Overview

The museum of fine arts is set in a beautiful late 19th-century villa. The paintings and sculptures on display range from the 14th to the 20th century: Vanloo, Fragonard, Dufy, Chéret, l'Ecole de Barbizon, Le Bronzino and G.A Mossa, Rodin, Carpeaux. There is no step free access and no accessible toilet.

Transport & Parking

The museum is located on a hilly road. The bus number 38 from Nice town centre stops almost outside and from there it is a short, slight downhill walk, see photos. The bus is a small, hopper type bus rather than a regular bus. However it does have a wheelchair space. By this route the only steps are the ones at the museum entrance, see below. Alternatively you can take the newly opened tram Line 2 to Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen. This stop is step free access to street level. From the tram stop however there is a flight of stairs with a handrail, then a road to cross, then another flight of stairs with handrail to the museum grounds, see photos. I travelled to the museum by bus on my way there, as I had an old guide book that didn't have information about the trams. I then asked at the museum and the staff told me bout the tram, so I took the stairs down to the tram and found that do-able, but it would have been very tiring for me to go up the 2 staircases.

Access

There is no step free access. There are 4 steps without a handrail to the entrance. The entrance is through double manual doors, which a member of staff opened for me. The museum is on 2 levels. It is a small to medium size art gallery. Think the size of a town rather than a national collection. The building itself has ornate architecture. The ground floor, once you've managed to the entrance steps, it's flat and there is quite a lot to see. Then there is a flight of stairs with a handrail to the upper floor, which again is flat. The art work is equally divided between the 2 floors, so if you are unable to manage the upper stairs although you will see quite a lot you will miss about 50% of the exhibition. There is some low bench seating throughout the gallery, without back support or arms. There was some slightly higher bench seating in one of the rooms on the ground floor (which was painted white) and I found that manageable to sit on and transfer from.

Toilets

There were public toilets on the ground floor but no accessible toilets.

Staff

The 2 members of staff at the entrance were very helpful. They explained the museum layout when I asked them and they also directed me to the tram stop for my return journey. I didn't see any room stewards in the ground floor gallery and there was one sitting at the top of the stairs on the upper floor.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The art exhibition is interesting and includes some impressionist and surreal paintings. Although there are no famous pieces of art there is a variety of artists, and there is some sculpture and furniture, although most of it is paintings. There is no café in the museum. However, by Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen tram stop there is a step free bakery which has a few indoor and outdoor tables called Palais des Arts. I stopped here on my way back for a drink and a cake. The food was very nice, see photo. I didn't check if they had a toilet. At time of visiting (December 2019) the cost of admission was 10 euros per adult. However, Musée des Beaux-Arts is just one of about 10 art galleries/ museums run by Nice municipality, and the 10 euros admission ticket lasts for 24 hours and during that time you can visit all the other museums. Alternatively you can pay 20 euros and the pass lasts for 7 days. I took this option and through it was good value for money. The museums are not ticketed off so I assume within the 24 hours/ 7 days ticket you can re-visit any of the museums. Look out for the museum's resident cat, see photo. Overall it's a very nice museum but access is disappointingly limited.

Photos