Lavie Maison - Hot Tub AC and Sauna

The jacuzzi tub sits at the centre of the bathroom — deep, sculptural, the kind of thing you sink into after a long walk along the Baie des Anges.

Forty square metres, all on one level. Two bedrooms, a sauna, blackout curtains, air conditioning that actually works in August. The kitchen is properly kitted out for the nights you'd rather stay in.

You're in the Carré d'Or, five minutes from the Promenade. Rue Masséna hums with people until late; the flower market at Cours Saleya opens early enough to catch before the crowds.

Good for a couple who want the jacuzzi to themselves, or six friends splitting a long weekend on the Côte d'Azur. What stays with you is the water — the sea one direction, the bath the other.

Step out and you're on the grid between rue de France and the Promenade — pale Haussmann façades, the smell of espresso from the corner tabac, a woman walking a small dog past the shuttered windows of a jeweller on rue Paradis. The sea is three blocks south. You can hear it before you see it, especially le matin before the traffic thickens on boulevard Victor Hugo.

For coffee, Emilie's on rue Alphonse Karr — flat whites, a good pain aux raisins, the kind of place where l'équipe knows the regulars by 8h. If you want the Niçoise version instead, walk ten minutes to Cours Saleya for socca straight off the copper pan at Chez Pipo's stand. Eat it standing up, folded in paper, before it cools.