Opening hours, public holidays and school holidays in Nice

In Nice, a day has its peak hours and its shutters down: museums on Tuesdays, shops on Sundays, a 1 May when the airport tram does not run. Better to know them before building an itinerary.

On Sundays, the city slows down

Sunday rest remains the rule: a shop opens on Sundays only by exception. Food stores may work until 1 pm; pharmacies, tobacconists, kiosks, florists and petrol stations have no time limit, nor do hotels, cafés and restaurants. Nice also has an international tourist zone, delimited by a decree of 5 February 2016, where retail shops may open on Sunday and in the evening, from 9 pm to midnight; food stores there close at 1 pm too.

The Cours Saleya shows the local rhythm: fruit, vegetables and seafood market from Tuesday to Sunday, 6 am to 1.30 pm; on Monday, nearly 180 antiques and second-hand dealers take the square, from 7 am to 6 pm, before moving to place Garibaldi on the third Saturday of the month. The Nice Thiers post office, on avenue de la gare, opens Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 6 pm and Saturday from 8.30 am to noon; it is closed on Sunday.

Pharmacies, by day and by night

On Sundays outside public holidays, six pharmacies are on duty; the 3237 service gives the ones in your neighbourhood. On public holidays, six pharmacies open from 8.30 am to 7 pm: Aéroport (Terminal 2), Riviera (66 avenue Jean Médecin), Masséna (5 rue Masséna), Anglo-Américaine (2 rue de France), Palais (7 rue de la Préfecture) and Nice Étoile (24 avenue Jean Médecin). At night, the Jean Médecin pharmacy (28 boulevard Dubouchage) opens from 8 pm to 8 am every day of the year; the Riviera pharmacy stays open day and night, except on Sunday from 8 am to 7 pm.

Museums: Tuesday or Monday

On Tuesdays, the Matisse museum, the national Marc Chagall museum and the Palais Lascaris close; on Mondays, it is the turn of the Jules Chéret Fine Arts museum and the Charles Nègre Photography museum. Matisse opens from 10 am to 6 pm from 1 April to 31 October, from 10 am to 5 pm afterwards. The Chagall, for its part, breaks for lunch: 10 am to 1 pm then 2.30 pm to 6 pm until 31 October 2026, until 5 pm from 1 November to 30 April 2027. At Matisse as at the Chagall, the ticket office closes half an hour before the museum closes.

Public holidays 2026 and 2027

On those days, the Lignes d'Azur network applies its Sunday and public holiday timetables, and on-street parking is free. Calendar-wise, two public holidays fall on a weekend in 2026 (15 August and 1 November), four in 2027 (1 May, 8 May, 15 August and 25 December): the bridge days therefore cluster around Ascension, 14 July 2026 and 11 November 2027.

School holidays: Nice is in zone B

• Nice falls under zone B, through its académie.
• Each date indicates the first day of the holiday, and the resumption on the day classes restart.

Wikipedia – Nice (climate) · Musée Matisse de Nice – official site · Wikipedia – Musée Matisse (Nice) · City of Nice – L'Automne de l'image · MAMAC Nice – official site · Nice Côte d'Azur Tourism Office – Musée Matisse, admission · National Museums of the Alpes-Maritimes – Musée national Marc Chagall · Ministry of Culture – Musée national Marc Chagall, Nice

Read also

• Museums in Nice: opening hours and closures
• The markets of Nice

Find this topic and much more in our complete travel guide Nice en profondeur.