Avenue Jean Médecin

"Avenue Jean Médecin is the main shopping street in Nice. It runs north to south following the route of the Saint Michel valley. The street begins by the railway where the road becomes a passageway under the tracks and ending at Place Masséna. It’s also been a tram route in recent years and mostly pedestrianised. However, after they built the tramway, the street could no longer host the annual Carnival of Nice parade. The flower-bedecked floats of the popular Bataille de Fleurs wouldn’t fit beneath the overhead wires. The street has had several names over the years. When it was first constructed in 1864, it was called Avenue du Prince-Impérial after Louis Napoleon – the son of Napoleon III who at the time was the French emperor. When the Nice-Ville train station opened in 1867, there were calls for the street to have a new name. Three years later it became Avenue de la Gare. That too was short-lived. It became Avenue de la Victoire at the end of WWI. Finally – at least for now – it took the name of Jean Médecin, a longstanding Nice mayor. Present-day Niçois residents usually refer to it simply as “the Avenue”."

"Leaving Place Masséna in the opposite direction of the Promenade des Anglais, it goes all the way up to the train station area and is one of the main shopping streets in Nice. If you do not want to walk up or down the avenue, the tram line runs the entire length of it."