m.

6. The amphitheatre and the olive grove

Free · grove 8:30 to 18:00 to 31 March, to 20:00 from 1 April to 31 October · Jardin des Arènes

The amphitheatre was built in two stages between AD 70 and 80. It measures 68 m by 57 m, which makes it one of the smallest in Gaul, and it may have held more than 4,000 spectators. In 258, under the emperor Valerian, Pontius, later Saint Pons, was martyred here. It stands beside the bus stop. The Jardin des Arènes around it is an olive grove of 3.2 hectares with century-old trees, open lawns, pétanque courts, playgrounds, public toilets and a refreshment stand. Picnics are allowed.

• Eat: the Kiosque des Arènes serves Cuisine Nissarde in the grove: see Where to eat.
• The end: the Arènes / Musée Matisse bus stop is 110 m away, on Avenue des Arènes de Cimiez.

Where to eat

Café Chagall

In the museum garden · every day except Tuesday · 10:00 to 16:30 until 30 April · open without a museum ticket

The museum’s buvette serves quick, seasonal food indoors or on a terrace under the olives, opposite the museum’s entrance. It is the lunch stop during the museum’s midday closure, at the first stop.

Kiosque des Arènes

In the olive grove, near the Matisse museum

The Matisse museum names it as the place for a coffee, lunch or an aperitif in the grove, with local specialities certified as Cuisine Nissarde. It is at the sixth stop, a stone’s throw from the museum. Where to eat in Nice lists the restaurants in the centre.

The best day to go

The timing that works, on a Thursday in December: the Chagall museum at 10:00 and out by 13:00, lunch at the Café Chagall, bus 5 or the 20-minute climb to the Régina by 14:00, the monastery garden and the cemetery before 15:00, the Matisse museum from 15:00, the Archaeology museum by 16:00 (its last tickets are at 16:30) and the amphitheatre before dusk. The museums and the cemetery close at 17:00.

To see the Franciscan museum, which is open only until 12:00, reverse the walk: take bus 5 to Arènes / Musée Matisse for 10:00, go round the hill and finish at the Chagall museum after 14:30.

What closes:

• Tuesdays: the Chagall, Matisse and Archaeology museums and the Café Chagall.
• Saturdays and Sundays: the Franciscan museum. After 12:00: the Franciscan museum.
• 13:00 to 14:30: the Chagall museum, in November and December 2026, except from 2 to 7 November.
• After 17:00: the Chagall, Matisse and Archaeology museums (until 30 April for the Chagall and Archaeology museums and until 31 March for the Matisse museum) and the cemetery (until 28 February). After 18:00: the monastery garden and the olive grove, until 31 March.
• 1 January, 1 May and 25 December: all three museums. Easter Sunday: the Matisse and Archaeology museums.
• 2 November 2026: the Archaeology museum.

What does not close: the boulevard de Cimiez and the Régina’s façade.

Getting there and back

• To the start: bus 5 stops at Musée Chagall. From Nice-Ville station it is a 15-minute walk, and tram line 1 to Gare Thiers is 15 minutes on foot from the museum. Nice public transport has the fares.
• From the end: buses 5, 16, 18, 33 and 40 stop at Arènes / Musée Matisse. A single ticket is €1.70, and you validate it on every journey.
• From the airport: see Nice airport to the city.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The sights: Cimiez has the hill’s other details, the Chagall museum and the Matisse museum the tickets and the rules.
• The museums: best museums in Nice puts these three beside the others, with the Museums Pass sums.
• The other walk: the old town walk is a separate trip, on tram line 1, through the Cours Saleya and up Castle Hill to Port Lympia. Do it on another day.
• The days: 3 days in Nice puts Cimiez on a Wednesday to Friday, and what to book before you go to Nice has the closed days for every sight.
• Guided walks: Nice walking tours compares the old town walks.
• Where to sleep: where to stay in Nice compares the areas.

Common questions

How long is the Cimiez walk?

2.9 km from the Musée Chagall bus stop to the Arènes / Musée Matisse bus stop, measured along the streets: about 40 minutes of walking, 1.4 km of it uphill. The museums fill a day, and bus 5 climbs the hill if you would rather ride.

Which day is best for the Cimiez walk?

Wednesday to Friday. The Chagall, Matisse and Archaeology museums are all shut on Tuesdays, the Franciscan museum is open only from Monday to Friday, and the Chagall museum closes from 13:00 to 14:30 in November and December 2026.

How much does the Cimiez walk cost?

€27 for the three museums: Chagall €12 while an exhibition runs, Matisse €10 and Archaeology €5. The boulevard, the Régina, the monastery garden, the cemetery, the olive grove and the Franciscan museum cost nothing. The Museums Pass is €15 and covers Matisse and Archaeology but not Chagall.

Where is Matisse buried?

In the cemetery of the Cimiez monastery, on Place Pape Jean-Paul II, a few minutes from the Matisse museum. The cemetery is open from 8:30 to 17:00 until 28 February and to 18:00 from 1 March.

Where does the Cimiez walk start and finish?

It starts at the Musée Chagall bus stop, on bus 5, and finishes at the Arènes / Musée Matisse stop, which buses 5, 16, 18, 33 and 40 serve. You can also reach the start by tram line 1 to Gare Thiers and a 15-minute walk.

Can I do the Cimiez walk on a Tuesday?

Only the outdoor part. The three museums and the Café Chagall are shut, but the boulevard, the Régina, the monastery garden, the cemetery, the olive grove and the Franciscan museum, which is open from 10:00 to 12:00, are open.