Wender·Vista
Vieux Nice Old Town
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileFrance
on the Côte d'Azur, between Castle Hill and the sea

Vieux Nice Old Town

— ochre walls, and the sea just past them.

Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
Above the bench, in a warm oak surround.
Above the bench, in a warm oak surround.
Beside the kettle, propped on the counter.
Beside the kettle, propped on the counter.
Above the linens, in a slim black surround.
Above the linens, in a slim black surround.
On the nightstand, on a light oak stand.
On the nightstand, on a light oak stand.
On a picture ledge, where the light comes in.
On a picture ledge, where the light comes in.
a note from the studio

The old quarter of Nice, held between the climb to the Colline du Château and the long sweep of the Baie des Anges. Pink and ochre Italianate facades, terracotta roofs, lanes narrow enough to throw a shadow across an entire street. Until 1860 this was a Sardinian port; the kitchens still pull from Liguria. Socca on the griddle, pissaladière on the trays. The flower market at Cours Saleya opens early. By nine the sun has reached the lower walls and the colour the south is famous for begins.

from the studio
shown in a slim black floating frame · 6 × 6 in
shown in a slim black floating frame · 6 × 6 in
— bring it home

Vieux Nice Old Town, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

comes gift-ready
comes gift-ready

Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.

or build a grouping
or build a grouping

Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.

about Vieux Nice Old Town

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
the place

Vieux Nice is the historic core of Nice, France, on the Côte d'Azur at the eastern end of the Baie des Anges. It sits between the Promenade du Paillon to the west and the Colline du Château to the east, a wooded headland rising to about 92 metres above the sea. Until 1860 Nice belonged to the County of Nice in the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the architecture, language, and kitchen still carry that Ligurian inheritance: Italianate facades in ochre and rose, the Niçois dialect, and a table built on chickpea flour, olive oil, and anchovy. The quarter has been pedestrianised for decades and remains the densest concentration of pre-1860 building in the city.

the colour

The pastel facades of Vieux Nice in ochre, rose, terracotta, and a deep yellow that picks up the late sun carry the Ligurian palette across the river Var. The colour traces to limewash mixed with earth pigments long traded along the coast between Genoa and Nice, in the centuries before 1860 when Nice still looked east toward Liguria rather than west toward France. The quarter now falls under France's national heritage protection, the Secteur Sauvegardé, which requires municipal approval for facade repainting and has held the ochre-and-rose palette coherent. Light bouncing off the sea sets the walls glowing twice a day: once mid-morning when the Cours Saleya flower market reaches full bloom, and again as the sun drops behind the Promenade and the colour deepens into the lanes.

— informed by Wikipedia — Vieux Nice
the visit

The streets of Vieux Nice are closed to vehicles and best entered on foot from the Cours Saleya end. The flower market runs Tuesday through Sunday from around 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; on Mondays the same square turns over to an antiques and brocante market. The Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate on Place Rossetti, built between 1650 and 1699 in the Niçois Baroque style, is free to enter outside Mass. The Palais Lascaris, a seventeenth-century Niçois Baroque palace that now holds the city's collection of historical musical instruments, keeps museum hours and charges a modest entry. From Place Rossetti the walk up the Montée Lesage to the castle ruins on the Colline du Château takes about fifteen minutes; a free elevator beside the Hôtel Suisse climbs the headland for visitors who prefer not to walk.

where
France · Nice, Alpes-Maritimes
position
43.6952° N · 7.2769° E
the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km E
Colline du Château
headland and castle ruin park
1 km W
Promenade des Anglais
seafront promenade· on a tile
1 km E
Port Lympia
historic harbour
1 km W
Place Masséna
civic square
4 km N
Cimiez
Roman ruins and museum quarter
6 km E
Villefranche-sur-Mer
harbour town
N
Vieux Nice Old Town
Colline du Château
Promenade des Anglais
Port Lympia
Place Masséna
Cimiez
Villefranche-sur-Mer
common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Vieux Nice Old Town — and about bringing the piece home.
about the place

Vieux Nice is the historic old town of Nice, France, on the Côte d'Azur. It sits at the eastern end of the Baie des Anges, between the Promenade du Paillon and the Colline du Château, a pedestrianised quarter of narrow streets that pre-date the modern city.

The flower market is the Marché aux Fleurs de Cours Saleya, held in the long open square along the southern edge of the old town. It runs Tuesday through Sunday from around 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. On Mondays the same space hosts an antiques and brocante market.

The ochre, rose, and terracotta palette is the Ligurian tradition Nice inherited from its centuries as part of the County of Nice and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The colour is limewash mixed with mineral earth pigments. Heritage protections now require municipal approval for any facade repainting, which keeps the quarter coherent.

Nice belonged to the County of Nice in the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1860, when the Treaty of Turin transferred the territory to France. The Italianate architecture, the Niçois dialect, and the local kitchen all carry that earlier inheritance. Italian unification followed a year later, in 1861.

Vieux Nice is the home of socca, a thin chickpea-flour pancake cooked on a large copper griddle, alongside pissaladière, the onion-and-anchovy flatbread, and salade niçoise. Most are sold from market stalls and small dedicated shops around Cours Saleya and Rue Pairolière.

Castle Hill, the Colline du Château, rises directly above the eastern edge of the old town. The walk up the Montée Lesage from Place Rossetti takes about fifteen minutes. A free elevator beside the Hôtel Suisse climbs the headland for visitors who prefer not to climb the stairs.

The cathedral on Place Rossetti was built between 1650 and 1699 in the Niçois Baroque style and consecrated to Saint Reparata, the patron saint of Nice. It is free to enter outside Mass and remains the seat of the Bishop of Nice.

about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful gift for customers with ties to the south of France. The ochre-and-rose palette is unmistakably Vieux Nice, and the local kitchen sits just under the surface of the painting: the flower market at Cours Saleya, the cathedral on Place Rossetti, the smell of socca on the griddle. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The warm Mediterranean palette carries well into Mediterranean-modern, French country, and jewel-tone maximalist rooms. It also reads clean against linen-white walls in a coastal-modern setting, where the ochres and roses provide the only saturated colour in the frame. The piece is hottest in a north-facing room.

Yes. The warm-Mediterranean wave leans on terracotta, ochre, and limewash textures, which sit close to the Ligurian palette of Vieux Nice. The depth of colour set into the ceramic surface holds up well in renovated Provençal kitchens and limewashed dining rooms, where printed reproductions tend to flatten.

Above a standard three-seat sofa, the single Large centres well above the back cushions. For more presence on a wider sectional, a four-tile Mural balances the wall. Above a console table in an entry or hallway, a single Medium or Large is the right scale; a nine-tile Mural is for a stairwell or full-wall dining-room feature.

Yes. The Dura Satin and Matte finishes are scratch-resistant and built for vertical installation in damp rooms: a kitchen backsplash, a guest bathroom, a shower wall. The Glossy finish is for framed wall art and dry rooms, not splash zones. Choose Dura Satin or Matte for any wet location.

Microfibre cloth and warm water. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, beneath a thin glossy or satin finish, so it does not lift with normal cleaning. For kitchen grease or limescale, a mild dish soap is fine. Skip abrasive scrubbers and ammonia or bleach-based cleaners.

Yes. Reid Wender curates every WenderVista vista and the original painting is produced in-house in our Knoxville, Tennessee studio. There is no licensing, no stock-photo basis, and no third-party artist. Each tile is hand-finished, with the painting slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure beneath a thin finish.

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